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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 God, no hymn for thee?

My soul's a shepherd too; a flock it feeds
Of thoughts, and words, and deeds.

The pasture is thy word; the streams, thy grace,
Enriching all the place.

Shepherd and flock shall sing, and all my powers
Out-sing the daylight hours.

Then we will chide the sun, for letting night
Take up his place and right:

We sing one common Lord; wherefore he should
Himself the candle hold.

I will go searching, till I find a Sun

Shall stay till we have done;

A willing shiner; that shall shine as gladly,
As frost-nipt suns look sadly

Then we will sing and shine all our own day;
And one another pay.

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,
Hast thou redeemed us from the grave!
If thou hadst let us run,

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 work of thy creation
Unto thyself in everlasting pleasure.

The statelier cabinet is the TRINITY,
Whose sparkling light access denies.
Therefore thou dost not shew
This fully to us, till death blow

The dust into our eyes;

For by that powder thou wilt make us see.

But all thy sweets are packed up in the other;
Thy mercies thither flock and flow :

That, as the first affrights,
This may allure us with delights:
Because this box we know ;

For we have all of us just such another.

But man is close, reserved, and dark to thee.
When thou demandest but a heart,

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,
But on thy glory; then thou wilt reform,
And not refuse me. For thou only art
The mighty God; but I, a silly worm.
Oh, do not bruise me!

Oh, do not urge me!

For what account can thy ill steward make?
I have abused thy stock, destroyed thy woods,
Sucked all thy magazines. My head did ache,
Till it found out how to consume thy goods.
Oh, do not scourge me!

Oh, do not blind me!

I have deserved that an Egyptian night
Should thicken all my powers; because my lust
Hath still sewed fig-leaves to exclude thy light.
But I am frailty, and already dust;

Oh, do not grind me!

Oh, do not fill me

With the turned vial of thy bitter wrath!
For thou hast other vessels, full of blood;
A part whereof my Saviour emptied hath,
Even unto death. Since he died for my good,
Oh, do not kill me!

But oh, reprieve me!

For thou hast life and death at thy command;
Thou art both Judge and Saviour; Feast and Rod;
Cordial and Corrosive. Put not thy hand
Into the bitter box; but oh, my God,
My God, relieve me!

The World.

LOVE built a stately house; where Fortune came;
And, spinning fancies, she was heard to say,
That her fine cobwebs did support the frame;
Whereas they were supported by the same:

But Wisdom quickly swept them all away.

Then Pleasure came; who, liking not the fashion,
Began to make balconies, terraces,

Till she had weakened all by alteration.
But rev'rend laws, and many a proclamation
Reformed all at length with menaces.

Then entered Sin; and with that sycamore,
Whose leaves first shelter'd man from drought and dew,
Working and winding slily evermore,

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,
To raze the building to the very floor;
Which they effected; none could them withstand.
But Love and Grace took Glory by the hand,
And built a braver palace than before.

Colossians iii. 3.

Our life is hid with Christ in God.

MY words and thoughts do both express this notion,
That LIFE hath, with the sun, a double motion.
The first IS straight, and our diurnal friend;
The other HID, and doth obliquely bend.
One life is wrapt IN flesh, and tends to earth;
The other winds towards HIM, whose happy birth
Taught me to live here so, THAT still one eye
Should aim and shoot at that which IS on high;
Quitting with daily labor all MY pleasure,
To gain at harvest an eternal TREASURE.

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
His dearly-earned pearl; which God did hide,
On purpose, from the vent'rous wretch;
That he might save his life, and also her's,
Who, with excessive pride,

Her own destruction, and his danger, wears.

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