In Ab'rham's tent the wingèd guests
-O how familiar then was heaven!-
Eate, drinke, sit downe, and rest
Until the coole and shady even.

Nay thou Thy Selfe, my God, in fire,
Whirle-winds and clouds, and the soft voice,
Speak'st there so much, that I admire1
We have no conf'rence in these daies.

Is the truce broke? or 'cause we have
A Mediatour now with Thee,
Doest Thou therefore old treaties wave,
And by appeales from Him decree ?

Or is't so, as some green2 heads say,
That now all miracles must cease?

1 = Wonder. G.

2 I can't recal the place but feel sure that I have met with 'green-heads' as = young, raw, inexperienced. A Divine (I think) having in early days vehemently assailed the vices of the period, in old age re-affirmed his statements, with the words, 'now what a green-head said long since, an old-head repeats'. Shakespeare and others of course frequently use 'green' in the natural sense of young and foolish e. g. "you green boy" (King John II. 2.) you speak like a green girl” (Hamlet I. 3.)" when I was green in judgement" (Ant. and Cleop. I. 5). G.

66

Though Thou hast promis'd they should stay
The tokens of the Church, and peace.

No, no; Religion is a spring,

That from some secret, golden mine

Derives her birth, and thence doth bring
Cordials in every drop, and wine.

But in her long, and hidden course,

In passing through the Earth's dark veines,
Growes still from better unto worse,

And both her taste and colour staines;

Then drilling1 on, learnes to encrease
False ecchoes and confused sounds,

And unawares doth often seize

On veines of sulphur under ground;

1 Now means boring': drill is a small stream or rill, the latter from rille a channel. Richardson s.v. gives this illustration: "There was no water on this island, but at one place on the east side, close by the sea; there it drills slowly down from the rocks, where it may be received in vessels (Dampier, Voyages, an. 1684.) Dr. Johnson quotes from Thomson:

"Drilled through the sandy stratum every way

For more on the

The waters with the sandy stratum rise". Todd quotes Sir T. Herbert &c. &c. word see our Memorial-Introduction.

G.

V

So poison'd, breaks forth in some clime,
And at first sight doth many please;
But drunk, is puddle, or meere slime,
And 'stead of phisick, a disease.

Just such a tainted sink we have,
Like that Samaritan's dead well ;1
For must we for the kernall crave
Because most voices like the shell ??

Heale then these waters, Lord; or bring Thy flock,

Since these are troubled, to the springing Rock; Looke downe Great Master of the feast; O shine, And turn once more our water into wine!

CANTICLES] CAP. 4. ver. 12.

My sister, my spouse is as a garden inclosed, as a spring shut up, and a fountain sealed.

1 The allusion is no doubt to the Well of Sychar (St. John IV. 6). The word 'dead' reminds of the living water.' (v. 10, 14) If I err not the Well of Sychar was a cistern' of dead as distinguished from springing or flowing water (Bôr) rather than a Well proper (Beêr). Cf. with the text the poem of "The Dawning" (lines 31-32 et seqq.) G.

2 Probably a tacit allusion to the Dead Sea fruit or (legendary) apples of Sodom. See more on these four lines in Memorial-Introduction. G.

THE SEARCH.

IS now cleare day: I see a rose
Bud in the bright East, and disclose
The pilgrim-sunne; all night have I

Spent in a roving extasie

To find my Saviour; I have been
As far as Bethlem, and have seen
His inne, and cradle: Being there
I met the wise-men, askt them where
He might be found, or what starre can
Now point Him out, grown up a man?
To Egypt hence I fled, ran o're
All her parcht bosome to Nile's shore,
Her yearly nurse; came back, enquir'd
Amongst the doctors, and desir'd
To see the Temple, but was shown
A little dust, and for the town
A heap of ashes, where some sed
A small bright sparkle was a-bed,1

Which would one day-beneath the pole-
Awake, and then refine the whole.

Tyr'd here, I came to Sychar; thence

1 Misprinted a bed'. Vaughan unlike Crashaw is chary of compound words, even in so slight a form as this = within the ashes, as in a raked-up fire. The idea is frequent in our Poet.

G.

To Jacob's well, bequeathed since
Unto his sonnes-where often they
In those calme, golden evenings lay
Watring their flocks, and having spent
Those white dayes, drove home to the tent
Their well-fleec'd traine ;—and here-O fate!-
I sit, where once my Saviour sate :
The angry spring in bubbles swell'd
Which broke in sighes still, as they fill'd,
And whisper'd 'Jesus had been there,
But Jacob's children would not heare.'
Loath hence to part, at last I rise,
But with the fountain in my eyes,
And here a fresh search is decreed;
He must be found where He did bleed.
I walke the garden, and there see
Ideas of His agonie,

And moving anguishments, that set
His blest face in a bloudy sweat;

I climbed the hill, perus'd the crosse,
Hung with my gaine, and His great losse :
Never did tree beare fruit like this:
Balsam of soules, the bodye's blisse.
But, O His grave! where I saw lent
-For He had none-a monument,
An undefil'd, a new heaw'd one;
But there was not the corner-stone.

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