Now I can fix my thoughts above,
Amidst their flattering charms,
Till the dear Lord that hath my love
Shall call me to his arms.

So Gabriel, at his King's command,
From yon celeftial hill,

Walks downward to our worthlefs land,
His foul points upward ftill.

He glides along my mortal things,
Without a thought of love,

Fulfils his task, and spreads his wings

To reach the realms above.

MEDITATION in a GROVE.

WEET Mufe, defcend and bless the shade,

Sw

And blefs the evening grove;

Bufinefs, and noise, and day, are fled,

And every care, but love.

But hence, ye wanton young and fair,
Mine is a purer flame;

No Phyllis fhall infect the air,
With her unhallow'd name.

Jefus has all my powers poffeft,

My hopes, my fears, my joys:

He, the dear Sovereign of my breaft,
Shall fill command my voice.

Som

Some of the fairest choirs above

Shall flock around my fong,

With joy to hear the name they love
Sound from a mortal tongue,

His charms fhall make my numbers flow,
And hold the falling floods,

While filence fits on every bough,
And bends the listening woods.

I'll carve our paffion on the bark,
And every wounded tree

Shall drop and bear fome mystic mark
That Jefus dy'd for me.

The fwains fhall wonder when they read,
Infcrib'd on all the grove,

That heaven itfelf came down, and bled
To win a mortal's love.

The Fairest 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

Seem but the twinkling fparks of night,

And languishing in doubtful light

Die at the morning-ftar.

Whatever speaks the godhead great,

And fit to be ador'd,

Whatever makes the creature sweet,
And worthy of my paffion, meet
Harmonious in my Lord.

A thousand graces ever rife

And bloom upon his face;
A thousand arrows from his eyes

Shoot through my heart with dear furprize,
And guard around the place.

All nature's art fhall never cure
The heavenly pains I found,
And 'tis beyond all beauty's power
To make another wound :
Earthly beauties grow and fade;
Nature heals the wounds the made,
But charms fo much divine
Hold a long empire of the heart;
What heaven has join'd fhall never part,
And Jefus must be mine.

In vain the envious fhades of night,
Or flatteries of the day

Would veil his image from my fight,

Or tempt my foul away;

Jefus is all my waking theme,
His lovely form meets every dream
And knows not to depart :

The paffion reigns

Through all my veins,

And, floating round the crimson stream,

Still finds him at my heart.

Dwell there, for ever dwell, my love;

Here I confine my fenfe;

Nor dare my wildest wishes rove
Nor ftir a thought from thence.
Amidst thy glories and thy grace
Let all my remnant-minutes pass;
Grant, thou Everlasting Fair,
Grant my foul a manfion there,:
My foul afpires to fee thy face.
Though life fhould for the vifion pay;
So rivers run to meet the fea,
And lofe their nature in th' embrace.

Thou art my ocean, thou my God;
In Thee the paffions of the mind
With joys and freedom unconfin'd
Exult, and spread their powers ahroad,
Not all the glittering things on high
Can make my heaven, if thou remove;
I shall be tir'd, and long to die;
Life is a pain without thy love;

Who could ever bear to be
Curft with immortality

Among the stars, but far from Thee?

Mutual

Mutual LovE ftronger than DEATH.

OT the rich world of minds above

N °T

Can pay the mighty debt of love

I owe to Chrift my God.

With pangs which none but he could feel
He brought my guilty foul from hell:
Not the first feraph's tongue can tell
The value of his blood.

Kindly he feiz'd me in his arms,

From the falfe world's pernicious charms

With force divinely fweet.

Had I ten thoufand lives my own,

At his demand,

With chearful hand,

I'd pay the vital treasure down

In hourly tributes at his feet.

But, Saviour, let me talte thy grace

With every fleeting breath?

And through that heaven of pleasure pafs

To the cold arms of death;

Then I could lofe fucceffive fouls

Faft as the minutes fly;

So billow after billow rolls
To kifs the fhore, and die.

The