A part whereof my Saviour emptied hath, But O, reprieve me! For Thou hast life and death at Thy command; My God, relieve me. THE WORLD. LOVE built a stately house; where Fortune came : Then Pleasure came, who, liking not the fashion, Till she had weaken'd all by alteration: Then enter'd Sin, and with that sycamore, and dew, Working and winding slily evermore, The inward walls and summers cleft and tore: But Grace shored these, and cut that as it grew. Then Sin combined with Death in a firm band, OUR LIFE IS HID WITH CHRIST IN GOD. COLOSSIANS III. 3. My words and thoughts do both express this notion, That Life hath with the sun a double motion. VANITY. THE fleet astronomer can bore And thread the spheres with his quick-piercing mind: He views their stations, walks from door to door, Surveys, as if he had design'd To make a purchase there: he sees their dances, And knoweth, long before, Both their full-ey'd aspects and secret glances. The nimble diver with his side Cuts through the working waves, that he may fetch His dearly earned pearl, which God did hide On purpose from the venturous wretch; That He might save his life, and also hers, Who with excessive pride Her own destruction and his danger wears. The subtile chymic can divest And strip the creature naked, till he find What hath not man sought out and found, But his dear God? who yet His glorious law Embosoms in us, mellowing the ground With showers and frosts, with love and awe; So that we need not say, Where's this command? Poor man! thou searchest round To find out death, but missest life at hand. LENT. WELCOME, dear feast of Lent: who loves not thee, He loves not temperance, or authority, But is composed of passion. The Scriptures bid us fast; the Church says, now: The humble soul, composed of love and fear, He says, in things which use hath justly got, True Christians should be glad of an occasion G Unless authority, which should increase Besides the cleanness of sweet abstinence, Quick thoughts and motions at a small expense, Whereas in fulness there are sluttish fumes, Then those same pendent profits, which the spring Neither ought other men's abuse of Lent 'Tis true, we cannot reach Christ's fortieth day; We cannot reach our Saviour's purity; Who goeth in the way which Christ hath gone, Perhaps my God, though He be far before, more, |