50 Joy of Church Fellowship

Edward Taylor

In Heaven soaring up, I dropt an Eare

On Earth: and oh! sweet Melody!

And listening, found it was the Saints who were

Encroacht for Heaven that sang for Joy.

for in Christs Coach they sweetly sing,

As they to Glory ride therein.

 

Oh! Joyous hearts! Enfir’de with holy Flame!

Is speech thus tasseled with praise?

Will not your inward fire of Joy contain,

That it in open flames doth blaze?

For in Christ[s] Coach Saints sweetly sing,

As they to Glory ride therein.

 

And, if a string do slip by Change, they soon

Do screw it up again: whereby

They set it in a more melodious Tune

And a Diviner Harmony.

For in Christs Coach they sweetly sing,

As they to Glory ride therein.

 

In all their Acts, publick and private, nay,

And secret too, they praise impart.

But in their Acts Divine, and Workshop, they

With Hymns do offer up their Heart.

Thus in Christs Coach they sweetly sing,

As they to Glory ride therein.

 

Some few not in; and some whose Time and Place

Block up this Coaches way, do goe

As Travellers afoot: and so do trace

The Road that gives them right thereto;

While in this Coach these sweetly sing,

As they to Glory ride therein.

(ca. 1685)


Source:

The Poetical Works of Edward Taylor, Thomas H. Johnson, ed., Public Domain

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