Henry Vaughan Quotations

Death, and darkness get you packing, Nothing now to man is lacking, All your triumphs now are ended, And what Adam marred, is mended.

Still young and fine! but what is still in view We slight as old and soil'd, though fresh and new.

Dear, beauteous death, the jewel of the just! Shining nowhere but in the dark; What mysteries do lie beyond thy dust, Could man outlook that mark!

Dear, harmless age! the short, swift span Where weeping Virtue parts with man; Where love without lust dwells, and bends What way we please without self-ends. An age of mysteries! which he Must live that would God's face see Which angels guard, and with it play, Angels! which foul men drive away.

To God, thy country, and thy friend be true.

Holy writing must strive (by all means) for perfection and true holiness, that a door may be opened to him in heaven.

I played with fire, did counsel spurn, Made life my common stake; But never thought that fire would burn, O that a soul could ache.

Some men a forward motion love, But I by backward steps would move, And when this dust falls to the urn In that state I came, return.

But felt through all this fleshly dresse Bright shootes of everlastingnesse.

The sun doth shake Light from his locks, and, all the way Breathing perfumes, doth spice the day.