Classic Poem

Paraphrase upon the HYMN of St. AMBROSE ODE. Writ Febr. 1680 at Rygate:

1.

To thee, o God, we thy Just praises sing,
To thee we thy great Name rehearse;
We are thy Vassals, and this humble Tribute bring
To thee, acknowledg'd only Lord and King,
Acknowledg'd sole and soverain Monarch of the Universe.
All parts of this wide Universe adore,
Eternal Father, thy almighty pow'er:
The skies and stars, fire, air and earth and sea,
With all their numerous nameless progeny,
Confess, and their due homage pay to thee;
For why? thou spak'st the word, and mad'st them all from Nothing be.
To thee all Angels, all thy glorious Court on high,
Seraph and Cherub, the Nobility,
And whatsoever Spirits be
Of lesser Honour, less Degree;
To thee in heav'nly lays
They sing loud Anthems of immortal praise.
Still holy, holy, holy Lord of hosts, they cry,
This is their bus'iness, this their sole employ,
And thus they spend their long and blest Eternity.

2.

Farther than Nature's utmost Shores and limits stretch
The streams of thy unbounded Glory reach;
Beyond the Straits of scanty Time and Place,
Beyond the ebbs and flows of Matter's narrow seas
They reach, and fill the Ocean of Eternity and Space.
Infus'd like som vast mighty soul,
Thou dost inform and actuate this spatious Whole:
Thy unseen hand dos the well-jointed Frame sustain,
Which els would to its primitive Nothing shrink again.
But most thou dost thy Majesty display
In the bright Realms of everlasting day:
There is thy Residence, there dost thou reign,
There on a State of dazling lustre sit,
There shine in robes of pure refined light;
Where Sun's coarse rays are but a foil and stain,
And refuse Stars the sweepings of thy glorious train.

3.

There all thy Family of menial Saints,
Huge Colonies of blest Inhabitants,
Which Death thro countless ages has transplanted hence,
Now on thy Throne forever wait
And fill the large Retinue of thy heav'nly State.
There reverend Prophets stand, a pompous goodly Show,
Of old thy Envoys extraordinary here,
Who brought thy sacred Embassies of peace and war,
That to th' obedient, this the rebel World below:
By them the mighty Twelve have their abode,
Companions once of the incarnate suff'ring God,
Partakers now of all his Triumphs there,
As they on earth did in his miseries share:
Of Martyrs next a crown'd and glorious Quire,
Illustrious Hero's, who have gain'd
Thro dangers and Red Seas of blood, the Promis'd Land,
And past thro ordeal Flames to the Eternity in fire:
These all make up the Consort of thy praise,
To thee they sing, and never cease,
Loud Hymns and Hallelujahs of applause;
An Angel-Laureat dos the sence and strains compose,
Sence far above the reach of mortal Verse,
Strains far above the reach of mortal Ears,
And all a Muse unglorified can fancy, or rehearse.

4.

Nor is this consort only kept above,
Nor is it to the Blest alone confin'd;
But Earth and all thy Faithful here are join'd,
And strive to vy with them in duty and in love,
And, tho they cannot equal notes and measures raise,
Strive to return th' imperfect Ecchos of thy praise:
They thro all Nations own thy glorious Name,
And every where the great Three-One proclaim,
Thee, Father of the World and Us and Him,
Who must Mankind, whom thou didst make, redeem:
Thee, blessed Saviour, the ador'd, true, only Son,
To Man debas'd to rescue Man undon:
And Thee, eternal holy Pow'r,
Who dost by grace exalted Man restore
To all, he lost by the old Fall and Sin before:
You blest and glorious Trinity,
Riddle to baffled Knowledge and Philosophy
Which cannot comprehend the mighty Mystery
Of numerous One and the unnumber'd Three.
Vast topless pile of Wonders! at whose sight
Reason it self turns giddy with the height,
Above the fluttring pitch of human Wit,
And all but the strong wings of Faith, that Eagles towring flight.

5.

Blest Jesu! how shall we enough adore
Or thy unbounded Love, or thy unbounded Power?
Thou art the Prince of Heav'n, thou art th'Almighty's Heir,
Thou art th' eternal Offspring of th' eternal Sire:
Hail thou the World's Redeemer! whom to free
From bonds of Death and endless misery,
Thou thoughtst it no disdain to be
Inhabiter in low mortality:
Th' Almighty thought it no disdain
To dwell in the pure Virgin's spotless Womb,
There did the boundless Godhead and whole Heav'n find room,
And a small Point the Circle of Infinity contain.
Hail Ransom of Mankind, all-great, all-good!
Who didst attone us with thy blood
Thy self the Off'ring, Altar, Priest and God:
Thy self didst dy to be our glorious Bail
From Death's Arrests and the eternal flaming Jail:
Thy self thou gav'st th' inestimable price
To purchase and redeem our mortgag'd Heav'n and Happiness.
Thither, when thy great work on earth had end,
When Death it self was slain and dead,
And Hell with all its Powers captive led,
Thou didst again triumphantly ascend:
There dost thou now by thy great Father sit on high,
With equal glory, equal Majesty,
Joint Ruler of the everlasting Monarchy.

6.

Again from thence thou shalt with greater triumph come,
When the last Trumpet sounds the general doom:
And (lo!) thou com'st, and (lo!) the direful sound dos make
Thro Death's vast realm mortality awake:
And (lo!) they all appear
At thy dread Bar,
And all receive th' unalterable sentence there:
Affrighted Nature trembles at the dismal day,
And shrinks for fear, and vanishes away:
Both that and Time breath out their last, and now they dy,
And now are swallow'd up and lost in vast Eternity.
Mercy, O mercy, angry God!
Stop, stop thy flaming wrath, too fierce to be withstood,
And quench it with the deluge of thy Blood,
Thy pretious blood, which was so freely spilt
To wash us from the stains of sin and guilt:
O write us with it in the book of Fate
Amongst thy chosen and predestinate,
Free Denizons of Heav'n, of the immortal State.

7.

Guide us, O Saviour, guide thy Church below,
Both Way and Star, Compass and Pilot Thou:
Do thou this frail and tottring Vessel steer
Thro Life's tempestuous Ocean here,
Thro all the tossing Waves of Fear,
And dang'rous Rocks of black despair:
Safe under thee we shall to the wish'd Haven move
And reach the undiscover'd Lands of Bliss above.
Thus low (behold!) to thy great Name we bow
And thus we ever wish to grow:
Constant as Time dos thy fixt laws obey,
To thee our Worship and our Thanks we pay;
With these we wake the cheerful light,
With these we rest and sleep invite,
And thus we spend our breath, and thus we spend our days,
And never cease to sing, and never cease to praise.

8.

While thus each brest and mouth and ear
Are filled with thy praise and love and fear,
Let never Sin get room or entrance there.
Vouchsafe, O Lord, thro this and all our days
To guard us with thy powr'ful grace:
Within our hearts let no usurping Lust be found,
No rebel Passion tumult raise,
To break thy laws, or break our peace,
But set thy Watch of Angels on the place,
And keep the Tempter still from that forbidden ground.
Ever, O Lord, to us thy Mercies grant,
Never, O Lord, let us thy Mercies want
Ne're want thy Favour, Bounty, Liberality,
But let them ever on us be,
Constant as our own hope and trust on thee:
On thee we all our hope and trust repose;
O never leave us to our Foes,
Never, O Lord, desert our Cause:
Thus aided and upheld by thee,
We'll fear no danger, death, or misery:
Fearless we thus will stand a falling World
With crushing ruins all about us hurld,
And face wide gaping Hell and all its slighted Pow'rs defy.