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NICOCLES.

Physicians, of all men, are most happy ; what good success soever they have, the world proclaimeth; and what faults they commit, the earth covereth.

EPIG. 4.

My purse being heavy, if my light appear
But dim, quack comes to make all clear;
Quack, leave thy trade; thy dealings are not right,
Thou tak'st our weighty gold to give us light.

PSALM

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The Winds with all their Breath may blow, in vain,

For by thy help Iam reviv'd again.

O

PSALM XCI. 11.

And he will give his angels charge over thee.

1.

HOW mine eyes could please themselves, and
Perpetual ages in this precious sight!

How I could woo eternity, to lend

My wasting day, an antidote for night!
And how my flesh could with my flesh contend,
That views this object with no more delight!

[spend

My work is great, my taper spends too fast. : "Tis all I have, and soon would out or waste, Did not this blessed screen protect it from this blast.

2.

O, I have lost the jewel of my soul,

And I must find it out, or I must die: Alas! my sin-made darkness doth controul The bright endeavor of my careful eye: I must go search and ransack ev'ry hole ; Nor have I other light to seek it by :

O if this light be spent, my work not done, My labor's worse than lost; my jewel's gone, And I am quite forlorn, and I am quite undone.

3.

You blessed angels, you that do enjoy
The full fruition of eternal glory,
Will you be pleased to fancy such a toy
As man, and quit your glorious territory,
And stoop to earth, vouchsafing to employ
Your care to guard the dust that lies before ye?
Disdain you not these lumps of dying clay,
That for your pains do oftentimes repay
Neglect, if not disdain, and send you griev'd away?

This

4.

This taper of our lives, that once was plac'd
In the fair suburbs of eternity,
Is now, alas! confin'd to ev'ry blast,

And turn'd a maypole for the sporting fly;
And will you, sacred spirits, please to cast
Your care on us, and lend a gracious eye?
How had this slender inch of taper been

Blasted and blaz'd, had not this heav'nly screen Curb'd the proud blast, and timely stepp'd between!

5.

O goodness, far transcending the report

Of lavish tongues! too vast to comprehend!
Amazing quill, how far dost thou come short
Texpress expressions that so far transcend!
You blessed courtiers of th' eternal court,
Whose full-mouth'd hallelujahs have no end,
Receive that world of praises that belongs
To your great Sov'reign; fill your holy tongues
With our hosanha's mix'd with your seraphic songs.

S. BERN

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