All foreign wisdom doth amount to this,
To take all that is given; whether wealth,
Or love, or language, nothing comes amifs;
A good digeftion turneth all to health:
And then, as far as fair behaviour may,
Strike off all scores; none are fo clear as they.
Keep all thy native good, and naturalize
All foreign of that name; but fcorn their ill.
Embrace their activeness, nor vanities.
Who follows all things, forfeiteth his will.
If thou obferveft ftrangers in each fit,
In time they'll run thee out of all thy wit.
Affect in things about thee cleanliness,
That all may gladly board thee, as a flower.
Slovens take up their stock of noisomeness
Beforehand, and anticipate their last hour.
Let thy minds fweetness have its operation
Upon thy body, clothes, and habitation.
In alms regard thy means, and others merit.
Think heav'n a better bargain, than to give
Only thy fingle market-money for it.
Join hands with God to make a man to live.
Give to all fomething; to a good poor man,
Till thou change names, and be where he began.
Man is God's image; but a poor man is
Christ's stamp to boot; both images regard.
God reckons for him, counts the favour his.
Write, So much giv'n to God; thou shalt be heard.
Let thy alms go before, and keep heav'n's gate
Open for thee; or both may come too late.
Reftore to God his due in tithe and time;
A tithe purloin'd, cankers the whole estate.
Sundays obferve: Think when the bells do chime,
'Tis angels mufic; therefore come not late.
God then deals bleffings; if a King did so,
Who would not haste, nay give, to see the show?
Twice on the day his dew is understood,
For all the week thy food so oft he gave thee,
Thy cheer is mended; bate not of the food,
Because 'tis better, and perhaps may fave thee.
Thwart not th' Almighty God; O be not cross.
Faft when thou wilt, but then 'tis gain, not loís.
Though private prayer be a brave design,
Yet public hath more promises, more love;
And love's a weight to hearts, to eyes a fign.
We all are but cold fuitors; let us move
Where it is warmeft. Leave thy fix and feven;
Pray with the moft; for where most pray, is heav'n.
When once thy foot enters the Church, be bare.
God is more there than thou: For thou art there
Only by his permiffion. Then beware,
And make thyself all reverence and fear,
Kneeling ne'er fpoil'd filk ftocking: Quit thy state.
All equal are within the Churches gate.
Refort to fermons, but to prayers most:
Praying's the end of preaching. O be dreft,
Stay not for th' other pin. Why, thou haft loft
A joy for it worth worlds. Thus hell does jeft
Away thy bleffings, and extreamly flout thee,
Thy clothes being faft, but thy foul loofe about thee.
In time of fervice feal up both thine eyes,
And fend them to thy heart, that fpying fin,
They may weep out the ftains by them did rife.
Thofe doors being fhut, all by the ear comes in.
Who marks in Church-time others fymmetry,
Makes all their beauty his deformity.
Let vain or bufy thoughts have there no part;
Bring not thy plough, thy plots, thy pleasure thither.
Christ purg'd his Temple; so must thou thy heart.
All worldly thoughts are but thieves met together
To cozen thee. Look to thy action well,
For Churches either are our heaven or hell.
Judge not the preacher, for he is thy Judge:
If thou mislike him, thou conceiv'st him not.
God calleth preaching folly. Do not grudge
To pick out treasures from an earthen pot.
The worst speak something good: If all want fenfe,
God takes a text, and preacheth patience.
He that gets patience, and the bleffing which
Preachers conclude with, hath not loft his pains.
He that by being at Church, efcapes the ditch,
Which he might fall in by companions, gains.
He that loves God's abode, and to combine
With faints on earth, shall one day with them shine.
Jeft not at preachers language or expreffion :
How know'st thou but thy fins made him miscarry?
Then turn thy faults and his into confeffion;
God fent him whatfoe'er he be: Otarry,
And love him for his Mafter: His condition,
Though it be ill, makes him no ill physician.
None fhall in hell fuch bitter pangs endure,
As those who mock at God's way of falvation.
Whom oil and balfams kill, what falve can cure?
They drink with greedinefs a full damnation.
The Jews refufed thunder; and we folly.
Though God do hedge us in, yet who is holy?
Sum up at night what thou haft done by day;
And in the morning, what thou haft to do.
Dress and undress thy foul: Mark the decay
And growth of it: If with thy watch, that too
Be down, then wind up both : Since we shall be
More furely judg'd, make thy accounts agree.
In brief, acquit thee bravely: play the man.
Look not on pleasures as they come, but go.
Defer not the leaft virtue. Life's poor span
Make not an ell, by trifling in thy wo.
If thou do ill, the joy fades, not the pains :
If well, the pain doth fade, the joy remains.
H all ye, who pass by, whofe eyes and mind
To worldly things are sharp, but to me blind;
To me, who took eyes that I might you find.
Was ever grief like mine?
The Princes of my people make a head
Against their Maker: They do wish me dead,
Who cannot with, except I give them bread:
Was ever grief, &c.
Without me each one, who doth now me brave,
Had to this day been an Egyptian slave.
They use that power against me, which I gave.
Mine own Apostle, who the bag did bear,
Though he had all I had, did not forbear
To fell me alfo, and to put me there.
For thirty pence he did my death devife,
Who at three hundred did the ointment prize,
Not half fo fweet as my fweet Sacrifice.
Therefore my foul melts, and my heart's dear treasure
Drops blood (the only beads) my words to measure.
O let this Cup pass, if it be thy pleasure.
Thefe drops being temper'd with a finner's tears,
A balfam are for both the hemispheres,
Curing all wounds but mine; all but my fears.
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