The Temple: Sacred Poems and Private Ejaculations/Christmas

For works with similar titles, see Christmas.
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¶ Christmas.

All after pleasures as I rid one day, My horse and I, both tir'd, bodie and minde,With full crie of affections, quite astray;I took up in the next inne I could finde.
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There when I came, whom found I but my deare,My dearest Lord, expecting till the griefOf pleasures brought me to him, readie thereTo be all passengers most sweet relief?
O Thou, whose glorious, yet contracted light,Wrapt in nights mantle, stole into a manger;Since my dark soul and brutish is thy right,To Man of all beasts be not thou a stranger.
Furnish & deck my soul, that thou mayst haveA better lodging then a rack or grave.
THe shepherds sing; and shall I silent be?My God, no hymne for thee?My soul's a shepherd too; a flock it feedsOf thoughts, and words, and deeds.The pasture is thy word; the streams, thy graceEnriching all the place.Shepherd and flock shall sing, and all my powersOut-sing the day-light houres.Then we will chide the sunne for letting nightTake up his place and right:We sing one common Lord; wherefore he shouldHimself the candle hold.I will go searching, till I finde a sunneShall stay, till we have done;A willing shiner, that shall shine as gladly,As frost-nipt sunnes look sadly.Then we will sing, and shine all our own day,And one another pay:His beams shall cheer my breast, and both so twine,Till ev'n his beams sing, and my musick shine.
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