He'll give thee honour,pleasure,wealth, and things
Transcending far the majesty of kings:

And wilt thou prostrate to the odious charms
Of this base scullion? shall his hollow arms
Hug thy soft sides? shall these coarse hands untie
The sacred zone of thy virginity?

For shame, degen'rous soul, let thy desire
Be quick'ned up with more heroic fire;
Be wisely proud, let thy ambitious eye
Read noble objects; let thy thoughts defy
Such am'rous baseness; let thy soul disdain
Th' ignoble proffers of so base a swain;
Or if thy vows be past, and Hymen's bands
Have ceremonied your unequal hands,
Annul, at least avoid, thy lawless act
With insufficiency, or precontract:
Or if the act be good, yet may'st thou plead
A second freedom; or the flesh is dead.

NAZIANZ. Orat. xvi.

How I am joined to this body, I know not; which, when it is healthful, provoketh me to war, and, being damaged by war, affecteth me with grief; which I both love as a fellow-servant, and hate as an utter enemy: it is a pleasant foe, and a perfidious friend. O strange conjunction and alienation: what I fear I embrace, and what I love I am afraid of; before I make war, I am reconciled; before I enjoy peace, I am at vari

ance.

EPIG. 8.

What need that house be daub'd with flesh and

blood?

Hang'd round with silks and gold? repair'd with food?

Cost idly spent! that cost doth but prolong

Thy thraldom. Fool, thou mak'st thy jail too

strong.

I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ.

WHAT meant our careful parents so to wear,
And lavish out their ill extended hours,
To purchase for us large possessions here,
Which (though unpurchas'd) are too truly ours?

T

What meant they, ah! what meant they to endure

Such loads of needless labour, to procure And make that thing our own, which was our own too sure?

What mean these liv'ries and possessive keys? What mean these bargains, and these needless

sales?

What mean these jealous, these suspicious ways Of law devis'd and law dissolv'd entails?

No need to sweat for gold, wherewith to buy Estates of high-priz'd land; no need to tie Earth to their heirs, were they but clogg'd with earth as I.

O were their souls but clogg'd with earth as I,

They would not purchase with so salt an itch; They would not take of alms what now they buy; Nor call him happy, whom the world counts rich; They would not take such pains, project, and prog,

To charge their shoulders with so great a log: Who hath the greater lands, hath but the greater

clog.

I cannot do an act which earth disdains not;
I cannot think a thought which earth corrupts

not;

I cannot speak a word which earth profanes not; I cannot make a vow earth interrupts not:

If I but offer up an early groan,

Or spread my wings to Heav'n's long long'd

for throne,

She darkens my complaints, and drags my off'ring down.

E'en like the hawk, (whose keeper's wary hands Have made a pris'ner to her weath'ring stock) Forgetting quite the pow'r of her fast bands, Makes a rank bate from her forsaken block;

But her too faithful leash doth soon retain Her broken flight, attempted oft in vain; It gives her loins a twitch, and tugs her back again.

So, when my soul directs her better eye

To Heav'n's bright palace, where my treasure I spread my willing wings, but cannot fly; [lies, Earth hales me down, I cannot, cannot rise:

When I but strive to mount the least degree, Earth gives a jerk, and foils me on my knee; LORD, how my soul is rack'd betwixt the world and thee!

Great GOD, I spread my feeble wings in vain;
In vain I offer my extended hands:

I cannot mount till thou unlink my chains :
I cannot come till thou release my bands:

Which if thou please to break, and then supply My wings with spirit, th' eagle shall not fly A pitch that's half so fair, nor half so swift as I.