Page images
PDF
EPUB

Ver. On this abyfs they safest are

That keep along the fhore,
Diftruft their wit, and from afar
This awful deep adorer.
In being godly found, in Christ,
Man's endless profit lies:

If thou art righteous, thou art bleft;
If holy, thou art wife.

[blocks in formation]

The Heart-wifh of a Deferted Soul. Job xxix. 2,-5.

2

[ocr errors]

THAT my by-past happy days

And months were now reftor'd,
When God did me, in gracious ways,
His mighty aid afford!

3 When on my head his candle clear,
The lamp of grace, did shine;
And I, through darkest fhades of fear,
Did walk by light divine.

4 When fecret favours did, from God,
My days of youth attend;

And I to him my mind unload,
As to a bofom friend.

5 Th' Almighty did my heart and home,
With his glad prefence blifs,

That fuch fweet days again may come,
O how I long for this!

SONG XLVII.

Youth's defpifing the aged; or, Great Honour turned to extreme Contempt, and Profperity turned to Calamity. Job xxx. 1, 8,-12. and 26,-31.

SECT. I.

Honour turned to Contempt. Ver. 1. 8,-12.

I THESE now, that younger are than I,
Do me deride and mock,

Whofe fathers never were fo high
As fhepherds of my flock.

Ver. This truft to them I fcorn'd to give,
My num'rous herds to keep;

Nor, with my degs, could grant them leave
To fit and guard my fheep.

8 For vicious, vile, and bafe they were,
Old beggars through the street;

To them I justly might prefer
The duft below their feet.

9 Yet now I'm to their fons a jest,
They mock me to my face;

10

. 11 They me revile, contemn, deteft, And treat me with difgrace.

12 Young ftriplings thus against me rife,
Regardless of my age;

My name they daub with fland'rous lies,
In fierce unbridled rage.

SECT. II.

Prosperity turned to Calamity Ver. 26,―31.

26 LOOK'D for good, fince good I chose;
I
Since kind, I hop'd for light:
But then came evil, croffes, woes,
And clouds of dismal night.

27 Vexatious day did me prevent;
And, hoplefs of relief,

28 Without the fun I mourning went In agonies of grief.

29 With owls and dragons joint I cry'd, I'm now their mate and kin.

30 With burning heat my bones are dry'd, And black my wither'd fkin.

31 My harp, that made a joyful noise,
Is turn'd to mourning deep;

My organ chang'd into the voice
Of them that doleful weep.

SONG XLVIII.

Chastity and Charity examplified; and all unclean PerJons judged. Job xxxi. 1,—4. and 16, 17. 19, 20.

SECT. I.

Chastity examplified; and Whoremongers and Adulterers judged. Ver. 1,-4.

Ver. A SACRED league I with mine eyes

I

Have made, that they may ne’et

On fruit forbidden look nor gaze,
However charming fair.

That they, on beauty fondly prone,

May not attentive stay,
To be enchanted; nor upon
The brink of ruin play:

Ne'er did, on wanton objects bent,
My thoughts get leave to rove;
Nor were abroad for fuel fent,

To feed unlawful love.

Sin's motions firft whenever rais'd,
I did fuppreffing tame;

I quench'd the fpark before it blaz'd
And spread refiftless flame.

2 I knew what woful portion will

On whoredom's flaves attend:

Of these who their fweet lufis fulfil
I faw the bitter end.

3 Deftruction from the mighty God,
Does on the wicked wait;

Their vile and fhameful actions bode
Their miferable fate.

God does, as Judge of fecrets, fee

If foreign charms us move:

Death is the juft reward, if we
Shall hug forbidden love.

SECT. II.

Charity Examplified.. Ver. 16, 17. 19, 20.

Ver. I never heard the needy cry,

16

But ftill they did prevail;
Nor, mercilefs, e'er caufed I
The widow's hopes to fail.

17 I ne'er along with fulness fed,
Devour'd luxurious meat;
But always of my plenty made
The hungry orphans eat.

19 Poor naked beggars, as co-heirs
Of what I did partake,

20 I fed and cloth'd; if not for their's,

Yet for their Mafter's fake.

[blocks in formation]

The Immateriality and Immortality of the Soul.
Job xxxii. 8.

N man a living spirit dwells,

8 IN

An understanding mind,

Which far the brutal rank excels,

As does th' angelic kind.

In him there is a nature found,

Above the fenfes far;

Though fome, in fenfual pleafures drown'd,

But foul-oppreffors are.

Through things both low, and things fublime,
The nimble foul doth flide;

Both far and nigh, in point of time,

Which thought cannot divide.

She fends to China as foon as Spain;
And comes as foon as fent;

And mets with equal time and pain
A fpan, and heav'n's wide tent.
She hath, ev'n though in flefh confin'd,
No body of her own;

But is an immaterial mind,

Diftin&t from flefh and bone.

Ver. How fouls that live, and flesh that dies,
Their match at first began,

We learn; for he that fpread the skies,

First form'd the foul of man :

Who fhed in man, first made the earth,
A beam of heav'nly fire;

In all men now, before their birth,
He does their foul infpire.
This fpirit cannot mortal be,
Nor fubject to the grave;
For thoughts of immortality,
No mortal thing can have.
When the afpires to endless blifs
In God, th' eternal spring,
She proves herself to be no lefs
Than an eternal thing.

Our bodies food of mortal kind,
Shows their mortality;

But truth eternal feeds the mind,
Which fhews fhe cannot die.

SONG L.

[ocr errors]

True Wisdom not acquired by Old Age, nor by Learn-
ing, but by Grace. Jb xxxii. 7, 8, 9.
7 THAT wildom ripens not with years,
Nor grows with age, I find;

Unlefs celeflial light appears,
Gray hairs continue blind.

8 Wisdom divine, by length of time,
Can never be acquir'd,

9

Except the foul, by truth fublime,
Be from above infpir'd.

Sound knowledge then is not a store,
Poffefs'd till by the great;

Nor yet doth wifdom evermore

Adorn the teacher's feat.

Though human understanding trace,

The wifdom of the fchools;

Yet ftill the learn'd, untaught by grace,
Remain but literate fools.

« PreviousContinue »