Page:The Works of Francis Bacon (1884) Volume 2.djvu/444

432 Now for the bitter sighing of the poor,

The Lord hath said, I will no more forbear

The wicked's kingdom to invade and scour,

And set at large the men restrain'd in fear.

And sure the word of God is pure and fine,

And in the trial never loseth weight;

Like noble gold, which, since it left the mine,

Hath seven times pass'd through the fiery strait.

And now thou wilt not first thy word forsake,

Nor yet the righteous man that leans thereto;

But wilt his safe protection undertake,

In spite of all their force and wiles can do.

And time it is, O Lord, thou didst draw nigh;

The wicked daily do enlarge their bands;

And that which makes them follow ill a vie,

Rule is betaken to unworthy hands.

, thou art our home, to whom we fly,

And so hast always been from age to age;

Before the hills did intercept the eye,

Or that the frame was up of earthly stage.

One God thou wert, and art, and still shalt be;

The line of time, it doth not measure thee.

Both death and life obey thy holy lore,

And visit in their turns, as they are sent;

A thousand years with thee they are no more

Than yesterday, which, ere it is, is spent:

Or as a watch by night, that course doth keep,

And goes, and comes, unwares to them that sleep.

Thou carryest man away as with a tide:

Then down swim all his thoughts that mounted high;

Much like a mocking dream, that will not bide,

But flies before the sight of waking eye;

Or as the grass, that cannot term obtain!

To see the summer come about again.

At morning, fair it musters on the ground;

At even it is cut down, and laid along:

And though it spared were, and favour found,

The weather would perform the mower's wrong:

Thus hast thou hang'd our life on brittle pins,

To let us know it will not bear our sins.

Thou buryest not within oblivion's tomb

Our trespasses, but enterest them aright;

Ev'n those that are conceived in darkness' womb,

To thee appear as done at broad day-light.

As a tale told, which sometimes men attend,

And sometimes not, our life steals to an end.

The life of man is threescore years and ten,

Or, if that he be strong, perhaps fourscore;

Yet all things are but labour to him then,

New sorrows still come on, pleasures no more.

Why should there be such turmoil and such strife.

To spin in length this feeble line of life?

But who considers duly of thine ire?

Or doth the thoughts thereof wisely embrace?

For thou, O God, art a consuming fire:

Frail man, how can he stand before thy face?

If thy displeasure thou dost not refrain,

A moment brings all back to dust again.

Teach us, O Lord, to number well our days,

Thereby our hearts to wisdom to apply;

For that which guides man best in all his ways,

Is meditation of mortality.

This bubble light, this vapour of our breath,

Teach us to consecrate to hour of death.

Return unto us, Lord, and balance now,

With days of joy, our days of misery;

Help us right soon, our knees to thee we bow,

Depending wholly on thy clemency;

Then shall thy servants both with heart and voice,

All the days of their life in thee rejoice.

Begin thy work, O Lord, in this our age,

Shew it unto thy servants that now live;

But to our children raise it many a stage,

That all the world to thee may glory give.

Our handy-work likewise, as fruitful tree

Let it, O Lord, blessed, not blasted be.

and King of powers, both high and low,

Whose sounding fame all creatures serve to blow;

My soul shall with the rest strike up thy praise,

And carol of thy works and wondrous ways.

But who can blaze thy beauties, Lord, aright?

They turn the brittle beams of mortal sight.

Upon thy head thou wear'st a glorious crown,

All set with virtues, polish'd with renown:

Thence round about a silver veil doth fall

Of crystal light, mother of colours all.

The compass heaven, smooth without grain, or fold,

All set with spangs of glittering stars untold,

And striped with golden beams of power unpent,

Is raised up for a removing tent.

Vaulted and arched are his chamber beams

Upon the seas, the waters, and the streams:

The clouds as chariots swift do scour the sky;

The stormy winds upon their wings do fly.