believe It wounds thy Soul and doth God's Spirit grieve Satan and Sin their Servants do destroy God to his Servants gives eternal joy Wherefore O Lord I yield my self to thee Let not sin have dominion over me Thy easie Yoak I 'll wear when that 's laid down Let thy Free grace vouchsafe a glorious Crown ON SOLITUDE I. WElcome sweet Solitude who loves not thee Loves not himself for only he Who from the busie throng is quit He to retire into himself is free He with himself may sit II. Than our Dear self is any thing more Dear Shall we then seem to hate or fear What most we love yet so do they Who rather had be rambling here and there Than with themselves to stay III. Some hideous frightful thing there is within Even a consciousness of Sin That if alone doth them affright Which to torment them when it doth begin Straightway they take their flight IV. Even from themselves poor Men they strive to fly Thrust into vicious Company There hoping for a little Peace From Noise from Sport from Riot and thereby Their Torments they increase V. Who weary of himself himself still flies And Vice for a diversion tries Hence greater weariness shall feel The Plaister which his folly doth devise Wounds worse than did the Steel VI. Thus the Slave loaden with his Guilt and Chain From Prison breaks but not from pain His Irons gall him in the road Untill at last he 's hurried back again To feel a double Load VII Thus in the numerous herd the wounded Hart Would shroud himself but still the Dart Sticks in his Flesh widens his Wound He cannot in the Croud shake off his smart Nor scape the following Hound VIII Then welcome Solitude abhor'd by none But Fools and vicious Men alone Whilst courted by the Wise and Good Who by Fruition have its blessings known Its pleasure 's understood IX Whilst they hither from the World remove In all that 's Good they do improve And here where nothing can annoy Rendring themselves worthy of their own love Themselves they do enjoy X. Wearied with Noise and Hurry here we have The Rest and Silence of a Grave The Mind too freed from stir and noise Begins to feel what pious minds most crave Foretasts of Heavenly joyes XI The Moon from view retir'd receives most light From Heaven and Heaven-ward shines most bright But what time we her Full do call When she comes forth expos'd to common sight 'T is then Eclipses fall XII Here Virtue 's fixt which justling Crouds did shake Here it doth Sanctuary take When Lusts and Passions it pursue Here gathering strength doth brave resistance make And all her Foes subdue XIII The mind exhausted by the multitude Here hath its strength renew'd Like Fields opprest by constant Plough It doth when Fallow laid in Solitude More Rich and Fertile grow XIV They who from others seem the most recluse For others Good most Fruit produce Who labour under Ground there find The Gold which after serves for common use And doth enrich Mankind XV. Rich Streams of Blessings from the Hermits cell O'reflow the World which none can tell From whence they flow but like some Fountain Unknown as th' head of Nile he oft doth dwell In the obscurer Mountain XVI The learned tribe whose works the World do bless Finish those works in some recess Both the Philosopher and Divine And Poets most who still make their address In private to the Nine XVII Thus on the Banks of Thames great Cowley chose His private Chertsey for repose Cowley whose Verse like those rich streams So deep as clear in various numbers slows And long shall last as Thames THE Sum of our Duty LOve God with all thy Heart and Soul and Mind To Friend and Foe be just be true and kind Obey they Parents and thy Rulers Laws Never rebel but suffer in God's Cause Be Meek and Patient Humble Sober Chast In these good ways be constant to the last And when thou hast done all then humbly cry An useless sinful Servant Lord am I. My strength and grace is from thy Holy Spirit My hope is in thy Mercies and Christ's Merit Whilst here I live let not thy Spirit leave me And when I die O Blessed Lord Receive me Whilst I was hearing Musick Feb. 1. 1671. LOrd take my Soul and tune it to thy will It wanteth tuning but thou want'st no skill O let thy Grace my mind bring into frame So shall I love and praise thy glorious name In thy great goodness shall my heart rejoyce Thy goodness I will praise with chearful voice Also my Life I 'l study so to frame That all my works may glorifie thy name Thus shall my Feet my Tongue and Heart agree This harmony thou lov'st this pleaseth me Thus will I spend my time on Earth thus I Will serve thee whilst I live and when I die I in a nobler sort thy name will praise Let Grace raise me so I 'l thy Glory raise On a great Thunder and Storm Iune 1. 1671. THY power O Great Iehovah I adore Whose voice in Thunder through the Clouds doth roar This voice I 'l entertain with awful fear With greater aw I will thy threatnings hear Thy lightning which doth pierce where 't is not felt It spares my Body but my heart shall melt Much more thy Spirit shall whose flames divine Consume our lusts but do our Souls refine Showrs which gush forth when the Clouds broken be Purge Me and th' Air soften the Earth and Me. Afflictions Storms and Showrs of Love and Peace This Purity and Softness shall encrease Thus Ear and Eye and Mind Reason and Sense Each hath its Object learns its Lesson thence Which way so ere I turn my eye or thought I something find whence Piety is taught Lord teach me ever duly to improve The tokens of thy Wisdom Pow'r and Love. CALMNESS IN A STORM Made in a Stormy Iourney Septemb. 1672. IN rough foul Ways my Mind is smooth and clear When the Winds roar then do I loudest Sing When the Sky low'rs Smiles in my Looks appear Clouds weeping Rain no Tear from me can wring What is it can disturb that inward Peace Which from disturbances receives increase This Wisdom and this Courage sometimes I Can in my little Stormy Journies use In th' Storms of Life there 's much more reason why The same brave Resolution I should chuse Life is a Journey full of Troubles these Wisdom may turn into Advantages Do I grow poor I 'le more enrich my Mind Am I defam'd I 'le make my Virtue shine More brightly through those Mists are Friends unkind God shall be dearer Doth my Health decline My Soul to Heaven shall thrive when Death shall give The mortal Wound then shall I truly live Thus the great Hercules from Iuno's spite Favours receiv'd this made his fame encrease First Toils and Dangers gave him first Delight And Glory thus the martial Man is Peace Not to bare chance
Heart and Mouth may give thee praise As in thy Temple keep there residence Within my Soul and never part from thence Till I am fram'd and fitted by thy hand A Pillar in God's House above to stand ON Ascension Day ART thou ascended blessed Lord on high And do I on this earth still grovelling lye In muddy sensual fading pleasures drown'd Where pain and grief horrours and Hell are found O pity dearest Lord some pity take On a poor fainting Soul for thy names sake Help Lord Lord help to thee I lift mine Eyes Stretch forth thy helping hand and make me rise O raise my sinking Soul above the Mud And dirt of low delights which Flesh and Blood Relish and crave Let my exalted mind It's pleasures in thy Love and Service find But ne'r let that seem pleasant to my taste Which grieves thy Spirit and doth my Conscience waste Keep my Soul mindful of its heavenly birth That it may Heaven-ward tend wean'd from this Earth By all my falls upon this slippery Ground Grant that I nearer may to Heaven rebound And let all streams of comfort here below Up to the Fountain lead me whence they flow Let Faith and Love and Longings raise my Heart Up to the blissful place where Lord thou art Let my chief joy spring from this Faith and Love Till I ascend to thee and joyes above Divine Love. WHose Soul is once betroth'd can ever he From that engagement disobliged be The hearts which love unites in loyal bands Are chain'd as fast as by their tongues and hands Even thus am I in heart engag'd my mind Is firmly fixt but on no Female-kind The blessed Jesus is my Lord my Love He is my choice from him I 'll never move Away then all you objects that divert And seek to draw from my dear Lord my heart Go Riches Honours Beauty Bravery go Tempt these mean Souls who nothing better know That uncreated Beauty which hath gain'd My ravisht Heart hath all your glory stain'd His loveliness my Soul hath prepossest And left no room for any other guest Cease then with knocking 's to assault my Door Disturb not my repose attempt no more These gates which to the King of Glory be Made to fly open and to none but he For him I sigh I wishly look and long To be releas'd from this ensnaring throng Of poor bewildred Mortals from whose sight My Soul doth meditate a nobler slight Into the Regions of eternal Joy Where nothing shall her blessful peace annoy There 's her own home her Country 's there above That blessed Land of Life of Light and Love There my dear Friends fled hence with God are blest Thither are swiftly hasting all the rest There lives my Lord and there I long to live He gave these longings and himself will give Hast then pale Death accomplish my design Thou that break'st others wedlocks finish mine This naked breast strike with thy sharpest Dart The sweetest Cordial to a fainting Heart Release my pained Soul from this dull clod Of prisoning Earth and take her to her God That there she may her Nuptials solemnize Where neither Sin nor Death shall spoil her Joys Lord hear these groanings and some pity take On a poor gasping Soul which for thy sake From earthly home Freinds Joys and all would part To be with thee for ever where thou art O make me meet for this Translation and Then on this happy message death command In the mean time Lord shew thy self to me Till thou shalt please to take me up to thee So to mine Eyes thy glory still display That they may never look another way So let me taste the sweetness of thy Love That no allurements may my mind once move Quicken my longings and encrease that flame Which Heaven-wards lifts the Soul from whence it came Let flames of holy Love all others burn And opposition into fewel turn Let thy Sun-beams on a dark heart shine clear All our earth kindled fires will disappear In thee now let me find so much of Rest As may with more impatience fill my breast Till fill'd with thee the pains of love increase Till they shall in a full fruition cease So seize on me that we ne're more may part Till thou shalt take my Soul Lord keep my heart And dwell in me till I with thee shall dwell This Earth with thee is Heaven without thee Hell. ON DEATH I. TEll me some kind Spirit tell How comes death so terrible Thou who art already fled in triumph say Why the embodied Soul is so in love with Clay By what strange Magnetisms woo'd She so adheres to Flesh and Blood That fate must force her from that dull abode Or she would groveling lye Th' eternal Tenant of Mortality The wretch whom a malignant Fever fires And at each pore in liquid flame expires Cold death's refreshing hands to shun Doth to th' unkinder Doctor run For Juleps Blistrings and Phlebotomy And other medicinal Artillery The Fever 's vanquish'd and the Man is free But all this stir and torment only gains The priviledge of being rack'd again by these Or the severer pains Of sorne more merciless Disease Had not the Patient better fled to ' a Tomb Th' Asylum which distempers give but where they never come II. Old age it self which one would guess Should with a kind of lust Lye down and sleep in Dust Does yet the grand fatigue of life caress And gapes for its last dregs with unextinguishable Thirst When the dull eyes spirituous fire is lost Like cooling Metals fixt by Winters Frost When the bald Head depopulate and bare Looks white like some smooth Globe of Ice And of its once fair flourishing spring the Hair All that remains will not suffice The mighty summ to count To which the numerous Years that have gone or 't amount Yet even this feeble piece of Hums and Ha's That 's but the Monument of what he was Doth with his Cordials and Elixirs treat To make his wearied Pulses beat With momentary heat Still he abhors the dismal thoughts of Death Still on his guard he stands And fain he would defend his breath 'Gainst the great Conquerour's stroke though but with Crutches in his hands III. Strange Riddle of mysterious desire That Man should hope his vital fire Should Vestal prove and ne're expire That he should wish th' Eclipsed beams Like Arethusa under ground might stray In a decrepit Body's dark inglorious way And never disembogue their shining streams Into the glorious Ocean of inexhausted day Is this the Reason which we so much boast That sure unerring Guide No less our safety than our pride And would this have us in a tempest ride And endlesly be tost When one kind Shipwrack would convey us to our native Coast A coast where we might pleasure taste High with the gust of all peril past Where a perpetual spring of bliss Blooming in all the rich Luxuriancies Of never withering Ecstasis Satiates but does not cloy The ravish'd
to make Their beams set in array adorn the Skie As if they did Nights black approach defie This cold which freezeth us it does but clear The Air and make their brightness more appear Let these fair Stars be patterns unto thee And teachers too shewing what thou should'st be When sacred Providence the Heavenly Law Made up of Love and Wisdom shall withdraw That pleasing Sun-shine of prosperity Which from thy Cradle hath attended thee And by its Revolutions shall this state Into afflictions dark cold night translate Or if thy body sickness should confine To a dark room to languish there and pine In pain or malice should attempt thy fame And with black Slanders strive to cloud thy name Or what 's thought worse than either should thou be Stark naked stript and pincht by Poverty Or shouldst thou be for some great merit sent To a dark Prison or a Banishment Then muster all thy powers up O my Soul Whose shining may these Clouds of Night controul Let all these oppositions serve to raise But greater Trophies to thy virtue's Praise Virtue like valour is a thing ne're known If in encountring dangers never shown Now let a bright unspotted innocence In sweet Contentment Courage Patience Shed its mild beams let Hope and Joy display Lustres which turn night into lightsome day So shall the Darkness as a foil be friend Thy Beauty and a greator glory lend So thy Eclipse shall but attract more Eyes So from oppression thou shalt greater rise So by our treading thrives the Chamomil As if our feet did but manure the Soil Nor is affliction 's night the only case Wherein thy brightness should the dark shades chase But when my Soul temptations unto Sin Like foggy darkning mists shall from within Or from without arise striving to stain And fully thee with guilt then ler disdain Break forth in virtuous Sparklings and dispel Those noysome Vapours which arise from Hell Yea when at last that King of terrors Death Shall summon thee to yield thy utmost Breath And with its dismal shape strive to affright Thee with the horror of eternal night With an undaunted mind his Message hear With chearful smiling looks his presence hear Dread not his aspect turn not from his Dart But with resolvedness present thy Heart Thy Heart now burning most with Heavenly fire Which Heavenwards wafts thee there thou shalt expire True Phoenix in the flames of Love and Joy Death shall not hurt thee thou shalt it destroy And though to Mortal Eyes thou disappear Thou shalt shine brighter in an higher Sphear Even like these Stars thou n'ere shalt find a Night But shalt be swallowed up in greater Light. A Description of True Prayer whether with a Form or without GOD is a Spirit and in Spirit will By us be Worshipp'd But this Holy skill Of Worshipping aright is not an Art Of Words from Brain or Book but in the Heart 'T is plac'd An Heart that with the Lips doth move Venting the breathings of its inward Love. An Heart that 's awed with greatest Reverence Which may consist with filial Confidence An Heart whose ardent longings do aspire After those Blessings which our Tongues desire And puts upon endeavours to attain The grace we crave which else we crave in vain This Heart prays right such Cordial Prayers as these Profit our selves and do our Maker please Thus let us pray and when we end our days Prayer shall be chang'd for everlasting Praise How to get and keep a quiet Mind in all Conditions WOuldst thou enjoy an easie quiet mind Let thy own will to God's will be resign'd Follow his conduct serve him with delight With Pious awe live still as in his sight Banish fond Dreams of earthly happiness With Prudence use the Goods thou dost possess To Proud and Sickly Fancy give no place But follow Nature over-ruled by Grace Nature craves little Grace sometimes takes less Pride Avarice and Lust demand excess Examine well all earthly things and see Thy love but to their worth proportion'd be Let not excess of Joy corrupt thy mind Pleasures too luscious leave a sting behind Regarding this World as a Travellers Stage Seek the delight but of a Pilgrimage Converse with thy own mind get so much leisure As oft to entertain thy self with pleasure Whom Crouds of Men and business still employ Such not themselves nor Friends nor God enjoy In all enjoyments most God's goodness taste In all designs make him the first and last Let Joys and Pains both quicken holy Love And earnest longings after God above Never depend on things without thy power Things which chance may time quickly will devour Calmly forethink what evils may betide Not to torment thy self but to provide Courage and Comfort which attend the Wise Whilst common changes are no great surprise To rule the outward World never design This is God's work to rule thy Passions thine Doing thy part leave all to him who knows How all events most wisely to dispose All thy desires make known to God in Prayer And then alone on God cast all thy care Mind not the World's opinion much nor grow Unhappy meerly 'cause Men think thee so Their thoughts or words can leave no mark behind Thy self dost make th' impression on thy mind If thou feel real smart make it not more Anger and Grief do but increase the Sore Know that the greatest hurts are from within And misery proceeds only from Sin. Sin above all things flee and never cease Till thou with God thro' Christ hast made thy Peace And all thy Life pursue that innocence And usefulness which inward joyes dispence Grow in all Grace chiefly in Holy Love To God and Man which fits for Heaven above In hope whereof rejoyce and so partake The first-fruits of those joys which Heaven do make Yea now the Soul that with his God doth dwell By Faith and Love finds Heaven within a Cell Then wholly live on God make him thy all With Faith and Patience waiting for Death's call Thy Soul thus fixt nothing can much annoy Till God shall fix thee in eternal joy A PRESERVATIVE AGAINST Temptations to Sin. REmember when Temptations do begin Satan would have God would not have thee sin Satan and God about thee do contend Which do'st thou think thy Foe and which thy Friend Thy Flesh be sure with Satan soon will joyn Wilt thou with both against thy God combine O horrid and unheard of Treachery to close Against our dearest Friend with Mortal Foes Against our Friend who came to give us aid Lest we to those our Foes should be betray'd Shall Satan by thy help obtain the day Whil'st God as griev'd and conquer'd goes away Shall Satan be imbrac'd whilst God shall be Resisted so that he will flie from thee What shall the Spirit 's movings on our Hearts Be quencht and not the Devils fiery Darts Remember then the best and worst of sin Thy Flesh and Satan take delight therein Both thy sore Enemies But then