The title-page will show, if thou wilt look, Who are the proper subjects of this book: They're boys and girls, of all sorts and degrees, From those of age to children on the knees. Thus comprehensive am I in my notions; They tempt me to it by their childish motions. We now have boys with beards, and girls that be

Huge as old women, wanting gravity.

Then do not blame me, since I thus describe 'em;

Flatter I may not, lest thereby I bribe them
To have a better judgment of themselves
Than wise men have of babies on the shelves.
Their antic tricks, fantastic modes and way
Show they like very boys and girls do play
With all the frantic fooleries of the age,
And that in open view, as on a stage:
Our bearded men do act like beardless boys,
Our women please themselves with childish
toys.

Our ministers long time by word and pen Dealt with them, counting them not boys, but

men:

They shot their thunders at them and their toys, But hit them not, 'cause they were girls and boys.

The better charg'd the wilder still they shot, Or else so high these dwarfs they touched not. Instead of men, they found them girls and boys, To naught addicted but to childish toys.

Wherefore, dear reader, that I save them may I now with them the very dotril play; And since at gravity they make a tush, My very beard I cast behind a bush,

And like a fool stand fing'ring of their toys, And all to show they are but girls and boys.

Nor do I blush, altho' I think some may
Call me a child, because I with them play:
I aim to show them how each fingle-fangle
On which they dote does but their souls entan
gle,

As with a web, a trap, a gin, a snare,
And will destroy them, have they not a care.

Paul seem'd to play the fool, that he might

gain

Those that were fools indeed, if not in grain;
He did it by such things, to let them see
Their emptiness, their sin and vanity-
A noble act and full of honesty!

Nor he, nor I, would like them be in vice, But by their playthings I would them entice, That they might raise their thoughts from childish toys

To heaven, for that's prepar'd for girls and boys.
Nor would I so confine myself to these
As to shun graver things, but seek to please
Those more composed with better things than
toys,

Tho' I would thus be catching girls and boys.

Wherefore, if men inclined are to look, Perhaps their graver fancies may be took With what is here, tho' but in homely rhymes; But he who pleases all must rise betimes. Some, I persuade me, will be finding fault, Concluding here I trip and there I halt: No doubt some could those grovelling notions raise

By fine-spun terms, that challenge might the bays.

Should all be forc'd their brains to lay aside
That cannot regulate the flowing tide
By this or that man's fancy, we should have
The wise unto the fool become a slave.
What, tho' my text seems mean, my morals be
Grave, as if fetch'd from a sublimer tree.
And if some better handle can a fly
Than some a text, wherefore should we deny
Their making proof or good experiment
Of smallest things, great mischiefs to prevent?

Wise Solomon did fools to pismires send To learn true wisdom, and their lives to mend;

Yea, God, by swallows, cuckoos, and the ass, Shows they are fools who let the season pass Which he put in their hand, that to obtain Which is both present and eternal gain.

I think the wiser sort my rhyme may slight;

While I peruse them fools will take delight.

Then what care I? The foolish God has chose, And doth by foolish things their minds compose,

And settle upon that which is divine:
Great things by little ones are made to shine.

I could, were I so pleas'd, use higher strains, And for applause or tenters stretch my brains; But what needs that? The arrow out of sight Does not the sleeper nor the watchman fright: To shoot too high doth make but children gaze. 'Tis that which hits the man doth him amaze.

As for the inconsiderableness

Of things by which I do my mind express,
May I by them bring some good thing to pass
As Samson with the jawbone of an ass,
Or as brave Shamgar with his ox's goad,
(Both things unmanly, not for war in mode,)
I have my end, tho' I myself expose,
For God will have the glory at the close.

J. B.

UPON THE LARK AND THE FOWLER. THOU simple bird, what makes thee here to play?

Look, there's the fowler, prithee come away. Dost not behold the net? Look, there 'tis spread;

Venture a little further, thou art dead.

Is there not room enough in all the field For thee to play in, but thou needs must yield To the deceitful glitt'ring of a glass Between nets placed, to bring thy death to pass?

Bird, if thou art so much for dazzling light, Look, there's the sun above thee, dart upright;

Thy nature is to soar up to the sky;

Why wilt thou, then, come down to the nets and die?

His glass an emblem is of sinful pleasure, Decoying such who reckon sin a treasure.

This simple lark's a shadow of a saint, Under allurings ready now to faint. What you have read a needful warning is, Design'd to show the soul its share and bliss.

MEDITATIONS UPON AN EGG.

THE egg's no chick by falling from the hen, Nor man a Christian till he's born again.

The egg's at first contained in the shell;
Men afore grace in sins and darkness dwell.
The egg, when laid, by warmth is made a
chicken,

call;

This whistle he enchanteth birds withal.
What tho' thou seest a live bird in his net?
She's there because from thence she cannot get.

Look how he tempteth thee with his decoy, That he may rob thee of thy life, thy joy. Come, prithee, bird; I prithee come away; Why shouldst thou to this net become a prey?

Hadst thou not wings, or were thy feathers pull'd,

Or wast thou blind, or fast asleep wert lull'd, The case would somewhat alter, but for thee, Thy eyes are ope, and thou hast wings to flee.

Remember that thy song is in thy rise, Not in thy fall; earth's not thy paradise. Keep up aloft, then; let thy circuits be Above, where birds from fowlers' nets are free.

COMPARISON.

This fowler is an emblem of the devil, His nets and whistle fingers of all evil;

quicken,

The chick at first is in the cell confin'd;
So heaven-born souls are in the flesh detain'd.
The shell doth crack, the chick doth chirp and
peep;

The flesh decays, and me. then pray and weep.
The shell doth break, the chick's at liberty;
The flesh falls off, the soul mounts up on high.
But both do not enjoy the selfsame plight-
The soul is safe, the chick now fears the kite.

But chicks from rotten eggs do not proceed Nor is an hypocrite a saint indeed. The rotten egg, tho' underneath the hen, If crack'd, is foul, and loathsome unto men; Nor doth her warmth make what is rotten

sound:

What's rotten, rotten will at last be found.
The hypocrite, sin has in him possession;
He is a rotten egg under profession.

Some eggs bring cockatrices; and some mes Seem hatch'd and brooded in the viper's den.

Some eggs bring wild-fowls; and some men there be

As wild as are the wildest fowls that flee.
Some eggs bring spiders; and some men appear
More venom'd than the worst of spiders are.
Some eggs bring pismires; and some seem to me
As much for trifles as the pismires be.
And thus do divers eggs form diff'rent shapes,
As like some men as monkeys are like apes;
But this is but an egg; were it a chick,
Here had been legs, and wings, and bones to
pick.

The water is the fish's element: Her sportings there to her are excellent; So is God's service unto holy men; They are not in their element till then.

UPON THE SWALLOW.

THIS pretty bird, oh how she flies and sings! But could she do so if she had not wings? Her wings bespeak my faith, her songs my peace;

When I believe and sing my doubtings cease.

UPON THE FLINT IN THE WATER.
THIS fiint time out of mind hath there abode
Where crystal streams make their continual
road,

Yet it abides a flint as much as 'twere
Before it touch'd the water or came there.

Its hardness is not in the least abated,
"Tis not at all by water penetrated;
Though water hath a soft'ning virtue in't,
It can't dissolve the stone, for 'tis a flint.

Yea, tho' in the water it doth still remain, Its fiery nature still it does retain; If you oppose it with its opposite, Then in your very face its fire 'twill spit.

COMPARISON.

This flint an emblem is of those that lie Under the word like stones until they die; Its crystal streams have not their natures

chang'd;

UPON THE BEE.

THE bee goes out, and honey home doth bring, And some who seek that honey find a sting. Now wouldst thou have the honey, and be free From stinging, in the first place kill the bee.

COMPARISON.

This bee an emblem truly is of sin, Whose sweet unto a many death hath been: Wouldst thou have sweet from sin, and yet not

die,

Sin, in the first place, thou must mortify.

UPON OVERMUCH NICENESS.

'TIS strange to see how overnice are some About their clothes, their bodies, and their home,

UPON THE FISH IN THE WATER.

THE water is the fish's element:

Take her from thence, none can her death

prevent;

Not doing it at all, or slovenly.

Their houses must well furnish'd be in print, While their immortal soul has no good in't; Its outside also they must beautify,

While there is in't scarce common honesty.

Their bodies they must have trick'd up and trim,

been,

As good not be as to be kept from sin.

The water is the fish's element: Leave her but there and she will be content; So's he who in the path of life doth plod; Take all, says he; let me but have my God.

Whereas their lives are but one common blot.

How nice, how coy are some about their diet That can their crying souls with hogs' meat

quiet!

All must be drest to a hair, or else 'tis naught. While of the living bread they have no thought.

MEDITATIONS UPON A CANDLE. MAN'S like a candle in a candlestick, Made up of tallow and a little wick;

For what the candle is before 'tis lighted, Just such be they who are in sin benighted; Nor can a man his soul with grace inspire, More than the candles set themselves on fire.

1005

The candle in the night dotn all excel;
Nor sun, nor moon, nor stars then shine so well.
So is the Christian in our hemisphere,
Whose light shows others how their course to
steer.

When candles are put out, all's in confusion;
Where Christians are not devils make intrusion.
They then are happy who such candles have;

care not.

We manage candles when they take the fire; God, men, when he with grace doth them inspire.

And biggest candles give the better light, As grace on biggest sinners shines most bright.

The candle shines to make another see; A saint unto his neighbour light should be. The blinking candle we do much despise; Saints dim of light are high in no man's eyes.

Again, though it may seem to some a riddle, We use to light our candle at the middle. True light doth at the candle's end appear, And grace the heart first reaches by the ear; But 'tis the wick the fire doth kindle on, As 'tis the heart that grace first works upon. Thus both do fasten upon what's the main, And so their life and vigour do maintain.

The tallow makes the wick yield to the fire, And sinful flesh doth make the soul desire That grace may kindle on it, in it burn; So evil makes the soul from evil turn.

But candles in the wind are apt to flare, And Christians in a tempest to despair. We see the flame with smoke attended is, And in our holy lives there's much amiss.

Sometimes a thief will candlelight annoy, And lusts do seek our graces to destroy. What brackish is will make a candle splutter; 'Twixt sin and grace there's oft a heavy clutter. Sometimes the light burns dim, 'cause of the snuff,

And sometimes 'tis blown quite out with a puff; But watchfulness preventeth both these evils, Keeps candles light, and grace, in spite of devils.

But let not snuffs nor puffs make us to doubt; Our candles may be lighted, tho' puff'd out.

pocket,

Are much alike; such candles make us fumble, And at such saints good men and bad do stumble.

Good candles don't offend, except sore eyes, Nor hurt, unless it be the silly flies; Thus some hate burning candles in the night, As some do living holy for delight. But let us draw towards the candle's end, The fire, you see, doth wick and tallow spend, As grace man's life, until his glass is run; And so the candle and the man is done.

The man now lays him down upon his bed; The wick yields up its fire, and so is dead. The candle now extinct is, but the man By grace mounts up to glory, there to stand.

UPON THE SACRAMENTS. Two sacraments I do believe there be, Ev'n Baptism and the Supper of the Lord. Both mysteries divine, which do to me, By God's appointment, benefit afford.

But shall they be my God, or shall I have Of them so foul and impious a thought

To think that from the curse they can me save! Bread, wine, or water me no ransom bought.

UPON THE SUN'S REFLECTION UPON THE CLOUDS IN A FAIR MORNING.

LOOK yonder! Ah! me thinks mine eyes

do see Clouds edg'd with silver, as fine garments be: They look as if they saw the golden face That makes black clouds most beautiful with

grace.