Page images
PDF
EPUB

On the Paraphrafe on the LORD'S PRAYER, Written by Mrs. WHARTON..

ILENCE, ye

SILE

winds! liften etherial lights!

While our Urania fings what Heaven indites :
The Numbers are the Nymph's; but from above
Descends the pledge of that eternal love.
Here wretched mortals have not leave alone,
But are inftructed to approach his throne :
And how can he to miferable men

Deny requests, which his own hand did pen?
In the Evangelifts we find the profe;
Which, paraphras'd by her, a Poem grows;
A devout rapture! fo divine a hymn,
It may become the highest Seraphim!

For they, like her, in that celestial choir,
Sing only what the Spirit does infpire.

Taught by our Lord, and theirs, with us they may
For all, but pardon for offences, pray.

Some Reflections of His upon the several Petitions in

H

the fame Prayer.

IS facred name, with reverence profound,

Should mention'd be, and trembling at the

It was Jehovah; 'tis Our Father now;

So low to us does Heaven vouchsafe to bow! *

[found!

He brought it down, that taught us how to pray;
And did fo dearly for our ranfom pay.

* Pfalm xviii. 9.
Q3

II. His

II. His kingdom come.
For this we pray in vain,
Unless he docs in our affections reign:
Abfurd it were to wish for fuch a King,
And not obedience to his fceptre bring;
Whose yoke is easy, and his burthen light;
His fervice freedom, and his judgments right.

III. His will be done. In fact 'tis always done;
But, as in heaven, it must be made our own:
His will should all our inclinations sway,
Whom nature and the universe obey.
Happy the man! whofe wishes are confin'd
To what has been eternally defign'd:
Referring all to his paternal care,

To whom more dear, than to ourselves, we are.
IV. It is not what our avarice hoards up;
'Tis he that feeds, us, and that fills our cup;
Like new-born babes, depending on the breaft,
From day to day, we on his bounty feast.
Nor fhould the foul expect above a day,
To dwell in her frail tenement of clay :
The setting sun should seem to bound our race,
And the new day a gift of special grace.

V. That he should all our trespasses forgive,
While we in hatred with our neighbours live;
Though so to pray may seem an easy task,
We curfe ourselves when thus inclin'd we ask.
This prayer to use, we ought with equal care
Our fouls, as to the Sacrament, prepare.
The nobleft worship of the Power above,
Is to extol, and imitate, his love:

Not

Not to forgive our enemies alone;

:

But use our bounty that they may be won.
VI. Guard us from all temptations of the foe:
And those we may in feveral ftations know:
The rich and poor in flippery places stand:
Give us enough! but with a sparing hand!
Not ill-perfuading want; nor wanting wealth;
But what proportion'd is to life and health.
For not the dead, but living, fing thy praise;
Exalt thy kingdom, and thy glory raise.

"Favete linguis! *

66

Virginibus puerifque canto.”

HORAT.

On the foregoing DIVINE POEMS*.
HEN we for age could neither read nor write,
The fubject made us able to indite :

W

The foul, with nobler refolutions deckt,
The body ftooping, does herself erect:
No mortal parts are requisite to raise
Her, that unbody'd can her Maker praise.

The feas are quiet, when the winds give o’er:
So, calm are we, when paffions are no more!
For then we know how vain it was to boast
Of fleeting things, fo certain to be loft.
Clouds of affection from our younger eyes

Conceal that emptiness, which defcries.

age

*See, in "Duke's Poems," an elegant compli ment to Mr. Waller, on this his last production. N.

The foul's dark cottage, batter'd and decay'd,

Lets in new light, through chinks that time has made:
Stronger by weakness, wiser men become,

As they draw near to their eternal home:
Leaving the old, both worlds at once they view,
That stand upon the threshold of the new.

‹‹ **** Miratur limen Olympi."

VIRG.

[merged small][ocr errors]
[blocks in formation]

SUCH

UCH Helen was! and who can blame the * boy
That in fo bright a flame confum'd his Troy?

But, had like virtue shin'd in that fair Greek,
The amorous fhepherd had not dar'd to seek,
Or hope for pity; but, with filent moan,
And better fate, had perished alone.

Of a Lady who writ in Praise of MIRA.

WHILE the pretends to make the graces known

Of matchlefs Mira, fhe reveals her own:

And, when she would another's praise indite,
Is by her glass inftructed how to write.

* Paris.

To

« PreviousContinue »