Since then her heavenly kind she doth display,
In that to God she doth directly move,
And on no mortal thing can make her stay,

She cannot be from hence, but from above.

And yet this first true cause and last good end
She cannot here so well and truly see;
For this perfection she must yet attend 3
Till to her Maker she espoused be.

As a king's daughter, being in person sought
Of divers princes who do neighbour near;
On none of them can fix a constant thought,
Though she to all do lend a gentle ear;

Yet can she love a foreign emperor

Whom of great worth and power she hears to be,

If she be wooed but by ambassador,

Or but his letters or his pictures see.

For well she knows that when she shall be brought Into the kingdom where her spouse doth reign, Her eyes shall see what she conceived in thought, Himself, his state, his glory, and his train.

So while the virgin soul on earth doth stay,

She, wooed and tempted in ten thousand ways,
By these great powers which on the earth bear sway,
The wisdom of the world, wealth, pleasure, praise;

With these sometimes she doth her time beguile,
These do by fibs her fantasy possess;
But she distastes them all within a while,
And in the sweetest finds a tediousness;

But if upon the world's Almighty King

She once doth fix her humble loving thoughts;

Who by his picture drawn in every thing,

And sacred messages, her love hath sought;

3 Wait for.

Of Him she thinks she cannot think too much;
This honey tasted still, is ever sweet;
The pleasure of her ravished thought is such,

As almost here she with her bliss doth meet.

But when in heaven she shall his essence see,

This is her sovereign good, and perfect bliss, Her longing, wishings, hopes, all finished be,

Her joys are full, her motions rest in this.

There is she crowned with garlands of content;
There doth she manna eat, and nectar drink :

That presence doth such high delights present,

As never tongue could speak, nor heart could think.

REASON III.-FROM CONTEMPT OF DEATH IN THE RIGHTEOUS.

FOR this the better souls do oft despise

The body's death, and do it oft desire;

For when on ground the burthened balance lies,
The empty part is lifted up the higher:

But if the body's death the soul should kill,
Then death must needs against her nature be;
And were it so, all souls would fly it still,
For nature hates and shuns her contrary.

For all things else, which nature makes to be,
Their being to preserve are chiefly taught;
And though some things desire a change to see,
Yet never thing did long to turn to nought.

If then by death the soul were quenched quite,
She could not thus against her nature run;
Since every senseless thing by nature's light

Doth preservation seek-destruction shun.

Nor could the world's best spirits so much err,
If death took all, that they should all agree
Before this life their honour to prefer;

For what is praise to things that nothing be?

Again, if by the body's prop she stand,

If on the body's life her life depend;

As Meleager's on the fatal brand,

The body's good she only would intend.

We should not find her half so brave and bold,
To lead it to the wars and to the seas,
To make it suffer watchings, hunger, cold,
When it might feed wlth plenty, rest, and ease.

Doubtless all souls have a surviving thought,
Therefore of death we think with quiet mind;
But if we think of being turned to nought,
A trembling horror in our souls we find.

REASON IV.-FROM FEAR OF DEATH IN THE WICKED.

AND as the better spirit when she doth bear

A scorn of death, doth show she cannot die; So when the wicked soul death's face doth fear, E'en then she proves her own eternity.

For when death's form appears, she feareth not
An utter quenching or extinguishment;
She would be glad to meet with such a lot,
That so she might all future ill prevent.

But she doth doubt what after may befal;
For nature's law accuseth her within,
And saith, ""Tis true what is affirmed by all,
That after death there is a pain for sin."

Then she who hath been hoodwinked from her birth, Doth clear herself within death's mirror see;

And when her body doth return to earth,

She first takes care how she alone shall be.

Who ever sees these irreligious men,

With burden of a sickness, weak, and faint, But hears them talking of religion then,

And vowing of their souls to every saint?

When was there ever sentenced atheist brought
Unto the gibbet, but he did adore

That blessed power which he had set at nought,
Scorned and blasphemed all his life before?

These light vain persons still are drunk and mad
With surfeitings and pleasures of their youth;
But at their death they are fresh, sober, sad;

Then they discern, and then they speak the truth.

If then all souls, both good and bad, do teach
With general voice, that souls can never die;
'Tis not man's flattering gloss, but nature's speech,
Which, like God's oracles, can never lie.

REASON V.-FROM THE GENERAL DESIRE OF IMMORTALITY.

HENCE springs that universal strong desire,
Which all men have of immortality;

Not some few spirits to this thought aspire,
But all men's minds in this united be.

Then this desire of nature is not vain,
"She covets not impossibilities,

Fond thoughts may fall into some idle brain,
But one assent of all is ever wise."

From hence that general care and study springs,

That launching, and progression of the mind, Which all men have so much of future things, That they no joys do in the present find.

From this desire, that main desire proceeds,

Which all men have surviving fame to gain, By tombs, by books, by memorable deeds;

For she that this desires doth still remain.

Hence, lastly, springs care of posterities,

For things their kind would everlasting make: Hence is it that old men do plant young trees, The fruit whereof another age shall take.

If we these rules unto ourselves apply,

And view them by reflection of the mind,

All these true notes of immortality

In our hearts' tables we shall written find.

THE WORTH OF THE SOUL.

OH! ignorant, poor man! what dost thou bear
Locked up within the casket of thy breast?
What jewels, and what riches, hast thou there?
What heavenly treasure in so weak a chest?

Look in thy soul, and thou shalt beauties find,

Like those which drowned Narcissus in the flood;

Honour and pleasure both are in thy mind,

And all that in the world is counted good.

Think of her worth, and think that God did mean
This worthy mind should worthy things embrace;
Blot not her beauties with thy thoughts unclean,
Nor her dishonour with thy passion base.