II. PSALM CXix. 5. O that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes! T 1. HUS I, the object of the world's disdain, With pilgrim face surround the weary earth : I only relish what the world counts vain; Her mirth's my grief; her sullen grief my mirth ; Her light my darkness; and her truth my error. Her freedom is my goal; and her delight my terror. 2. Fond earth! proportion not my seeming love, Like one that seeks a door, I walk about thee. 3. The world's a lab'rinth, whose anfractuous ways 4. This gyringt lab'riuth is betrench'd about On either hand with streams of sulph'rous fire; Streams closely sliding, erring in and out, But seeming pleasant to the fond descrier: Where, if his footsteps trust their own invention, He falls without redress, and sinks without dimension. • Anfractuous; i, e. winding about. † Gyring; i, e. full of turnings. Where K 3 5. Where shall I seek a guide? where shall I meet To 'scape the danger of these dang'rous places? What hopes have I to pass without a guide ? Where one gets safely through, a thousand fall beside. 6. An unrequested star did gently slide 7. O that the pinions of a clipping* dove Would cut my passage through the empty air; Mine eyes being seal'd, how would I mount above The reach of danger and forgotten care! My backward eyes should ne'er commit that fault, Whose lasting guilt should build a monument of salt. 8. Great God, that art the flowing spring of light, I'll trust my God, and him alone pursue; *Clipping; i. e. swift-flying. S. AU S. AUGUST. Soliloq. Cap. iv. ; O Lord, who art the light, the way, the truth, the life in whom there is no darkness, error, vanity, nor death: the light, without which there is darkness; the way without which there is wandering; the truth, without which there is error; the life, without which there is death: say, Lord, Let there be light, and I shall see light, and eschew darkness; I shall see the way, and avoid wandering; I shall see the truth, and shun error ; I shall see life, and escape death: illuminate, O illuminate my blind soul, which sitteth in darkness, and the shadow of death; and direct my feet in the way of peace. EPIG. 2. Pilgrim trudge on, what makes thy soul complain, PSALM |