Sweet, not so fast! lo thy fair Spouse 65 Whom thou seekst with so swift vowes; Calls thee back, and bidds thee come T'embrace a milder martyrdom. Blest powres forbid, thy tender life Should bleed vpon a barbarous knife: 70 Or some base hand haue power to raze Thy brest's chast cabinet, and vncase A soul kept there so sweet: O no, Wise Heaun will neuer have it so. Thou art Love's victime; and must dy 75 A death more mysticall and high: Into Loue's armes thou shalt let fall A still-suruiuing funerall. His is the dart must make the death Whose stroke shall tast thy hallow'd breath; 80 A dart thrice dip't in that rich flame Which writes thy Spouse's radiant name Vpon the roof of Heau'n, where ay It shines; and with a soueraign ray Beates bright vpon the burning faces 85 Of soules which in that Name's sweet graces Find euerlasting smiles: so rare, So spirituall, pure, and fair Must be th' immortall instrument Vpon whose choice point shall be sent 90 A life so lou'd: and that there be Fitt executioners for thee, The fair'st and first-born sons of fire Blest seraphim, shall leaue their quire, And turn Loue's souldiers, vpon thee 95 To exercise their archerie. O how oft shalt thou complain Of a sweet and subtle pain: Of intolerable ioyes: Of a death, in which who dyes 100 Loues his death, and dyes again And would for euer so be slain. And liues, and dyes; and knowes not why To liue, but that he thus may neuer leaue to dy. How kindly will thy gentle heart 105 Kisse the sweetly-killing dart! And close in his embraces keep Those delicious wounds, that weep Balsom to heal themselves with: thus When these thy deaths, so numerous 110 Shall all at last dy into one, And melt thy soul's sweet mansion; Like a soft lump of incense, hasted By too hott a fire, and wasted Into perfuming clouds, so fast 115 Shalt thou exhale to Heaun at last In a resoluing sigh, and then O what? Ask not the tongues of men; Angells cannot tell; suffice Thy selfe shall feel thine own full ioyes, 120 And hold them fast for euer there. So soon as thou shalt first appear, The moon of maiden starrs, thy white Mistresse, attended by such bright Soules as thy shining self, shall come 125 And in her first rankes make thee room; Where 'mongst her snowy family Immortall wellcomes wait for thee. O what delight, when reueal'd Life shall stand, And teach thy lipps Heaun with His hand; 130 On which thou now maist to thy wishes