Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A58474
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Religion, the only happiness a poem : in a letter to a friend.
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Dawes, William, Sir, 1671-1724.
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1694
(1694)
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Wing R903; ESTC R12713
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9,798
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38
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RELIGION THE Only Happiness A POEM In a Letter to a Friend Quid prius dicam solitis parentis Laudibus qui res hominum Deorum Qui mare terras variisque mundum Temperat Horis Horace Licensed February 23th 1693-94 LONDON Printed by J. R. for Thomas Speed at the Three Crowns near the Royal Exchange in Cornhil MDCXCIV The PREFACE THIS Poem when it was written first was far from being design'd for the Press and only sent me by my Friend as a Private Letter But on the perusal of it I found somewhat in it that affected me extremely which made me thinking it might be beneficial to the Public perswade him to let me have it Printed This I say only to free the Authour from the imputation of Vanity which perhaps some would be too apt to lay on him had he publisht it himself at a time when we have many Good Poets and most men are or at least think themselves tolerable Judges It may be easily objected against such a Poem in general that it is of no use seeing there has been already so many Excellent Treatises in Prose upon the same Subject But the Answer is as obvious for there are many who have not the Patience to read them over yet nevertheless will be drawn to a thing of this Nature under the Notion of Diverting themselves But I needed not to say this in its Defence having before me so Excellent an Example set by the Ingenious Authour of a late Poem Entitled An Anatomy of Atheisme As to this Essay in particular if I may be allow'd to give my Thoughts of it I take it to be as Poetical as the Subject will bear and much more Solid than the Poetry of our Age the more 's the Pity is generally found to be and I am very much deceiv'd if the Reader doth not find in it the two main Ends of Poetry Diversion and Information I shall say no more to its Advantage but submit it to the Public wishing that every one who reads it may find as much Benefit by it as I did for my own particular ADVERTISEMENT IN the Press and will be speedily Published a Book Entituled Conversation in Heaven Part 2d being Sacramental Devotions consisting of Meditations and Prayers Preparatory to a Worthy Receiving of the Holy Communion as also Meditations and Prayers suited to the several Parts both of Administring and Receiving it By Lawrence Smith LLD. Author of the First Part. Printed for Thomas Speed RELIGION THE Only Happiness In a Letter to a Friend ENough my Friend of Love and all its Cares False wandring hopes and true perplexing fears I 'le leave the Barren Soil and try to gain A happier Isle far distant in the main In which alone though Storms around it beat My wearied Soul can find a safe retreat She 's quite fatigu'd by her rough treatment here And by your help a fairer course wou'd steer Religion now be her ambitious Aim A worthy Object of her growing Flame And which alone deserves the Love I paid To a mistaken Goddess I my self had made Tell me by what strange pow'r I was deceiv'd How the false Story was by me believ'd That Happyness cou'd flow from Earthly Love And those weak Flames not kindled from above Which when they shou'd beyond the Clouds aspire And in our Souls produce a Sacred Fire Grow flat and languid with a meaner Joy In Childish Trifles Noble Souls employ Which ne'r can Satisfie and often Cloy Yet this I 'le grant no Crimes our Passions are While bounded in our Souls by a due Care And 't is at least a part of Happyness When bounteous Heav'n our just desires doth bless But when th' Impetuous Torrent bears away Our Anxious Souls into the Stormy Sea And no fair Banks can tempt us to the Coast But that one point from whence our Bark is tost If whilst just Heav'ns but one request deny We crosly slight what ever else w' enjoy Then sure 't is Sin and we 're ingrateful Fools Base to our God and false to our own Souls Religion shews a happier path if we Not vainly slight our own Felicity Than all the false Delights of Sin produce Those treach'rous pleasures which so oft abuse Our easie Sences and thus steal their way Thro' those false Guards which our weak Souls betray They never dare attack the Nobler part With open Force but slily gain the Heart For soon before our unbrib'd Reason all Their baffled Arguments with ease wou'd fall Reason wou'd teach us 't is not Happiness To have a short-liv'd and uncertain Bliss A Joy so mean without Variety It wont so much as bare Diversion be And oh how short are all the Joys of Vice For which we pay such a Prodigious Price Our Souls Eternal Torments must endure For those false Pleasures which our Sins procure In a few hours the Gay Delusion 's fled By which poor Man is to Destruction led Had we the brittle Thread of Destiny In our own hands and cou'd prolong our Day To reach the Space which our Fore-Fathers knew Ere Luxury and thence Diseases grew Nay cou'd we spin it out to make it stretch To the last Limits Time it self shall reach Come to its end it there must cease to be Quite swallowed up in an Eternity And what proportion has one grain of Sand To the unnumber'd Myriads on the Strand Times longest Date will not so much appear If with Eternity you it compare For Finites ne'r so much increas't will be But Finites still and not Eternity But how far short of this must we descend If we to th' common rate of Life attend Yet there has no Millennian State been tri'd 'T is rare one does a Century abide How few to what we call Old Age arrive How small a part of scanty time They live Ask one whose Crutches keep him from the Grave If yet enough of Toilsome Life he have If he 'd resign th' Expiring Snuff unforc'd Consent his parting Soul shou'd be Divorc'd Not yet he cries he hopes a while to live That he may now his Mispent Time retrieve He has not done his Work and feign wou'd stay In all his Pray'rs he adds another Day That Life is short which none can satisfie And none we find are willing yet to die For that Poor Wretch who hasts Untimely Death And who unaskt throws back his hated Breath 'T is not that length of Life 's a Burthen Grown Some mean Despair does urge him to be gone He falsly say's he 's weary of his Life He 'l not quit that if you 'l remove his Grief And hence my Friend the Sinner must deduce Not a small part unfit for his abuse Childhood and Age he must of force resign In one he knows not t'other cannot sin Childhood a Thousand soft Amusements has Diverting Pleasures Recreating Plays With harmless Converse they their time beguile Their Art 's a moving Tear and pleasing Smile With these Endearments they their wishes gain Whose Art
and Love create no tenderness We unaffected with their Charms remain And never must enjoy their sweets again But tho' Death shou'd not us of them deprive Mifortunes may attend us while we live God oft see 's good in his wise providence Some severe strokes on Sinners to dispence To leave the Will and take the pow'r away Yet scourge that Will which seeks to disobey There 's one is not to Wealth and Honour born Another had them but they 're from him torn And here 's a third whose want and miseries Flow from th' excess of some Expensive Vice Others are tortur d by some sad Disease Perhaps th' effect of their own Wickedness How many various seeming accidents Destroy our Joys occasion discontents We find one Disappointment yeild more grief Than 's recompenc'd by all the Joys of life And yet how many do they meet withal VVho follow Vice at her delusive call Besides that grand Mistake of Happiness What e're they find this they are sure to Miss How few are satisfied with their own store And cease t' extend their pray'rs to Heav'n for more As few are with their State of Life content They feign wou'd change when chang'd again repent The Soldier murmurs at his toil and pains And often wishes for the Merchants gains Whilst he regrets a loss he has sustain'd And wishes ere it went he ' had purchas'd Land The Country Squire is angry his Estate Shou'd waste so soon to make his Lawyer Fat. Whose busie head wishes retired ease Thus nothing that's our own our minds can please Thus Sins Uncertain Short-liv'd pleasures wast In the enjoyment but the sting will last Religion yields a Solid Lasting Bliss A perfectly compleated Happiness Calms all the ' wild disorders of the Soul Our head-strong Passions Mildly doth controul Informs the Mind and give 's it Light to see Its own lost State and wretched Misery Takes off the fair disguise from ugly Vice Exposing to the Soul its Nakedness Correct's the Will and teaches it to move By earnest Wishes and an ardent Love To those blest object which alone can claim The full expressions of its highest Flame And whate're Storms we meet with from without All 's still within there 's not an anxious doubt No whispring fear that shou'd disturb our ease But all within 's Serenity and Peace Great Pilot Vertue will our Vessel guide A steady Course along the Rolling Tide Between the fatal Rocks of black Despair And Dismal Sands of Doubt will gently steer Tho' Winds without a mighty Tempest raise And Gloomy Clouds obscure the Darkned Skies Tho' Death do on the foaming Billows ride That beat our harrass't bark on e'ry side Tho' fatal Omens hover in the Air And not a Spark of Heav'nly Light appear Yet we 're secur'd at last our Port to gain Through all the Threatning Dangers of the Main And though the Voyage troublesome appear 'T is better vent'ring out than staying here Where all the profit that our labours gain Is Disappointment here and future Pain The only Fruits the Barren Soil of Vice Does e're produce are certain Miseries But in the Storm our Souls are sure to find The blest Content of a Religious Mind That Vertue only makes us happy here Is prov'd by giving the Souls Character An Immaterial and Immortal Frame A Noble Spark of the Eternal Flame An uncompounded Essence all Divine All Bright and Fair till it was stain'd by Sin And though its Primitive Beauty now is gone And all its Glories faded pale and wan Tho' the Bright Image of our God's eras'd And all its Moral Holiness defac'd Yet 't is preserv'd by the Almightie's hand And will for ever be by him sustain'd Judgment the Souls bright Eye receives what e're The sev'ral Senses to the Mind confer From those Ideas various Reasons draws Which form'd to Propositions are its Laws These by an unknown power sway the Will Intending Good but oft mistaking Ill. That is alas one sad effect of Sin To cloud the Soul and leave a night within Whence by the sad mistake of Objects we Blind Homage pay to a false Deity Hence our unbounded Vicious passions flow Here our Misfortunes their effects we owe. Our various Passions always are inclin'd As diff'rent Objects press upon the Mind To apprehended Good the Will is Love To Ill it does our Violent Hatred move As these are Past or Present or to Come We in our Breasts give other Passions room Or else perhaps the Passion is the same Only distinguish't by a diff'rent Name They 're Joy or Grief to present Good or Ill And if to come them Hope or Fear we stile When mixt Doubt does our Harrass't Souls torment And Jealousie provokes to Discontent Pleasure from things agreeable does flow We call it Happiness when lasting too 'T is but th' imperfect Shadow of a Bliss That fades or cloy's such are the Fruits of Vice Which under specious Names the sence amuse But the design is only to abuse Base Avarice Good-Husbandry we stile The Prodigal a Gen'rous Soul doth fill The Lustful Satyr a kind Lover is The ugly Name of Whore's soften'd to Miss The Brutish Drunkards Bon Companions are The Scoffing Atheist Witty Debonair Thus Vice by Skulking in the fair Disguise Of Vertue does her greater worth confess Vertue the Solid Beauty of the Mind Whence we alone true satisfaction find Vertue does Nobler Pleasures for us choose Does greater thoughts into our Souls infuse A God's propos'd the Object of our Love To whom our strongest Passions ought to move Whose Goodness equals his Omnipotence Whose Attributes and Essence are immense And who alone our craving Souls supplies With the full streams of perfect Happiness Ne'r ceasing Streams whose endless Flux shall vie With the duration of Eternity O what are all the Joys of Vice that they Shou'd our weak Souls to Misery betray When Vertue stands with all her brighter Charms And Wooes us to be Happy in her Arms. Without Disguise she does her self Display All soft and Charming Beautiful and Gay No anxious Cares are lodg'd within her Breast No Doubts or Fears disturb her Sacred rest And all that love her are compleatly blest A Vertuous Mind slights all the Baits of Sense Denies them their precarious influence Repells the fond assaults of Baffled Vice Doth both her Charms and Menaces Despise Neither Deluded by her proffer'd Joy Nor Frighted though she threaten to Destroy Not all the Racking Tortures Men or Hell Cou'd e're invent or make poor Wretches feel Can once make Vertue be by him refus'd Who once resolv'dly had her Cause espous'd She has the Art in Torments to support And make pale Death and griping Pain our Sport Can unseen Cordials to the mind present When the excessive Torture makes her faint How many have for their Religion Died How many more are ready still to bleed The first that ever trod the paths of Death In Vertue 's Service lost his Well-spent breath Since e'ry Age and Clime has