Life.

Made a pofie, while the day ran by:
Here will I smell my remnant out, and tie
My life within this band.

But time did becken to the flow'rs, and they
By noon moft cunningly did fteal away,

And wither'd in my hand.

y hand was next to them, and then my heart: ook, without more thinking, in good part

Times gentle admonition; 'ho did fo fweetly deaths fad tafte convey, aking my mind to fmell my fatal day,

Yet fugring the fufpition.

Farewel dear flow'rs; fweetly your time ye spent, s Fit, while ye liv'd, for smell or ornament,

And after death for cures. follow ftraight without complaints or grief, ince, if my fent be good, I care not if

It be as fhort as yours.

B

Submission.

Ut that thou art my wifdom, Lord,
And both mine eyes are thine;

My mind would be extreamly ftirr d
For miffing my defign.

is were it not better to bestow

Some place and power on me? Then fhould thy praises with me grow, And share in my degree.

But

But when I thus difpute and grieve,

I do resume my fight,

And pilfring what I once did give,
Diffeife thee of thy right.

How know I, if thou shouldft me raise,
That I fhould then raise thee?
Perhaps great places, and thy praise
Do not fo well agree.

Wherefore unto thy gift I ftand;
I will no more advise :

Only do thou lend me a hand,
Since thou haft both mine eyes.

I

¶ Juftice.

Cannot skill of these thy ways.

Lord, thou didst make me, yet thou woundest me:

Lord, thou didst wound me, yet thou doft relieve me : 15
Lord, thou relieveft, yet I die by thee:
Lord, thou doft kill me, yet thou doft reprieve me.

But when I mark my life and praise,
Thy juftice me most fitly pays :

For I do praise thee, yet I praife thee not:
My prayers mean thee, yet my prayers ftray:
I would do well, yet fin the hand hath got:
My foul doth love thee, yet it loves delay.

I cannot skill of these my ways.

¶ Charms and Knots.

WHO read a Chapter when they rife,

Shall ne're be troubled with ill eyes.

20

25

A

A poor mans rod, when thou doft ride,
Is both a weapon and a guide.

who fhuts his hand, hath loft his gold:
Who opens it, hath it twice told.

Who goes to bed, and doth not pray,
Maketh two nights to ev'ry day.
who by afperfions throw a ftone
At th' head of others, hit their own.

who looks on ground with humble eyes,
Finds himself there, and feeks to rife.

When th' hair is sweet through pride or luft,
The powder doth forget the duft.

Take one from ten; and what remains?
Ten fill, if Sermons go for gains.

In fhallow waters heav'n doth show:
But who drinks on, to hell may go.

Affliction.

My God, I read this day,

That planted Paradife was not fo firm,
o As was and is thy floting Ark; whofe ftay
And Anchor thou art only, to confirm
And strengthen it in ev'ry age,
When waves do rife, and tempefts rage.

At first we liv'd in pleasure;

25 Thine own delights thou didft to us impart : When we grow wanton, thou didft ufe displeasure To make us thine: yet that we might not part, As we at first did board with thee,

Now thou wouldst tafte our misery.

There

There is but joy and grief;

If either will convert us, we are thine:
Some Angels us'd the firft; if our relief
Take up the fecond, then thy double line
And fev'ral baits in either kind
Furnish thy table to thy mind.

Affliction then is ours;

We are the trees, whom fhaking faftens more,
While bluftring winds deftroy the wanton bowers,
And ruffle all their curions knots and store.

My God, fo temper joy and wo,

That thy bright beams may tame thy bow.

Mortification.

How foon doth man decay!

When clothes are taken from a chest of sweets
To fwaddle infants, whofe young breath
Rcarce knows the way :

Those clouts are little winding-fheets,
Which do confign and fend them unto death.

When boys go firft to bed,

They ftep into their voluntary graves;

Sleep binds them faft; only their breath
Makes them not dead:

Succeffive nights, like rolling waves,

Convey them quickly, who are bound for death.

When youth is frank and free,

And calls for mufick, while his veins do swell,
All day exchanging mirth and breath

In company;

That mufick fummons to the knell,

hich fhall befriend him at the house of death.

When

When man grows ftaid and wife,
tting a house and home, where he may move
Within the circle of his breath,
Schooling his eyes;

That dumb inclosure maketh love to the coffin, that attends his death.

When age grows low and weak, rking his grave, and thawing ev'ry year, Till all do melt, and drown his breath When he would speak;

A chair or litter fhews the beer, nich shall convey him to the house of death:

Man, ere he is aware, th put together a folemnity,

And dreft his herfe, while he hath breath
As yet to spare.

Yet Lord, inftru&t us so to die,
hat all these dyings may be life in death.

¶ Decay.

SW

Weet were the days, when thou didst lodge with Struggle with Jacob, fit with Gideon, (Lot, Advife with Abraham, when thy power could not Encounter Mofes ftrong complaints and mone: Thy words were then, Let me alone.

One might have fought, and found thee presently
At fome fair oak, or bufh, or cave, or well.

15 Is my God this way? No, they would reply:
He is to Sinai gone, as we heard tell :
Lift, ye may hear great Aarons bell.

But