The talion law was in request,

And chanc'ry courts were kept in ev'ry breast:
Abused statutes had no tenters,

;

And men could deal secure without indentures :
There was no peeping hole to clear
The wittal's eye from his incarnate fear
There were no lustful cinders then
To broil the carbonado'd hearts of men :
The rosy checks did then proclaim
A shame of guilt, but not a guilt of shame :
There was no whining soul to start
At Cupid's twang, or curse his flaming dart;
The boy had then but callow wings,
And fell Erinnys' scorpions had no stings:
The better-acted world did move
Upon the fix'd poles of truth and love.
Love essenc'd in the hearts of men!
Then reason rul'd, there was no passion then;
Till lust and rage began to enter,

Love the circumf'rence was, and love the centre ;
Until the wanton days of Jove,

The simple world was all compos'd of love;

But Jove grew fleshly, false, unjust;

Inferior beauty fill'd his veins with lust :

And cucquean* Juno's fury hurl'd

Fierce balls of rape into th' incestuous world:

Astræa fled, and love return'd

From earth, earth boil'd with lust, with rage it burn'd, And ever since the world hath been

Kept going with the scourge of lust and spleen.

* Wittal, i. e. a cuckold.

Cucquean, i. e, whorish.

S. AM

S. AMBROSE.

Lust is a sharp spur to vice, which always putteth the affections into a false gallop.

HUGO.

Lust is an immoderate wantonness of the flesh, a sweet poison, a cruel pestilence; a pernicious poison, which weakeneth the body of man, and effeminateth the strength of an heroic mind.

S. AUGUST.

Envy is the hatred of another's felicity; in respect of superiors, because they are not equal to them; in respect of inferiors, lest he should be equal to them; in respect of equals, because they are equal to them; through envy proceeded the fall of the world, and death of Christ.

EPIG. 5.

What, Cupid, must the world be lash'd so soon?
But made at morning, and be whipt at noon ?
'Tis like the wag that plays with Venus' doves,
The more 'tis lash'd, the more perverse it proves.

How

VI.

ECCLES. ii. 17.

All is vanity and vexation of spirit.

1.

OW is the anxious soul of man befool'd
In his desire,

That thinks an hectic fever may be cool'd

In flames of fire?

Or hopes to rake full heaps of burnish'd gold

From nasty mire?

A whining lover may as well request

A scornful breast

To melt in gentle tears, as woo the world for rest.

2.

Let wit and all her study'd plots effect
The best they can ;

Let smiling fortune prosper and perfect
What wit began;

Let earth advise with both, and so project
A happy man;

Let wit or fawning fortune vie their best;

He may be blest

With all that carth can give; but earth can give no rest.

3.

Whose gold is double with a careful hand,
His cares are double;

The pleasure, honour, wealth of sea and land
Bring but a trouble;

The world itself, and all the world's command,
Is but a bubble.

The strong desires of man's insatiate breast
May stand possest

Of all that earth can give; but earth can give no rest,

4.

The world's a seeming par'dise, but her own
And man's tormenter;

Appearing fix'd, yet but a rolling stone
Without a tenter;

It is a vast circumference, where none

Can find a center.

Of more than earth can earth make none possest ;

And he that least

Regards this restless world, shall in this world find rest.

True

True rests consists not in the oft revying

Of worldly dross;

Earth's miry purchase is not worth the buying;
Her gain is loss;

Her rest but giddy toil, if not relying

Upon her cross.

How worldlings droil † for trouble! That fond breast That is possest

Of earth without a cross, has earth without a rest.

CASS. in Ps.

The cross is the invincible sanctuary of the humble: the dejection of the proud, the victory of Christ, the destruction of the devil, the confirmation of the faithful, the death of the unbelievers, the life of the just.

DAMASCEN.

The cross of Christ is the key of paradise; the weak man's staff; the convert's convoy; the upright man's perfection; the soul and body's health; the prevention of all evil, and the procurer of all good.

EPIG. 6.

Worldlings, whose whimpering folly holds the losses
Of honour, pleasure, health, and wealth such crosses,
Look here, and tell me what your arms engross :
When the best end of what he hug's a cross.

*Revying, a term used at cards.

† Drvil, i, e. drudge, or labour.

1 PET,

VII.

1 PET. V. 8.

Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about secking whom he may devour.

1.

HY dost thou suffer lustful sloth to creep

WHY

(Dull Cyprian lad!) into thy wanton brows? Is this a time to pay thine idle vows

At Morpheus' shrine? Is this a time to steep
Thy brains in wasteful slumbers? up, and rouse
Thy leaden spirit: Is this a time to sleep?

Adjourn thy sanguine dreams, awake, arise,
Call in thy thoughts; and let them all advise,
Had'st thou as many heads as thou hast wounded eyes.

2.

Look, look, what horrid furies do await

Thy flatt'ring slumbers! If thy drowsy head
But chance to nod, thou fall'st into a bed
Of sulph'rous flames, whose torments want a date.
Fond boy, be wise: let not thy thoughts be fed
With Phrygian wisdom; fools are wise too late :
Beware betimes; and let thy reason sever

Those gates which passion clos'd; wake now or

never;

For if thou nod'st, thou fall'st; and, falling, fall'st for

ever.

3.

Mark, how the ready hands of death prepare."
His bow is bent, and he hath notch'd his dart;
He aims, he levels at thy slumb'ring heart :
The wound is posting; O be wise, beware.
What, has the voice of danger lost the art
To raise the spirit of neglected care?

Well