Shake hands with earth, and let your soul respect
Her joys no farther, than her joys reflect
Upon her Maker's glory; if thou swim
In wealth, see him in all; see all in him:
Sink'st thou in want, and is thy small cruse spent?
See him in want: enjoy him in content:
Conceiv'st him lodg'd in cross, or lost in pain?
In pray'r and patience find him out again:
Make Heav'n thy mistress, let no change remove
Thy royal heart; be fond, be sick of love :
What, if he stop his ear, or knit his brow?
At length he'll be as fond, as sick as thou:
Dart up thy soul in groans: thy secret groan
Shall pierce his ear, shall pierce his ear alone :
Dart up thy soul in vows: thy sacred vow
Shall find him out, where Heav'n alone shall know:
Dart up thy soul in sighs: thy whisp'ring sigh
Shall rouse his ears, and fear no list'ner nigh:
Send up thy groans, thy sighs, thy closet-vow;
There's none, there's none shall know but Heav'n and
Groans fresh'd with vows, and vows made salt with
Unscale his eyes, and scale his conquer'd ears:
Shoot up the bosom shafts of thy desire,
Feather'd with faith, and double-fork'd with fire;
And they will hit fear not, where Heav'n bids come, Heav'n 's never deaf, but when man's heart is dumb.
Illustration-Night. A Person groping; an Anjel in the distance.
With my soul have I desired thee in the night.-ISAIAH XXVI. 9.
GOOD God! what horrid darkness doth surround
My groping soul! how are my senses bound
In utter shades, and, muffled from the light,
Lurk in the bosom of eternal night!
The bold-faced lamp of Heav'n can set and rise,
And with his morning glory fill the eyes
Of gazing mortals; his victorious ray
Can chase the shadows, and restore the day:
Night's bashful empress, though she often wane,
As oft repeats her darkness, primes again,
And, with her circling horns, doth re-embrace
Her brother's wealth, and orbs her silver face.
But ah! my sun, deep swallow'd in his fall,
Is set, and cannot shine, nor rise at all:
My bankrupt wain1 can beg nor borrow light;
Alas! my darkness is perpetual night.
Falls have their risings, wanings have their primes,
And desp'rate sorrows wait their better times:
Ebbs have their floods, and autumns have their springs :
All states have changes hurried with the swings
Of chance and time, still riding to and fro
Terrestrial bodies, and celestial too.
How often have I vainly groped about,
With lengthen'd arms to find a passage out,
That I might catch those beams mine eye desires,
And bathe my soul in those celestial fires!
Like as the haggard, cloister'd in her mew,
To scour her downy robes, and to renew
Her broken flags, preparing to o'erlook
The tim'rous mallard at the sliding brook,
1. Wain: alluding to Charles' Wain.'
Jets oft from perch to perch; from stock to ground; 31
From ground to window; thus surveying round
Her dove-befeather'd prison, till at length
(Calling her noble birth to mind, and strength
Whereto her wing was born) her ragged beak
Nips off her jangling jesses, strives to break
Her jingling fetters, and begins to bate
At ev'ry glimpse, and darts at ev'ry grate :
E'en so, my weary soul, that long has been
An inmate in this tenement of sin,
Lock'd up by cloud-brow'd error, which invites
My cloister'd thoughts to feed on black delights,
Now scorns her shadows, and begins to dart
Her wing'd desires at thee, that only art
The sun she seeks, whose rising beams can fright
These dusky clouds that make so dark a night:
Shine forth, great glory, shine; that I may see
Both how to loathe myself, and honour thee:
But if my weakness force thee to deny
Thy flames, yet lend the twilight of thine eye:
If I must want those beams I wish, yet grant
That I, at least, may wish those beams I want.
There was a great dark cloud of vanity before mine eyes, so that I could not see the sun of justice and the light of truth: I being the son of darkness, was involved in darkness; I loved my darkness, because I knew not thy light: I was blind, and loved my blindness, and did walk from darkness to darkness; but, LORD, thou art my GOD, who hast led me from darkness and the shadow of death; hast called me into this glorious light, and behold, I see.— S. AUGUST. Soliloqu. Cap. xxxiii.
My soul, cheer up; what if the night be long?
Heav'n finds an ear when sinners find a tongue;
Thy tears are morning show'rs: Heav'n bids me say,
When Peter's cock begins to crow, 'tis day.
Illustration—An Idiot fantastically dressed—Jesus hiding at the sight his Face with a scarred hand.
O Lord, thou knowest my foolishness, and my sins are not hid from thee.-
PSALM lxix. 5.
SEE'ST thou this fulsome idiot, in what measure
He seems transported with the antic pleasure
Of childish baubles? Canst thou but admire
The empty fulness of his vain desire?
Canst thou conceive such poor delights as these
Can fill th' insatiate soul of man, or please
The fond aspect of his deluded eye?
Reader, such very fools art thou and I:
False puffs of honour; the deceitful streams
Of wealth; the idle, vain and empty dreams
Of pleasure, are our traffic, and ensnare
Our souls, the threefold subject of our care;
We toil for trash, we barter solid joys
For airy trifles, sell our Heaven for toys:
We catch at barley-grains, whilst pearls stand by
Despised; such very fools art thou and I.
Aim'st thou at honour? does not the idiot shake it
In his left hand? fond man, step forth and take it:
Or wouldst thou wealth? see now the fool presents thee
With a full basket, if such wealth contents thee:
Would'st thou take pleasure? If the fool unstride
His prancing stallion, thou may'st up and ride:
Fond man, such is the pleasure, wealth, and honour,
The earth affords such fools as doat upon her;
Such is the game whereat earth's idiots fly;
Such idiots, ah! such fools art thou and 1:
Had rebel man's fool-hardiness extended
No farther than himself, and there had ended,
It had been just; but thus enraged to fly
Upon th' eternal eyes of Majesty,
And drag the Son of Glory from the breast
Of his indulgent Father; to arrest
His great and sacred person; in disgrace
To spit and spawl upon his sun-bright face;
To taunt him with base terms, and, being bound,
To scourge his soft, his trembling sides; to wound
His head with thorns, his heart with human fears,
His hands with nails, and his pale flank with spears,
And then to paddle in the purer stream
Of his spilt blood, is more than most extreme.
Great Builder of Mankind, canst thou propound
All this to thy bright eyes, and not confound
Thy handy-work? Oh! canst thou choose but see,
That mad'st the eye? can aught be hid from thee?
Thou seest our persons, LORD, and not our guilt;
Thou seest not what thou may'st, but what thou wilt:
The hand that form'd us is enforc'd to be
A screen set up betwixt thy work and thee:
Look, look upon that hand, and thou shalt spy
An open wound, a thoroughfare for thine eye;
Or if that wound be closed, that passage be
Denied between thy gracious eye and me,
Yet view the scar; that scar will countermand
Thy wrath: oh read my fortune in thy hand!
Fools seem to abound in wealth, when they want all things; they seem to enjoy happiness, when indeed they are only most miserable; neither do they understand that they are deluded by their fancy, till they be delivered from their folly.-S. CHRYS. Hom. iv. in Joan.
By so much the more are we inwardly foolish, by how much we strive to seem outwardly wise.-S. GREG. in Mor.
Rebellious fool, what has thy folly done?
Controll'd thy GOD, and crucified his Son?
How sweetly has the LORD of life deceived thee!
Thou shedd'st his blood, and that shed blood has saved thee.
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