The following Poems of this Book are peculiarly dedicated to Divine Love*. The Hazard of loving the Creatures. WHERE-E'ER my flattering paffions rove, I find a lurking fnare; 'Tis dangerous to let loose our love Beneath th' Eternal Fair. Souls whom the tie of friendship binds, And leave the lefs for God. Nature has foft but powerful bands, And reafon fhe controls; While children with their little hands Thoughtless they act th' old ferpent's part What tempting things they be ! Our hafty wills rush blindly on And thus we make our fetters strong To bind our flavish fouls. *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 style of Solomon's Song than it is at this day, which will afford fome apology for the writer, in his younger years. K 2 Dear Dear Sovereign, break these fetters off, And fet our fpirits free; God in himself is blifs enough, For we have all in Thee. Defiring to love CHRIST. COME, 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, That those sweet lips, that heavenly look, I was a traitor doom'd to fire, Infinite grace! Almighty charms ! Did pity ever ftoop fo low, Again he lives; and spreads his hands, Sure I must love; or are my ears IF The HEART given away. F there are paffions in my foul, If love, that pleasing power, can rest Let the gay world, with treacherous art I have convey'd away my heart, Ne'er to return again. I feel my warmest passions dead This foul of mine was never made For vanity and duft. Now I can fix my thoughts above, So Gabriel, at his King's command, Walks downward to our worthless land, He glides along my mortal things, Without a thought of love, Fulfils his task, and fpreads his wings To reach the realms above. MEDITATION in a GROVE. WEET Mufe, defcend and blefs the fhade, SWEE And blefs the evening grove; Bufinefs, and noise, and day, are fled, And every care, but love. But hence, ye wanton young No Phyllis fhall infect the air, and fair, Jefus has all my powers poffeft, My hopes, my fears, my joys: 5 Some Some of the fairest choirs above Shall flock around my fong, With joy to hear the name they love His charms fhall make my numbers flow, And bends the liftening woods. I'll carve our paffion on the bark, Shall drop and bear fome myftic mark That Jefus dy'd for me. The fwains fhall wonder when they read, That heaven itself came down, and bled The Faireft and the Only Beloved. HONOUR to that diviner ray That first allur'd my eyes away From every mortal fair; All the gay things that held my fight Die at the morning-star. |