For which, as now on fire I am
To work them to their good,
So will I melt into a bath

To wash them in My blood."
With this He vanished out of sight,
And swiftly shrunk away;
And straight I callèd unto mind
That it was Christmas day.

A Child my Choice

LET folly praise that fancy loves, I praise and love that Child

Whose heart no thought, Whose tongue no word, Whose hand no deed defiled.

I praise Him most, I love Him best, all praise and love is His ;

While Him I love, in Him I live, and cannot live amiss.

Love's sweetest mark, laud's highest theme, man's most desired light,

To love Him life, to leave Him death, to live in Him delight.

He mine by gift, I His by debt, thus each to other due, First friend He was, best friend He is, all times will try Him true.

Though young, yet wise, though small, yet strong; though man, yet GOD He is ;

As wise He knows, as strong He can, as GOD He loves to bliss.

His knowledge rules, His strength defends, His love doth cherish all;

His birth our joy, His life our light, His death our end of thrall.

Alas! He weeps, He sighs, He pants, yet do His angels sing;

Out of His tears, His sighs and throbs, doth bud a joyful spring.

Almighty Babe! Whose tender arms can force all

foes to fly,
Correct my faults, protect my life, direct me when I

die.

Man's Civil War

My hovering thoughts would fly to heaven,

And quiet nestle in the sky;
Fain would my ship in Virtue's shore

Without remove at anchor lie.

shaj

love

vord,

But mounting thoughts are hauled down

With heavy poise of mortal load ;
And blust'ring storms deny my ship

In Virtue's haven secure abode.

stron

and

live

Carnd

an's

When inward eye to heavenly sights

Doth draw my longing heart's desire,
The world with jesses of delights

Would to her perch my thoughts retire.

temptela

lim

ue, ill

Fond Fancy trains to Pleasure's lure,

Though Reason stiffly do repine ;
Though Wisdom woo me to the saint,

Yet Sense would win me to the shrine.

wisten

Where Reason loathes, there Fancy loves,

And overrules the captive will ;
Foes senses are to Virtue's lore,

They draw the wit their wish to fill.

warfare

Need craves consent of soul to sense,

Yet divers bents breed civil fray ;
Hard hap where halves must disagree,
Or truce of halves the whole betray!

O cruel fight! where fighting friend

With love doth kill a favouring foe,
Where peace with sense is war with God,

And self-delight the seed of woe !
Dame Pleasure's drugs are steeped in sin,

Their sugared taste doth breed annoy ;
O fickle sense ! beware her gin,

Sell not thy soul to brittle joy!

RETIF

As Man's

AL Of fai Most

Scorn not the Least

The

To Of fis

If Dev

Whe

WHERE words are weak and foes encountring strong,

Where mightier do assault than do defend, The feebler part puts up enforced wrong,

And silent sees that speech could not amend. Yet higher powers must think, though they repine, When sun is set, the little stars will shine.

Mai

I Th

TO
H

While pike doth range the silly tench doth fly,

And crouch in privy creeks with smaller fish; Yet pikes are caught when little fish go by,

These fleet afloat while those do fill the dish. There is a time even for the worm to creep, And suck the dew while all her foes do sleep.

A

T

L
H

The merlin cannot ever soar on high,

Nor greedy greyhound still pursue the chase ;
The tender lark will find a time to fly,

And fearful hare to run a quiet race :
He that high growth on cedars did bestow,
Gave also lowly mushrooms leave to grow.

In Aman's pomp poor Mardocheus wept,

Yet God did turn his fate upon his foe;
The lazar pined while Dives' feast was kept,

Yet he to heaven, to hell did Dives go.
We trample grass, and prize the flowers of May,
Yet grass is green when flowers do fade away.

Look Home

RETIRED thoughts enjoy their own delights,
As beauty doth in self-beholding eye;
Man's mind a mirror is of heavenly sights,

A brief wherein all marvels summèd lie,
Of fairest forms and sweetest shapes the store,

Most graceful all, yet thought may grace them more.

The mind a creature is, yet can create,
To Nature's patterns adding higher skill ;
Of finest works wit better could the state
If force of wit had equal power of will:
Device of man in working hath no end;

What thought can think another thought can mend.

Man's soul of endless beauties image is,

Drawn by the work of endless skill and might;
This skilful might gave many sparks of bliss,
And to discern this bliss, a native light;
To frame God's image as His worth required
His might, His skill, His word and will conspired.

All that he had His image should present,
All that it should present he could afford,
To that he could afford his will was bent,
His will was followed with performing word;
Let this suffice, by this conceive the rest,-
He should, he could, he would, he did the best.

Times go by Turns

THE lopped tree in time may grow again,
Most naked plants renew both fruit and flower;
The sorriest wight may find release of pain,

The driest soil suck in some moist'ning shower;
Times go by turns, and chances change by course,
From foul to fair, from better hap to worse.

The sea of Fortune doth not ever flow,

She draws her favours to the lowest ebb; Her tide hath equal times to come and go,

Her loom doth weave the fine and coarsest web; No joy so great but runneth to an end, No hap so hard but may in fine amend.

Not always fall of leaf nor ever spring,

No endless night, yet not eternal day; The saddest birds a season find to sing,

The roughest storm a calm may soon allay : Thus with succeeding turns God tempereth all, That man may hope to rise, yet fear to fall.

A chance may win that by mischance was lost;

The net that holds no great, takes little fish; In some things all, in all things none are cross'd,

Few all they need, but none have all they wish; Unmingled joys here to no man befall : Who least, hath some; who most, hath never all.

Love's Servile Lot

LOVE mistress is of many minds

Yet few know whom they serve ;
They reckon least how little Love

Their service doth deserve.

The will she robbeth from the wit,

The sense from reason's lore ;
She is delightful in the rind,

Corrupted in the core.

She shroudeth Vice in Virtue's veil ;

Pretending good in ill;
She off'reth joy, affordeth grief,
A Kiss, where she doth kill.