crown her Age which had adorn'd her Youth Great without Pride a Soul which still could be Humble and high full of calm Majesty She kept true state within and could not buy Her Satisfaction with her Charity Fortune or Birth ne're rais'd her Mind which stood Not on her being rich but doing good Oblig'd the World but yet would scorn to be Paid with Requitals Thanks or Vanity How oft did she what all the World adore Make the Poor happy with her useful store So general was her Bounty that she gave Equality to all before the Grave By several means she different persons ty'd Who by her Goodness onely were ally'd Her Vertue was her Temper not her Fit Fear'd nothing but the Crimes which some commit Scorn'd those dark Arts which pass for Wisdom now Nor to a mean ignoble thing could bow And her vast Prudence had no other end But to forgive a Foe endear a Friend To use but slight the World and fixt above Shine down in beams of Piety and Love Why should we then by poor and just complaint Prove envious Sinners 'cause she is a Saint Close then the Monument let not a Tear That may prophane her Ashes now appear For her best Obsequies are that we be Prudent and Good Noble and Sweet as she LXIV A Friend 1. LOve Nature's Plot this great Creation's Soul The Being and the Harmony of things Doth still preserve and propagate the whole From whence Mans Happiness Safety springs The earliest whitest blessedst Times did draw From her alone their universal Law 2. Friendship 's an Abstract of this noble Flame 'T is Love refin'd and purg'd from all its dross The next to Angels Love if not the same As strong in passion is though not so gross It antedates a glad Eternity And is an Heaven in Epitome 3. Nobler then Kindred or then Marriage-band Because more free Wedlock-felicity It self doth onely by this Union stand And turns to Friendship or to Misery Force or Design Matches to pass may bring But Friendship doth from Love and Honour spring 4. If Souls no Sexes have for Men t' exclude Women from Friendship 's vast capacity Is a Design injurious or rude Onely maintain'd by partial tyranny Love is allow'd to us and Innocence And noblest Friendships do proceed from thence 5. The chiefest thing in Friends is Sympathy There is a Secret that doth Friendship guide Which makes two Souls before they know agree Who by a thousand mixtures are ally'd And chang'd and lost so that it is not known Within which breast doth now reside their own 6. Essential Honour must be in a Friend Not such as every breath fans to and fro But born within is its own judge and end And dares not sin though sure that none should know Where Friendship 's spoke Honesty 's understood For none can be a Friend that is not Good 7. Friendship doth carry more then common trust And Treachery is here the greatest sin Secrets deposed then none ever must Presume to open but who put them in They that in one Chest lay up all their stock Had need be sure that none can pick the Lock 8. A breast too open Friendship does not love For that the others Trust will not conceal Nor one too much reserv'd can it approve It s own Condition this will not reveal We empty Passions for a double end To be refresh'd and guarded by a Friend 9. Wisdom and Knowledge Friendship does require The first for Counsel this for Company And though not mainly yet we may desire For complaisance and Ingenuity Though ev'ry thing may love yet 't is a Rule He cannot be a Friend that is a Fool. 10. Discretion uses Parts and best knows how And Patience will all Qualities commend That serves a need best but this doth allow The Weaknesses and Passions of a Friend We are not yet come to the Quire above Who cannot Pardon here can never Love 11. Thick Waters shew no Images of things Friends are each others Mirrours and should be Clearer then Crystal or the Mountain Springs And free from Clouds Design or Flattery For vulgar Souls no part of Friendship share Poets and Friends are born to what they are 12. Friends should observe chide each others Faults To be severe then is most just and kind Nothing can 'scape their search who know the thoughts This they should give and take with equal Mind For Friendship when this Freedom is deny'd Is like a Painter when his hands are ty'd 13. A Friend should find out each Necessity And then unask'd reliev't at any rate It is not Friendship but Formality To be desir'd for Kindness keeps no state Of Friends he doth the Benefactour prove That gives his Friend a means t' express his Love 14. Absence doth not from Friendship 's right excuse They who preserve each others heart and fame Parting can ne're divide it may diffuse As Liquors which asunder are the same Though Presence help'd them at the first to greet Their Souls know now without those aids to meet 15. Constant and Solid whom no storms can shake Nor death unfix a right Friend ought to be And if condemned to survive doth make No second choice but Grief and Memory But Friendship 's best Fate is when it can spend A Life a Fortune all to serve a Friend LXV L'Accord du Bien 1. ORder by which all things are made And this great World's foundation laid Is nothing else but Harmony Where different parts are brought t' agree 2. As Empires are still best maintain'd Those ways which first their Greatness gain'd So in this universal Frame What made and keeps it is the same 3. Thus all things unto peace do tend Even Discords have it for their end The cause why Elements do fight Is but their Instinct to Unite 4. Musick could never please the Sense But by United excellence The sweetest Note which Numbers know If struck alone would tedious grow 5. Man the whole World's Epitome Is by creation Harmony 'T was Sin first quarrel'd in his breast Then made him angry with the rest 6. But Goodness keeps that Unity And loves its own society So well that seldom it is known One real Worth to dwell alone 7. And hence it is we Friendship call Not by one Vertue 's name but all Nor is it when bad things agree Thought Union but Conspiracy 8. Nature and Grace such enemies That when one fell t'other did rise Are now by Mercy even set As Stars in Constellations met 9. If Nature were it self a sin Her Author God had guilty been But Man by sin contracting stain Shall purg'd from that be clear again 10. To prove that Nature's excellent Even Sin it self's an argument Therefore we Nature's stain deplore Because it self was pure before 11. And Grace destroys not but refines Unveils our Reason then it shines Restores what was deprest by sin The fainting beam of God within 12. The main spring Judgment rectify'd Will all the lesser Motions guide To
pursued A Wit so strong that who would it define Will need one ten times more acute then mine Yet rul'd so that its Vigour manag'd thus Becomes at once graceful and generous Whose Honour has so delicate a Sense Who alwayes pardon never give offence Who needing nothing yet to all are kind Who have so large a Heart so rich a Mind Whose Friendship still 's of the obliging side And yet so free from tyranny and Pride Who do in love like Jonathan descend And strip your self to cloath your happy friend Whose kindness and whose modesty is such T' expect so little and deserve so much Who have such candid worth such dear concern Where we so much may love and so much learn Whose very wonder though it fills and shines It never to an ill excess declines But all are found so sweetly opposite As are in Titian's Pieces Shade and Light That he that would your great Description try Though he write well would be as lost as I Who of injurious Zele convicted stand To draw you with so bold and bad a hand But that like other Glories I presume You will enlighten where you might consume XLVI Parting with Lucasia Jan. 13. 1657. A Song 1. WEll we will doe that rigid thing Which makes Spectators think we part Though Absence hath for none a sting But those who keep each others heart 2. And when our Sense is dispossest Our labouring Souls will heave and pant And grasp for one anothers breast Since they their Conveyances want 3. Nay we have felt the tedious smart Of absent Friendship and do know That when we die we can but part And who knows what we shall doe now 4. Yet I must go we will submit And so our own Disposers be For while we noblier suffer it We triumph o're Necessity 5. By this we shall be truly great If having other things o'recome To make our victory complete We can be Conquerors at home 6. Nay then to meet we may conclude And all Obstructions overthrow Since we our Passion have subdu'd Which is the strongest thing I know XLVII Against Pleasure Set by Dr. Coleman 1. THere 's no such thing as Pleasure 'T is all a perfect Cheat Which does but shine and disappear Whose Charm is but Deceit The empty bribe of yielding Souls Which first betrays and then controuls 2. 'T is true it looks at distance fair But if we do approch The fruit of Sodom will impair And perish at a touch It being then in phancy less And we expect more then possess 3. For by our Pleasures we are cloy'd And so Desire is done Or else like Rivers they make wide The Channel where they run And either way true bliss destroys Making Us narrow or our Joys 4. We covet Pleasure easily But it not so possess For many things must make it be But one way makes it less Nay were our state as we could chuse it 'T would be consum'd for fear to lose it 5. What art thou then thou winged Air More swift then winged Fame Whos 's next successour is Despair And its attendant Shame Th' Experience-Prince then reason had Who said of Pleasure It is mad XLVIII Out of Mr. More 's Cop. Conf. THrice happy he whose Name is writ above Who doeth good though gaining infamy Requiteth evil turns with hearty love And cares not what befalls him outwardly Whose worth is in himself and onely bliss In his pure Conscience which doth nought amiss Who placeth pleasure in his purged Soul And Vertuous Life his treasure does esteem Who can his Passions master and controul And that true Lordly Manliness doth deem Who from this World himself hath dearly quit Counts nought his own but what lives in his sp'rit So when his Spirit from this vain World shall flit It bears all with it whatsoe're was dear Unto it self passing an easie Fit As kindly Corn ripened comes out of th' Ear. Careless of what all idle men will say He takes his own and calmly goes his way Eternal Reason Glorious Majesty Compar'd to whom what can be said to be Whose Attributes are Thee who art alone Cause of all various things and yet but One Whose Essence can no more be search'd by Man Then Heav'n thy Throne be grasped with a Span. Yet if this great Creation was design'd To several ends fitted for every kind Sure Man the World's Epitome must be Form'd to the best that is to study thee And as our Dignity 't is Duty too Which is summ'd up in this to know and doo These comely rowes of Creatures spell thy Name Whereby we grope to find from whence they came By thy own Change of Causes brought to think There must be one then find that highest Link Thus all created Excellence we see Is a resemblance saint and dark of thee Such shadows are produc'd by the Moon-beams Of Trees or Houses in the running streams Yet by Impressions born with us we find How good great just thou art how unconfin'd Here we are swallow'd up and daily dwell Safely adoring what we cannot tell All we know is thou art supremely good And dost delight to be so understood A spicy Mountain on the Universe On which thy richest Odours do disperse But as the Sea to fill a Vessel heaves More greedily then any Cask receives Besieging round to find some gap in it Which will a new Infusion admit So dost thou covet that thou mayst dispence Upon the empty World thy Influence Lov'st to disburse thy self in kindness Thus The King of Kings waits to be gracious On this account O God enlarge my heart To entertain what thou wouldst fain impart Nor let that Soul by several titles thine And most capacious form'd for things Divine So nobly meant that when it most doth miss 'T is in mistaken pantings after Bliss Degrade it self in sordid things delight Or by prophaner mixtures lose its right Oh! that with fixt unbroken thoughts it may Admire the light which does obscure the day And since 't is Angels work it hath to doe May its composure be like Angels too When shall these clogs of Sense and Fancy break That I may hear the God within me speak When with a silent and retired art Shall I with all this empty hurry part To the Still Voice above my Soul advance My light and joy 's plac'd in his Countenance By whose dispence my Soul to such frame brought Maytame each trech'rous fix each scat'ringthought With such distinctions all things here behold And so to separate each dross from gold That nothing my free Soul may satisfie But t' imitate enjoy and study thee XLIX To Mrs. M. A. upon Absence Set by Mr. Hen. Lawes 1. T Is now since I began to die Four Moneths and more yet gasping live Wrapp'd up in sorrow do I lie Hoping yet doubting a Reptieve Adam from Paradise expell'd Just such a wretched being held 2. 'T is not thy Love I fear to lose That will in spight of absence hold But 't is the benefit
be deform'd confest Grows beauteous in its union with the rest So Providence like Wisdom we allow For what created once does govern now And the same Fate that seems to one Reverse Is necessary to the Universe All these particular and various things Link'd to their Causes by such secret Springs Are held so fast and govern'd by such Art That nothing can out of its order start The World's God's watch where nothing is so smal But makes a part of what composes all Could the least Pin be lost or else displac'd The World would be disorder'd and defac'd It beats no Pulse in vain but keeps its time And undiscern'd to its own height doth climb Strung first and daily wound up by his hand Who can its motions guide or understand No secret cunning then nor multitude Can Providence divert cross or delude And her just full decrees are hidden things Which harder are to find then Births of Springs Yet all in various Consorts fitly sound And by their Discords Harmony compound Hence is that Order Life and Energy Whereby Forms are preserv'd though Matters die And shifting dress keep their own living seat So that what kills this does that propagate This made the ancient Sage in Rapture cry That sure the World had full Eternity For though it self to Time and Fate submit He 's above both who made and governs it And to each Creature hath such Portion lent As Love and Wisdom sees convenient For he 's no Tyrant nor delights to grieve The Beings which from him alone can live He 's most concern'd and hath the greatest share In man and therefore takes the greatest care To make him happy who alone can be So by Submission and Conformity For why should Changes here below surprize When the whole World its resolution tries Where were our Springs our Harvests pleasant use Unless Vicisitude did them produce Nay what can be so wearisome a pain As when no Alterations entertain To lose to suffer to be sick and die Arrest us by the same Necessity Nor could they trouble us but that our mind Hath its own glory unto dross confin'd For outward things remove not from their place Till our Souls run to beg their mean embrace Then doating on the choice make it our own By placing Trifles in th' Opinion's Throne So when they are divorc'd by some new cross Our Souls seem widow'd by the fatal loss But could we keep our Grandeur and our state Nothing below would seem unfortunate But Grace and Reason which best succours bring Would with advantage manage every thing And by right Judgment would prevent our moan For losing that which never was our own For right Opinion's like a Marble grott In Summer cool and in the Winter hot A Principle which in each Fortune lives Bestowing Catholick Preservatives 'T is this resolves there are no losses where Vertue and Reason are continued there The meanest Soul might such a Fortune share But no mean Soul could so that Fortune bear Thus I compose my thoughts grown insolent As th' Irish harper doth his Instrument Which if once struck doth murmure and complain But the next touch will silence all again LXIX 2 Cor. 5. 19. God was in Christ Reconciling the World to himself WHen God contracted to Humanity Could sigh and suffer could be sick and die When all the heap of Miracles combin'd To form the greatest which was save Mankind Then God took stand in Christ studying a way How to repair the Ruin'd World's decay His Love Pow'r Wisdom must some means procure His Mercy to advance Justice secure And since Man in such Misery was hurl'd It cost him more to save then made the World Oh! what a desp'rate load of sins had we When God must plot for our Felicity When God must beg us that he may forgive And dy himself before Mankind could live And what still are we when our King in vain Begs his lost Rebels to be Friends again What flouds of Love proceed from Heaven's smile At once to pardon and to reconcile Oh wretched Men who dare your God confine Like those who separate what he does joyn Go stop the Rivers with an Infant 's hand Or count with your Arithmetick the Sand Forbid the Light the fertile Earth perswade To shut her bosome from the Lab'rer's Spade And yield your God if these cannot be done As universal as the Sea or Sun What God hath made he therefore cannot hate For 't is one act to Love and to Create And he 's too perfect full of Majesty To need additions from our Misery He hath a Father's not a Tyrant's joy 'T is equal Pow'r to save as to destroy Did there ten thousand Worlds to ruine fall One God could save one Christ redeem them all Be silent then ye narrow Souls take heed Lest you restrain the Mercy you will need But O my Soul from these be different Imitate thou a nobler Precedent As God with open Arms the World does woe Learn thou like God to be enlarged too As he begs thy consent to pardon thee Learn to submit unto thy Enemy As he stands ready thee to entertain Be thou as forward to return again As he was Crucify'd for and by thee Crucifie thou what caus'd his Agony And like to him be mortify'd to sin Die to the World as he dy'd for it then LXX The World WE falsly think it due unto our Friends That we should grieve for their untimely ends He that surveys the World with serious eyes And strips her from her gross and weak disguise Shall find 't is Injury to mourn their Fate He onely dies untimely who dies late For if 't were told to Children in the Womb To what a Stage of Mischiefs they must come Could they foresee with how much toil and sweat Men court that guilded nothing being Great What pains they take not to be what they seem Rating their bliss by others false esteem And sacrificing their Content to be Guilty of grave and serious Vanity How each Condition hath its proper Thorns And what one man admires another scorns How frequently their Happiness they miss And so far from agreeing what it is That the same Person we can hardly find Who is an hour together in one mind Sure they would beg a Period of their breath And what we call their Birth would count their Death Mankind are mad for none can live alone Because their Joys stand by comparison And yet they quarrel at Society And strive to kill they know not whom nor why We all live by Mistake delight in Dreams Lost to our selves and dwelling in Extremes Rejecting what we have though ne're so good And prizing what we never understood Compar'd t' our boisterous inconstancy Tempests are calm and Discords harmony Hence we reverse the World and yet do find The God that made can hardly please our Mind We live by chance and slip into Events Have all of Beasts except their Innocence The Soul which no man's pow'r can reach