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