Arise, my soul! And thou, my voice, O great Creator! heavenly King! Thy power has made, thy goodness kept From all the powers of darkness free. That when the last of all my days is come, FLATMAN. HYMN FOR THE EVENING. SLEEP! downy Sleep! come, close mine eyes, Tired with beholding vanities! Sweet slumbers, come, and chase away The toils and follies of the day; On your soft bosom will I lie, Forget the world, and learn to die. O Israel's watchful Shepherd! spread Let not the spirits of the air, While I slumber, me ensnare; But save thy suppliant free from harms, Clasped in thine everlasting arms. Clouds and thick darkness are thy throne, O, dart from thence a shining ray, And then my midnight shall be day! Thus, when the morn, in crimson drest, FLATMAN. DEATH. O THE sad day When friends shall shake their heads and say Hark how he groans, look how he pants for breath, How hollow and how dim they be! Mark how his breast does swell and rise Against his potent enemy! When some old friend shall step to my bedside, And when his next companions say— "How does he do? What hopes?" shall turn away Answering only, with uplifted hand, Who can his fate withstand? Then shall a gasp or two do more Than e'er my rhetoric could before Persuade the peevish world to trouble me no more! FLATMAN. EVENING HYMN. ALL praise to thee, my God, this night, Forgive me, Lord, for thy dear Son, Teach me to live, that I may dread O may my soul on thee repose, And may sweet sleep mine eyelids closeSleep, that may me more vig'rous make To serve my God when I awake. When in the night I sleepless lie, Dull sleep!-of sense me to deprive; I am but half my time alive; But though sleep o'er my frailty reigns, The faster sleep the senses binds, O when shall I, in endless day, O may my guardian, while I sleep, Stop all the avenues of ill. HYMN ON THE TRANSFIGURATION. HAIL, King of glory, clad in robes of light! Hail, light's divinest galaxy! Hail, express image of the Deity! Could now thy amorous spouse thy beauties view, How would her wounds all bleed anew! Lovely thou art all o'er and bright, Thou Israel's glory, and thou Gentiles' light. KEN. But whence this brightness, whence this sudden day? Who did thee thus with light array? Did thy divinity dispense To its consort a more liberal influence? Drawn from the native spring of day, Howe'er 'twas done, 'tis glorious and divine, The sun with his bright company, Are all gross meteors, if compared to thee. But to thy will thine own dost owe. For (as at first) thou didst but say, "Let there be light,” and straight sprang forth this won drous day. Let now the eastern princes come, and bring Their tributary offering. There needs no star to guide their flight, They'll find thee now, great King, by thine own light. And thou, my soul, adore, love, and admire, And follow this bright guide of fire. Do thou thy hymns and praises bring, Whilst angels, with veiled faces, anthems sing. NORRIS |