Our life is bid with Chrift in God.
Twords and thoughts do both exprefs this notion
That LIFE hath with the fun a double motion.
The first IS traight, and our diurnal friend;
The other HID, and dorh obliquely bend:
One life is wrapt IN flesh, and tends to earth:
The other winds towards HIM, whofe happy birth
Taught me to live here fo, THAT ftill one eye
Should aim and fhoot at that which IS on high;
Quitting with daily labour all MY pleafare,
to To gain at harvest an eternal TREASURE.
The fleet Aftronomer can bore
And thred the fpheres with his quick-piercing mind:
He views their ftitions, walks from door to door,
Surveys, as if he had defign'd
15 To make a purchase there he fees their dances,
And knoweth long before
Both their full-ey'd afpe&ts, and secret glances.
The nimble Diver with his fide
Cuts through the working waves, that he may fetch
20 His dearly-earned pearl, which God did hide.
On purpofe from the ventrons wretch;
That he might fave his life, and alfo hers,
Who with excelfive pride
Her own deftru&tion and his danger wears..
The fubtil Chymick can deveft
And ftrip the creature naked, till he find
The callow principles within their neft:
There he imparts to them his mind,
Admitted to their bed-chamber, before
They appear trim and dreft
To ordinary fuitors at the door.
What hath not man fought out and found,
But his dear God? who yet his glorious law
Embosoms in us, mellowing the ground
With fhowrs and frofts, with love and aw;
So that we need not fay, Where's this command?
Poor man! thou fearcheft round
To find out death, but miffeft life at hand.
WElcom dear feaft of Lent: who loves not thee
He loves nor Temp'rance, or Authority,
But is compos'd of paffion,
The Scriptures bid us faft; the Church fays, Now:
Give to thy Mother, what thou would'st allow
To ev'ry Corporation.
The humble foul compos'd of love and fear,
Begins at home, and lays the burden there,
When doctrines difagree.
He fays, In things which ufe hath justly got,
I am a fcandal to the Church, and not
The Church is fo to me.
True Chriftians fhould be glad of an occafion
Touse their temperance, feeking no evafion,
When good is feasonable;
Unless Authority, which fhould increase
The obligation in us, make it less,
And Power it felf disable.
Befides the cleanness of sweet abstinence,
Quick thoughts and motions at a finall expence,
A face not fearing light:
Whereas in fulness there are fluttish fumes,
Sowr exhalations, and dishonest rheums,
Revenging the delight,
Then those same pendent profits, which the fpring And Eafter intimate, enlarge the thing, And goodneffe of the deed. -Neither ought other mens abuse of Lent Spoil the good ufe, left by that argument We forfeit all our Creed,
It's true, we cannot reach Chrifts foartieth day; > Yet to go part of that religious way,
Is better than to rest:
We cannot reach our Saviours purity;
Yet are we bid, Be holy ev'n as he.
In both let's do our best.
Who goeth in the way which Chrift hath gone,
Is much more fure to meet with him, than one
That travelleth by-ways.
Perhaps my God, though he be far before,
May turn, and take me by the hand, and more
May ftrenthen my decays.
Yet Lord inftru&t us to improve our faft
By ftarving fin, and taking fuch repaft
As may our faults controll:
That ev'ry man may revel at his door,
Not in his parlour; banquetting the poor,
And among thofe his foul.
Weet day, fo cool, fo calm, fo bright,
The bridal of the earth and sky:
The dew fhall weep thy fall to night;
Sweet Rofe, whofe hue angry and brave
Bids the rash gazer wipe his eye:
Thy root is ever în its grave,
And thou must die
Sweet fpring, full of sweet days and roles,
A box where fweets compacted lie;
My Mufick fhews ye have your clofes,
Only a fweet and vertuous foul,
Like teafon'd timber never gives;
But though the whole world turn to coal,
Then chiefly lives.
Know the ways of Learning; both the head
And Pipes that feed the preffe, and make it run;
What Reafon hath from Nature borrowed,
Or of it felf, like a good hufwife, fpun
In laws and policy; what the ftars confpire;
What willing Nature fpeaks, what forc'd by fire;
Both th' old difcoveries, and the new found feas,
The stock and furplus, caufe and history :
All these ftand open, or I have the keys:
Yet I love thee.
I know the ways of Honour, what maintains
The quick returns of courte fie and wit:
In vies of favours whether party gains,
When glory fwells the heart, and moldeth it
5 To all expreffions both of hand and eye,
Which on the world a true-love-knot may tie,
And bear the bundle, wherefoe're it goes:
How many drams of spirit there must be
To fell my life unto my friends or foes:
Yet I love thee,
I know the ways of Pleafure, the sweet strains,
The lullings and the relishes of it;.
The proportions of hot bloud and brains;
What mirth and mufck mean; what love and wit
5 Have done thefe twenty hundred years, and more:
I know the projects of unbridled fore:
My ftuff is flesh, nor brafe; my fentes live,
And grumble oft, that they have pore in me
Than he that curbs them, being but one to five ::
Yet I love thee.
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