And read a lecture unto them that are
Willing to learn how comfort dwells with care.
He that his joys would keep
And in the brine of tears
Must pickle them. That powder will preserve : Faith and repentance is the foul's conseive.
Learn to make much of care:
And precious balfam 'tis
For blifs;
Which oft refides where mirth with forrow meets: Heavenly joys on carth are bitter sweets.
WE and well
E talk of Noah's flood as of a wonder ;
we may :
The fcriptures fay,
The water did prevail, the hills were under,
And nothing could be feen but fea.
And yet there are two other floods furpafs
That flood as far
Which many men regard as little as
The ordinary'ft things that are.
The one is fin, the other is falvation :
And we muft need
Confefs indeed,
That either is an inundation
Which doth the deluge far exceed.
In Noah's flood he and his household liv'd: -
And there abode
Of other creatures that were then repriev'd:
All fafely on the waters rode,
But, when fin came, it overflowed all,
And left none free:
That knew no fin, could not release my thrall,
But that he was made fin for me;
And, when falvation came, my Saviour's blood
Drown'd fin again,
With all its train
Of evils, overflowing them with good,
With good that ever shall remain.
O, let there be one other inundation,
grace o'erflow In my foul fo,
That thankfulness may level with falvation,
And forrow fin may overgrow.
Then will I praise my Lord and Saviour fo,
That angels fhall
When they shall fee God's greatest glory grow,
Where Satan thought to root out all,
IN, I would fain define thee: but thou art
An uncouth thing:
All that I bring
To fhew thee fully, fhews thee but in part.
I call thee the tranfgreffion of the law,
And yet I read,
That fin is dead
Without the law; and thence it ftrength doth draw.
I say thou art the fting of death. 'Tis true,
And yet I find
Death comes behind :
The work is done before the pay be due,
I fay thou art the devil's work; yet he
Should much rather,
Call thee Father;
For he had been no devil but for thee.
What shall I call thee, then ? If death and devil,
Right understood,
I'll fay thou art the quinteffence of evil.
Travels at Home.
FT have I wifh'd a traveller to be:
Mine eyes did even itch the fights to fee,
That I had heard and read of. Oft I have
Been greedy of occafion as the grave,
That never fays enough; yet fill was croft
When opportunities had promis'd most.
At laft I faid, what mean'ft thou, wandering elf,
To ftraggle thus ? Go travel first thyself.
Thy little world can fhew thee wonders great ;
The greater may have more, but not more neat
And curious pieces. Search, and thou fhalt find
Enough to talk of. If thou wilt, thy mind
Europe fupplics, and Afa thy will,
And Afric thy affections. And if ftill
Thou lift to travel further, put thy fenfes
For both the Indies
Make no more pretences
Of new difcoveries, whilft yet thine own,
And nearest little world is ftill unknown.
Away then with thy quadrants and compaffes,
Globes, tables, cards, maps, and minute glaffes.
Lay by thy journals and thy diaries,
Close up thine annals and thine histories.
Study thyfelf, and read what thou haft writ
In thine own book, thy conscience. Is it fit
To labour after other knowledge fo,
And thine own neareft, dearest felf not know ?
Travels abroad both dear and dangerous are,
Whilft oft the foul pays for the body's fare:
Travels at home are cheap and fafe. Salvation
Comes mounted on the wings of meditation.
He that doth live at home, and learns to know
God and him felf, needeth no further go.
LIFE is a journey From our mothers' wombs,
As houfes, we fet out; and in our tombs,
As inns, we reft, till it be time to rise
'Twixs rocks and gulfs our narrow foot-path lies:
Haughty prefumption and hell-deep despair
Make our way dangerous, though feeming fair.
The world with its enticements feek and fly,
Slabbers our steps, and makes them flippery.
The flesh, with its corruptions, clogs our feet,
And burdens us with loads of lufts unmeet.
The devil where we tread doth spread his fnares,
And with temptations takes us unawares,
Our footsteps are our thoughts, our words, our works:
These carry us along; in these there lurks
Envy, Luft, Avarice, Ambition,
The crooked turnings of perdition.
One while we creep among the thorny brakes
Of worldly profits; and the devil takes
Delight to fee us pierce ourselves with forrow
To-day, by thinking what might be to-morrow.
Another while we wade, and wallow in
Puddles of pleafure; and we never lin
Daubing ourfelves with dirty damn'd delights,
Till felf-begotten pain our pleasure frights.
Sometimes we scramble to get up the banks
Of icy honour; and we break our ranks
To ftep before our fellows; though, they say,
He fooneft tireth that ftill leads the way.
Sometimes, when others juftle and provoke us,
We ftir that duft ourselves that ferves to choke us;
And raise those tempefts of contention which
Blow us befide the way into the ditch.
Our minds should be our guides. But they are blind,
Our wills out-run our wits, or lag behind.
Our furious paffions, like unbridled jades,
Hurry us headlong to th' infernal fhades.
If God be not our Guide, our Guard, our Friend,
Eternal death will be our journey's end.
EN often find, when nature's at a stand,
And hath in vain try'd all her utmoft ftrength,
That art, her ape, can reach her out an hand,
To pierce her powers with to a full length.
And may not grace have means enough in ftore,
Wherewith to do as much as that, and more ?
She may: She hath engines of ev'ry kind,
To work what art and nature, when they view, 1. A
Stupendous miracles of wonder find,
And yet must needs acknowledge to be true;
So far transcending all their pow'r and might,
That they stand ev'n amazed at the fight.
Take but three instances; Faith, Hope, and Love."
Souls help'd by the perfpective glass of faith
Are able to perceive what is above
The reach of reafon; Yea, the scripture faith,
...Ev'n him that is invisible behold,
And future things as if they'd been of old.
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