Billeder på siden
PDF
ePub
[blocks in formation]

The HAZARD of loving the CREATURES.

WHERE-E'ER my flattering paffions rove,

I find a lurking snare;

'Tis dangerous to let loose our love

Beneath th' Eternal Fair.

Souls whom the tie of friendship binds,
And partners of our blood,
Seize a large portion of our minds,

And leave the lefs for God.

Different ages have their different airs and fashions of writing. It was much more the fashion of the age, when these poems were written, to treat of divine fubjects in the ftyle of Solomon's Song than it is at this day, which will afford fome apology for the writer, in his younger years.

[blocks in formation]

Nature has foft but powerful bands,

And reafon fhe controls;

While children with their little hands

Hang clofeft to our fouls.

Thoughtless they act th' old ferpent's part;
What tempting things they be!

Lord, how they twine about our heart,
And draw it off from thee!

Our hafty wills rush blindly on
Where rifing paffion rolls,

And thus we make our fetters strong
To bind our flavish fouls.

Dear Sovereign, break these fetters off,

And set our spirits free;

God in himself is bliss enough,
For we have all in Thee.

C

DESIRING TO LOVE CHRIST.

OME, let me love or is thy mind
Harden'd to ftone, or froze to ice?

I fee the bleffed Fair-one bend

And stoop t' embrace me from the skies!

O! 'tis a thought would melt a rock,
And make a heart of iron move,
That thofe fweet lips, that heavenly look,
Should feek and wish a mortal love!

I was a traitor doom'd to fire,
Bound to fuftain eternal pains;

He flew on wings of strong defire,
Affum'd my guilt, and took my chains.
Infinite grace! Almighty charms!
Stand in amaze, ye whirling skies!
Jefus the God, with naked arms,
Hangs on a Cross of Love, and dies.

Did pity ever stoop so lów,
Dress'd in divinity and blood?
Was ever rebel courted fo

In groans of an expiring God?

Again he lives; and fpreads his hands,
Hands that were nail'd to torturing smart;
By these dear wounds, fays he; and stands
And prays to clasp me to his heart.

Sure I muft love; or are my ears
Still deaf, nor will my paffion move?
Then let me melt this heart to tears;
This heart shall yield to death or love.

IF

The HEART given away.

F there are paffions in my foul, (And paffions fure they be) Now they are all at thy control, My Jefus, all for Thee.

If

B 3

If love, that pleafing power, can rest
In hearts fo hard as mine,

Come, gentle Saviour, to my breast,
For all my love is thine.

Let the gay world, with treacherous art
Allure my eyes in vain:

I have convey'd away my heart,
Ne'er to return again.

I feel my warmest paffions dead
To all that earth can boaft;
This foul of mine was never made
For vanity and duft.

Now I can fix my thoughts above,
Amidst their flattering charms,
Till the dear Lord that hath my love
Shall call me to his arms.

So Gabriel, at his King's command,
From yon celeftial hill,

Walks downward to our worthlefs land,
His foul points upward still.

He glides along my mortal things,
Without a thought of love,

Fulfils his task, and spreads his wings
To reach the realms above.

MEDITA

MEDITATION in a GROVE.

WEET Muse, descend and bless the shade,

SWE

And bless the evening grove;

Business, and noise, and day, are fled,

And every care, but love.

But hence, ye wanton young
Mine is a purer flame;
No Phyllis fhall infect the air,
With her unhallow'd name.

Jefus has all my powers poffest,

and fair,

My hopes, my fears, my joys:
He, the dear Sovereign of my breast,
Shall still command my voice.

Some of the faireft choirs above
Shall flock around my fong,
With joy to hear the name they love
Sound from a mortal tongue.

His charms fhall make my numbers flow,
And hold the falling floods,

While filence fits on every bough,

And bends the liftening woods.

I'll carve our paffion on the bark

And every wounded tree

Shall drop and bear fome mystic mark

That Jefus dy'd for me.

[blocks in formation]
« ForrigeFortsæt »