Since my dark soul and brutish is thy right, To man, of all beasts, be not thou a stranger. Furnish and deck my soul; that thou mayest have A better lodging than a rack, or grave. THE shepherds sing; and shall I silent be? My soul's a shepherd too; a flock it feeds The pasture is thy word; the streams, thy grace, Shepherd and flock shall sing, and all my powers Then we will chide the sun, for letting night We sing one common Lord; wherefore he should I will go searching, till I find a Sun Shall stay till we have done; A willing shiner; that shall shine as gladly, Then we will sing and shine all our own day; His beams shall cheer my breast; and both so twine, Till even his beams sing, and my music shine. Ungratefulness. LORD, with what bounty, and rare clemency, Gladly had man adored the sun, And thought his god most brave;— Where now we shall be better gods than he. Thou hast but two rare cabinets full of treasure,— The TRINITY and INCARNATION. Thou hast unlocked them both, And made them jewels to betroth The statelier cabinet is the TRINITY, The dust into our eyes; For by that powder thou wilt make us see. But all thy sweets are packed up in the other; That, as the first affrights, For we have all of us just such another. But man is close, reserved, and dark to thee. He cavils instantly. In his poor cabinet of bone Sins have their box apart; Defrauding thee, who gavest two for one. Sighs and Groans. Он, do not use me After my sins! look not on my desert, Oh, do not urge me! For what account can thy ill steward make? Oh, do not blind me! I have deserved that an Egyptian night Oh, do not grind me! Oh, do not fill me With the turned vial of thy bitter wrath! But oh, reprieve me! For thou hast life and death at thy command; The World. LOVE built a stately house; where Fortune came; But Wisdom quickly swept them all away. Then Pleasure came; who, liking not the fashion, Till she had weakened all by alteration. Then entered Sin; and with that sycamore, The inward walls and sommers cleft and tore. But Grace shored these, and cut that as it grew. Then Sin combined with Death in a firm band, Colossians iii. 3. Our life is hid with Christ in God. MY words and thoughts do both express this notion, 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 designed To make a purchase there. He sees their dances; And knoweth, long before, Both their full-eyed aspects and secret glances. The nimble diver with his side Cuts through the working waves, that he may fetch Her own destruction, and his danger, wears. |