Holds ev'n th' Almighty in her airy chain, Ah me! what lengths of valley yet remain, Then, gracious God, how well dost thou provide Heav'n let them tutor, and extinguish Hell: Far other views the solid mind employ, And oh, when interest every virtue hides, TO THE PRINCE OF ORANGE, ON HIS PASSING THROUGH OXFORD IN HIS RETURN Ar length, in pity to a nation's prayer, Some guardian power, who o'er thy fate pre sides, Whose eyes unerring Albion's welfare guides, Lo! while our isle with one loud pœan rings, brings Outweighs the vast acclaim that deafens kings; Hail, and proceed! be arts like ours thy care, Take thy forefather's worth, and give them thine. Power, beauty, virtue, dignify thy choice, 'From the Epithalamia Oxoniensia, &c 1734. K. THE AMARANTH, OR, RELIGIOUS POEMS; CONSISTING OF FABLES, VISIONS, EMBLEMS, &c. -Deus ora movet: Sequar ora moventem THE AMARANTHINE CROWN DESCRIBED BY MILTON. A CROWN inwove with amarant and gold; Pegan to bloom; but soon for man's offence And flow'rs aloft, shading the fount of life. Par. Lost, I. III, v. 352. PREFACE. I SHALL not trouble the public with excuses for venturing to send these Religious Poems into the world; having long since observed, that all apologies made by authors, far from gaining the end proposed, serve only to supply an ill-natured critic with weapons to attack them. This being the case, it shall suffice me to say, that I drew up the present writings for my own private consolation under a lingering and dangerous state of health, which it has pleased God to make my portion: nor had I any better opportunity or power of discharging the duties of my profession to mankind. The goodness of my cause may perhaps supply the defects of my poetry; since, in this sense, "the very gleanings of the grapes of Ephraim will be better than the vintage of Abiezer." I promise my readers no extraordinary art in composition or style; but flatter myself they will find some nature, some flame, and some truth. Parables, fables, emblematic visions, &c. are the most ancient method of conveying truth to mankind. Upwards of forty of the finest and most poetical parts of the Old and New Testament are of this cast, and force their way upon the mind and heart irresistibly, though they are written in prose. From a just sense of this humble simplicity, I have here translated the plainest and least figurative parable that our Blessed Saviour has delivered to us, relating only to a few un-ornament. ed circumstances in agriculture. To express such humble allusions with clearness, propriety, and dignity, was, it must be confessed, one of the hardest pieces of poetry I ever yet undertook; nevertheless, I flattered myself that I was in some degree master of one part of the subject (namely, the culture of land) upon which the parable is founded. Yet the great and real difficulty still recurred; Difficile est propriè communia dicere. How far I have succeeded in this, or any other particular, is more than I shall take upon me to conjecture. Nor shall it be dissembled, but that I had a great inclination to give a paraphrase (or metaphrase rather) of the xxviiith chapter of Deuteronomy; which, I believe, hath never yet been turned into English verse. It is doubtless one of the noblest pieces of poetry in Holy Scripture; being at the same time sublime, and yet plain; seemingly familiar, and yet richly diversified. In this chapter, the change of ideas and events from a state of obedience to a state of disobedience, exhibits a power of language, imagery, and just thinking, which no un-inspired writings ever have laid claim to with justice, or ever shall, But, when I came to take a closer view of the precipice and its dangers," my heart trembled," as Job says, "and was moved out of its place ;" I threw down the pencil in despair, and left the undertaking to some abler hand; namely, to some future Milton, Dryden, or Pope. Upon the whole, I may perhaps venture to persuade myself, that the intention of the present work is commendable, and that the work when perused, may prove useful (more or less) to my fellow-christians. Conscious of my own inabilities, and being desirous that the reader may receive soine advantage by casting his eyes over these poems, I have added in a few notes, the most remarkable passages I had an eye to in the Holy Scriptures, and in the writings of the primitive fathers; they being the only compass and charts which I have made use of in my navigation. A mixture of pleasing and instructive poetry cannot fail to engage the attention of all rational and serious readers: "For, as it is hurtful to drink wine, or water, alone; and as wine mingled with water is pleasant, and delighteth the taste; even so speech, finely framed, delighteth the ears of them that read the story." 2 MACCAB. Ch. ult. v. ult. CHRIST'S PARABLE OF THE I will incline mine ear to a parable: I will open my dark saying upon the harp. PSALM xlix, v. 4. All these things spake Jesus unto the multitude in parables. Without a parable spake he not unto them. MATTH. C, xiii. v. 34. A wise man will hear, and increase learning, and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels to understand a proverb (a parable) and the interpretation; the words of the wise, and their dark sayings, PROV. c. i. v. 5, 6. INTRODUCTION. LONG e'er th' Ascréan bard had learnt to Or Homer's fingers touch'd the speaking string; The Heav'n-born Muse the paths of nature chose: The son of Gideon", 'midst Cherizim's snow, In Nathan's fable strong and mild conspire, Omniscience, vested with full pow'r to choose, True flame of verse, O sanctifying fire 6! 'Hesiod. 2 Jotham. 3 See the whole parable, Judg. c. ix. v. 7—21. On this occasion David composed the 50th psalm. s It is the uniform doctrine of Scripture, "That flight shall perish from the swift, and the strong shall not strengthen his force, neither shall the mighty deliver himself." Amos, c. ii. v. 14. 6 Rom. c. xv. v. 16. 2 Thess. c. ii. v. 13. 1 Pet. c, i. v. 2. 7 Isaiah c. vii. v. 6. 8 Hab. c. ii. v. 2. 9 Jer. c. i. v. 6, &c. 8, 9. 10 John, c. vi. ver. 27. PARABLE. WHEN vernal show'rs and sunshine had un- Some seeds by chance on brashy 3 grounds he threw, And some the winds to flinty head-lands blew ; Some seeds he ventur'd on ungrateful lands, Another portion mock'd the seedsman's toil, Exhaust earth's virtue, and perplex the land 4 "Bless God, who hath given thee two denarii, namely, the law and the gospel, in recompence for thy submission and labour." Chrysost. Hom. in Luc. c. 10. "They that fear the Lord are a sure seed, and they that love him an honourable plant: they that regard not the law, are a dishonourable seed: they that transgress the commandments, are a deceitful seed." E clus. c. x. v. 19. 3 Brashy lands, in an husbandry-sense, signify lands that are dry, shallow, gravelly, and pebbly. Such sort of grounds the old Romans called glareous: -Jejuna quidem clivosi glarea ruris. See Hosea, c. x, v. 4 and 9. The well-turn'd soil with auburn brightness shone, lands. Man's Saviour thus his parable exprest; He that hath ears to hear, may feel the rest. INTERPRETATION. | Whenever adverse fortune choaks the way, THE gift of knowing is to all men giv'n ❝; When specious doctrines hover round a mind (And changing minds ev'n ask to be destroy'd',) The men of pow'r and pomp resemble seeds Sown on rich earth, but choak'd with thorns and weeds. With zeal they flatter, and with zeal decry. Religion strikes them, but they shun the thought; Patient of censure, yet condemning none : 8 We are all careful about small matters, and negligent in the greatest; of which this is the reason, we know not where true felicity is." St. Hieron. 9 The preacher writes beautifully upon this if thou come subject. Ecclus. C. ii. "My son, to serve the Lord, prepare thy soul for trial, set thy heart aright, and constantly endure, and make not haste in time of trouble;" i. e. be not impatient to get over thy trouble. "Cleave unto him, and depart not away, that thou mayest be increased at thy last end. Whatsoever is brought upon thee take cheerfully, and be patient when thou art changed to a low estate. For gold is tried in the fire, and acceptable men in the furnace of adversity.-Look at the generations of old, and see, did ever any trust in the Lord and was confounded? or did any abide in his fear and was forsaken? or whom did he ever despise, that called upon him? for the Lord is full of compassion and mercy; he forgiveth sins, and saveth in time of affliction.-Wo be to the siuner that goeth two ways;" i, e, that hath recourse At the end of the 12th stanza in this poem, I had several inducements for venturing to change the ode into heroic measure. The first was, that I might diversify the doctrinal part from the descriptive. The second was, that our excellent and most learned poet, Cowley, had given me his authority for making this change, in his poem de Plantis, But the third and truer reason was, that I found it next to impracticable, to deliver short, unadorned, didactical sentences consistently with the copiousness, irregularity, and enthusiasm peculiar to ode-writing.-Let the reader only make the experiment, and I flatter anyself he will join with me in opinion.-Nor have I departed any further than in a metaphor or two from that original simplicity which characterises my author, however difficult and self-denying such an undertaking might be in a poetical composition. What gave me warning was, that Castalio and Stanhope had both spoiled Thomas a Kempis by attempting to adorn him with flowery language, false elegance, and glaring imagery. And, by the way, to this cause may be attributed the miscarriages of many poets, (otherwise confessedly eminent) in their paraphrases of the Psalms of David, the Book of Job, &c. The grandeur of scriptural sublimity, or simplicity, admits of few or no embellishments. George Sandys, in the reign of Charles I. seems only to have known this secret. to man as well as God. "Wo unto him that is faint-hearted; for he believeth not, therefore shall he not be defended. Wo unto you that have lost patience: what will ye do when the Lord shall visit you?-they that fear the Lord will say, we will fall into the hands of the Lord, and not into the hands of men: for as his majesty is, so is his mercy." In like manner St. Chrysostom informs us, "That, in proportion as God adds to our tribulation, he adds likewise to our retribution." This river takes its rise from one of the highest ice-mountains in Switzerland. And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed. 2 The species of larch-tree here meant is called sempervirens: the other larches are deciduis foliis. Mark, c. i. v. 35. Impearl'd with dew, the rosy Morn Nature from needful slumber wakes, 3 Tip-toe. Shakespeare. 4" Before we engage in worldly business, or any common amusements of life, let us be careful to consecrate the first-fruits of the day, and the very beginning of our holy thoughts unto the service of God." St. Basil. Thomas à Kempis had no manifest infirmities of old-age, and retained his eye-sight perfect to the last. All that I have ever been able to learn in Germany upon good authority, concerning him, is as follows: He was born at Kempis, or Kempen, a small walled town in the dutchy of Cleves, and diocese of Cologn. His family-name was Hamerlein, which signifies in the German language a little baminer. We find also that his parents were named John and Gertrude Hamerlein. He lived chiefly in the monastery of Mount St. Agnes; where his effigy, together with a prospect of the monastery, was engraven on a plate of copper that lies over his body. The said inonastery is now called Bergh-Clooster, or, as we might say in English, Hill-Cloyster. Many strangers in their travels visit it. Kempis was certainly one of the best and greatest men since the primitive ages. His book of the Imitation of Christ has seen near forty editions in the ori |