With saints, and angels daily see
Thy God, and ever be
Replenish'd with celestial bliss.
Oh my soul, think on this.

On Prayer.

THE Lord regards not words, we may

Be silent and yet pray :

'Tis the intention of the heart,

That doth our zeal impart.

Tho' vocal prayers be daily used,
Our sighs are not refused;
And our good deeds for prayers do go

'Cause God esteems them so.

Our charity and mercy shown,

Will plead our cause alone:

Such acts of our obedience.

Is the best eloquence.

And does in heaven gain more regard, For pardon and reward,

Than a whole age was ever known

To get by words alone.

Our alms, do double use obtain,

And multiply our gain;

When penitence does plead for sin,
And gratitude steps in,

Acknowledging the grace we have,

Must raise us from the grave,

And put us in a decent frame

To call upon God's name;

There practick prayers will do the deed, And help us at our need;

Much better than a story told

In language rude and bold;

Such as rash fancies do throw out,

From wants, from fears, or doubt Of our condition, which may be Words without modesty.

When pious works fail not to bring
Us blessings from the king

Of Heaven, the searcher of our hearts,
Beyond the reach of arts

In language, by him all disguised,

Formalities despised,

And the poor holy ignorant

Will sooner get a grant

Of his desire, than thou or I,

With all our orat'ry.

When our good works and words agree,
They both accepted be.

On a good Man's desire to be in Heaven.

THOSE who dare shake the hour glass in Death's

hand,

To make the quicker passage for the sand,
Have mounting souls, with a serene delight,
To hasten us to God's beatick sight,
And surely may a better welcome gain,

Than those that longer would on earth remain.

SIR ROBERT HOWARD.

1698.

Sir R. Howard distinguished himself by serving Charles I. in the field, and Charles II. in the parliament; and by persecuting the Nonjurors under William. Buckingham satirized him well in the Rehearsal, and Shadwell clumsily in the Impertinents. He has been undervalued. His committee is a comedy of sterling merit, and his little historical Essay on the reigns of the three first Edwards, and Richard II. certainly discovers considerable talents.

IF

TO AMARANTA.

The Fate of Scorn.

you the world could conquer one by one, You'd then want trophies for your boundless mind; Like that ambitious * prince, who wanted room, In the strait circuit of the world confin'd.

* Alexander the Great, of whom Juven. X.
Estuat infelix angusto limite mundi.

Then like the tyrant * Nero you must fall
Such fate's as his due to such cruelty,
Unpitied and unminded too of all,
At once without a friend or enemy.

The souldier that joins conquest to his name
By victories, when overcome with years,
(As you must one day be) preserves his fame,
Not by those wounds he gave, but those he bears.

So when
your
charms in age's furrows lie
Lost, and forgotten, that had once so moved;
One wound amidst your heaps of victory
Would better tell, that you had been belov'd.

Then like a tyrant ravish'd from his throne, You'll wish, that you had gentler used your own.

Suetonius, in the Life of Nero, reports, that in his last extremity, when he sought for Specillus the fencer, or any, to dispatch him: and equally wanting friends and enemies to afford him that last favour; Ergo ego (inquit) nee Amicum habeo, nec Inimicum?