And if the Fox had lived to rule their side,

They had deposed each one.

Humility, who held the plume, at this

Did weep so fast, that the tears trickling down
Spoil'd all the train: then saying, Here it is
For which ye wrangle, made them turn their frown
Against the beasts: so jointly bandying,

They drive them soon away;

And then amerced them, double gifts to bring
At the next Session-day.

XLVI. FRAILTY.

LORD, in my silence how do I despise
What upon trust

Is styled honour, riches, or fair eyes;

But is fair dust!

I surname them gilded clay,
Dear earth, fine grass or hay;

In all, I think my foot doth ever tread
Upon their head.

But when I view abroad both Regiments,

The world's, and thine;

Thine clad with simpleness, and sad events;
The other fine,

Full of glory and gay weeds,

Brave language, braver deeds:

That which was dust before, doth quickly rise,

And prick mine eyes.

O brook not this, lest if what even now

My foot did tread

Affront those joys, wherewith thou didst endow, And long since wed

My poor soul, e'en sick of love;

It may a Babel prove,
Commodious to conquer heaven and thee
Planted in me.

XLVII. CONSTANCY.

WHO is the honest man?

He that doth still and strongly good pursue,
To God, his neighbour, and himself most true:
Whom neither force nor fawning can
Unpin, or wrench from giving all their due.

Whose honesty is not

So loose or easy, that a ruffling wind
Can blow away, or glittering look it blind :
Who rides his sure and even trot,
While the world now rides by, now lags behind.

Who, when great trials come,

Nor seeks, nor shuns them; but doth calmly stay, Till he the thing and the example weigh:

All being brought into a sum,

What place or person calls for, he doth pay.

Whom none can work or woo,

To use in any thing a trick or sleight;

For above all things he abhors deceit :

His words and works and fashion too All of a piece, and all are clear and straight.

Who never melts or thaws

At close temptations: when the day is done,
His goodness sets not, but in dark can run:
The sun to others writeth laws,

And is their virtue; Virtue is his Sun.

Who, when he is to treat

With sick folks, women, those whom passions sway, Allows for that, and keeps his constant way: Whom others' faults do not defeat ;

But though men fail him, yet his part doth play.

Whom nothing can procure,

When the wide world runs bias, from his will To writhe his limbs, and share, not mend the ill. This is the Marksman, safe and sure, Who still is right, and prays to be so still.

XLVIII. AFFLICTION.

My heart did heave, and there came forth, O God!
By that I knew that thou wast in the grief,
To guide and govern it to my relief,

Making a sceptre of the rod :

Hadst thou not had thy part,

Sure the unruly sigh had broke my heart.

But since thy breath gave me both life and shape, Thou know'st my tallies; and when there's assign'd So much breath to a sigh, what's then behind?

Or if some years with it

The sigh then only is

escape,

A gale to bring me sooner to my bliss.

Thy life on earth was grief, and thou art still
Constant unto it, making it to be

A point of honour, now to grieve in me,
And in thy members suffer ill.

They who lament one cross,
Thou dying daily, praise thee to thy loss.

XLIX. THE STAR.

BRIGHT spark, shot from a brighter place,
Where beams surround my Saviour's face,
Canst thou be any where
So well as there ?

Yet, if thou wilt from thence depart,
Take a bad lodging in my heart;
For thou canst make a debtor,
And make it better.

First with thy fire-work burn to dust

Folly, and worse than folly, lust:

Then with thy light refine,

And make it shine.

So disengaged from sin and sickness,
Touch it with thy celestial quickness,
That it may hang and move
After thy love.

Then with our trinity of light,

Motion, and heat, let's take our flight
Unto the place where thou
Before didst bow.

Get me a standing there, and place
Among the beams, which crown the face
Of him, who died to part
Sin and my heart :

Glitter, and curl, and wind as they :

That winding is their fashion
Of adoration.

Sure thou wilt joy by gaining me

To fly home like a laden bee
Unto that hive of beams

And garland-streams.

L. SUNDAY.

O DAY most calm, most bright, The fruit of this, the next world's bud, The indorsement of supreme delight, Writ by a friend, and with his blood; The couch of time; care's balm and bay;