Chorus O little All, in Thy embrace

The World lies warm, and likes his place;
Nor does his full globe fail to be
Kiss'd on both his cheeks by Thee.
Time is too narrow for Thy year,

Nor makes the whole World Thy half-
sphere.

1 King-To Thee, to Thee

From him we flee.

2 King-From him,1 whom by a more illustrious lie, The blindness of the World did call the eye. 3 King-To Him, Who by these mortal clouds hast made

Thyself our sun, though Thine Own shade.

1 King-Farewell, the World's false light,

2 King

3 King

Chorus

Farewell, the white

Egypt, a long farewell to thee,
Bright idol, black idolatry :

The dire face of inferior darkness, kist
And courted in the pompous mask of a
more specious mist.
Farewell, farewell

The proud and misplaced gates of
Hell,

Perch'd in the Morning's way,

And double-gilded as the doors of Day:
The deep hypocrisy of Death and Night
More desperately dark, because more
bright.

Welcome, the World's sure way,
Heaven's wholesome ray.

Welcome to us; and we

(Sweet,) to ourselves, in Thee.

1 The sun.

1 King-The deathless Heir of all Thy Father's

2 King

3 King

Embosom'd in a much more rosy Morn:
The blushes of Thy all-unblemish'd Mother,
No more that other

Aurora 2 shall set ope

Her ruby casements, or hereafter hope
From mortal eyes

To meet religious welcomes at her rise.3

Chorus-We (precious ones,) in you have won
A gentler Morn, a juster Sun.

1 King His superficial beams sun-burnt our skin; 2 King- But left within

3 King-The Night and Winter still of Death and

Sin.

Chorus-Thy softer yet more certain darts

Spare our eyes, but pierce our hearts:

I King-Therefore with his proud Persian spoils
2 King-We court Thy more concerning smiles.
Therefore with his disgrace
We gild the humble cheek of this chaste

3 King

place;

Chorus -And at Thy feet pour forth his face.

I King-The doating Nations now no more
Shall any day but Thine adore.

2 King-Nor (much less) shall they leave these eyes For cheap Egyptian deities.

1 Without ostentation.

2 The dawn.

3 Refers to their worship of the sun.

3 King-In whatsoe'er more sacred shape Of ram, he-goat, or rev'rend ape;

I King

Those beauteous ravishers oppress'd so sore
The too-hard tempted nations :
Never more

By wanton heifer shall be worn 2 King-A garland, or a gilded horn:

The altar-stall'd ox, fat Osiris 1 now
With his fair sister cow,

3 King-Shall kick the clouds no more; 2 but lean and tame,

Chorus- See His horn'd face, and die for shame : And Mithra 3 now shall be no name.

1 King-No longer shall the immodest lust Of adulterous godless dust

2 King-Fly in the face of Heaven; as if it were The poor World's fault that He is fair. 3 King-Nor with perverse loves and religious rapes + Revenge Thy bounties in their beauteous shapes ;

And punish best things worst, because they stood

Guilty of being much for them too good.

1 King-Proud sons of Death, that durst compel Heaven itself to find them Hell:

2 King-And by strange wit of madness wrest

From this World's East the other's West.

1 An Egyptian deity, husband of Isis, goddess of the

moon.

2 No more shall oxen be sacrificed to the gods.

3 Mithras, god of the sun among the Persians. He is represented kneeling on a bull and cutting its throat. The actions of the pagan gods.

3 King-All-idolising worms, that thus could crowd
And urge their sun into Thy cloud;
Forcing his sometimes eclips'd face to be
A long deliquium 1 to the light of Thee.

Chorus Alas! with how much heavier shade
The shamefaced lamp hung down his head,
For that one eclipse he made,

Than all those he suffered.

1 King-For this he looked so big, and ev'ry morn With a red face confess'd his scorn;

Or, hiding his vex'd cheeks in a hired mist,

Kept them from being so unkindly kist.

2 King-It was for this the Day did rise

3 King

So oft with blubber'd 2 eyes; For this the Evening wept; and we ne'er knew,

But called it dew.

This daily wrong

Silenced the morning sons, and damp'd their song.

Chorus-Nor was't our deafness, but our sins, that thus

I King-

Long made th' harmonious orbs all mute

to us.

Time has a day in store

When this so proudly poor

And self-oppressed spark, that has so long
By the love-sick World been made
Not so much their sun as shade:
Weary of this glorious wrong,

1 Defect, obstruction,

2 So often misty.

From them and from himself shall flee
For shelter to the shadow of Thy Tree;1

Chorus- Proud to have gain'd this precious loss,
And changed his false crown for Thy
Cross.

2 King-That dark Day's clear doom shall define Whose is the master Fire, which sun

should shine ;

That sable judgment-seat shall by new laws

Decide and settle the great cause

Of controverted light: 2

Chorus- And Nature's wrongs rejoice to do Thee

right.

3 King That forfeiture of Noon to Night shall pay All the idolatrous thefts done by this

Night of Day;

And the great Penitent press his own pale lips

With an elaborate love-eclipse:

To which the low World's laws
Shall lend no cause,

Chorus-Save those domestic which He borrows
From our sins and His Own sorrows.

I King-Three sad hours' sackcloth then shall

1 Cross.

show to us

His penance, as our fault, conspicuous :

2 Refers to the day of the Crucifixion, on which the sun was darkened.-Matt. xxvii. 45.