What? Is he not the rock, out of whose fide
Those streams of water-blood run forth?
Th' elect and precious corner-ftone well try'd ?
Tho' th' odds be great between their worth,
Rock-water and ftone-veffels are ally'd.

But call it what, and place it where you will:
Let it be made indifferently

Of any form, or matter; yet, until
The bleffed Sacrament thereby
Impaired be, my hopes you fhall not kill.

To want a complement of comliness
Some of my comfort may abate,
And for the prefent make my joy go lefs:
Yet I will hug mine homely ftate,
And poverty with patience richly drefs.

Regeneration is all in all,

Washing, or fprinkling, but the fign,
The feal, and inftrument thereof; I call
The one, as well as th' other mine,
And my pofterity's as fœderal.

If temporal estates may be convey'd,
By covenants on condition,

To men and to their heirs; be not afraid,

My foul, to reft upon

The covenant of grace by mercy made.

Do but thy duty, and rely upon't,

Repentance, Faith, Obedience,

When ever practis'd, truly will amount
To an authentic evidence,

Tho' th' deed were antidated at the font.

The Reading-Pew."

HERE my new enter'd soul doth first break fast,

Here feafoneth her infant tafte,

And at her mother-nurfe the Church's dugs
With lab'ring lips and tongue The tugs
For that fincere milk, which alone doth feed
Babes new born of immortal feed:*

Who, that they may unto perfection grow,
Must be content to creep before they go.

་་་ T

They, that would reading out of Church exclude,
Sure have a purpose to obtrude,

Some dictates of their own, instead of God's
Revealed will, his word. 'Tis odds,

They do not mean to pay men current coin,
Who feek the ftandard to purloin,
And would reduce all trials to their own,
Both touchstones, balances, and weights, alone.

What reasonable man would not misdoubt
Those comments, that the text leave out?
And that their main intent is alteration,
Who doat fo much on variation,
That no fet form at all they can endure
To be prefcrib'd, or put in ure?
Rejecting bounds and limits is the way,

If not all wafte, yet common all to lay is al

I

But why should he, that thinks himself well grown,
Be difcontent that fuch an one,

As knows himself an infant yet. fhould be
Dandled upon his mother's knee,

に

And babe-like fed with milk, till he have got
More ftrength and ftomach? Why should not

Nurflings in Church, as well as weanlings, find
Their food fit for them in their proper kind ?

Let them that would build castles in the air
Vault thither without ftep or ftair;
Inftead of feet to climb, take wings to fly,
And think their turrets top the

iky.

But let me lay all my foundations deep,
And learn before, I run to creep,

Who digs thro' rocks to lay his ground-works low,
May in good time build high and fure, tho' flow.

To take degrees, per faltum, tho' of quick
Dispatch, is but a truant's trick.

Let us learn first to know our letters well,
Then fyllables, then words to spell;
Then to read plainly, ere we take the pen
In hand to write to other men. Char
I doubt their preaching is not always true,
Whose way to th' Pulpit's not the Reading-pew.

The Book of Common-Prayer. :
WHAT pray'r by th' Book? And Common?

The Spirit of grace,
And fupplication,
Is not left free alone

Yes. Why not?

For time and place:

But manner too. To read, or fpeak by rote,
Is all alike to him, that prays

With's heart, that with his mouth he fays.

They that in private by themselves alone
Do pray, make take
What liberty they please,
In chufing of the ways,

Wherein to make

Their fouls' most intimate affections known
To him that fees in fecret, when...

Th' are most conceal'd from other men.

But, he that unto others leads the way ⠀
In public prayer,

Should chufe to do it fo,"

As all that hear may know
They need not fear.

To turn their hearts unto his tongue, and fay,
Amen; nor doubt they were betray'd

To blafpheme, when they should have pray'd.

Devotion will add life unto the letter.

And why should not

That which authority
Prescribes, efteemed be
Advantage got?

If th' pray'r be good, the commoner the better.
Pray'r in the Church's words, as well
As fenfe, of all pray'rs bears the bell.

The Bible.

HE Bible? That's the book. The book indeed,
The book of books:

THE

On which who looks,

As he should do, aright, fhall never need
Wish for a better light

To guide him in the night:

Or, when he hungry is, for better food

To feed upon,

Than this alone,

If he bring ftomach and digeftion good:

And if he be amiss,

This the best phyfic is.

The true panchrefton 'tis for ev'ry fore,
And fickness, which

The poor and rich

With equal ease may come by. Yea, 'tis more, An antidote, as well

As remedy 'gainst hell.

'Tis heaven in perspective; and the bliss Of glory here,

If any where,

By faints on earth anticipated is,
Whilft faith to ev'ry word
A being doth afford.

It is the looking-glafs of fouls, wherein
All men may fee

Whether they be

Still, as by nature th' are, deform'd with fin; Or in a better case,

As new adorn'd with grace.

'Tis the great magazine of fpiritual arms, Wherein doth lie

Th' artillery

Of heaven, ready charg'd against all harms,
That might come by the blows
Of our infernal foes,

God's cabinet of reveal'd counfel 'tis :

Where weal and woe

Are order'd fo,

That ev'ry man may know which shall be his,
Unless his own mistake

Falfe application make.