True rests consists not in the oft revying* Earth's miry purchase is not worth the buying; Her rest but giddy toil, if not relying How worldlings droil † for trouble! That fond breast Of earth without a cross, has earth without a rest. CASS. in Ps. The cross is the invincible sanctuary of the humble : the dejection of the proud, the victory of Christ, the destruction of the devil, the confirmation of the faithful, the death of the unbelievers, the life of the just. DAMASCEN. The cross of Christ is the key of paradise; the weak man's staff; the convert's convoy; the upright man's perfection; the soul and body's health; the prevention of all evil, and the procurer of all good. EPIG. 6. Worldlings, whose whimpering folly holds the losses *Rerying, a term used at cards. + Droil, i. e. drudge, or labour. 1 PET VII. 1 PET. V. 8. Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour. 1. HY dost thou suffer lustful sloth to creep W (Dull Cyprian fad 1) into thy wanton brows? Is this a time to pay thine idle vows At Morpheus' shrine? Is this a time to steep Adjourn thy sanguine dreams, awake, arise, 2.. Look, look, what horrid furies do await Thy flatt'ring slumbers! If thy drowsy head. Those gates which passion clos'd; wake now or never; For if thou nod'st, thou fall'st; and, falling, fall'st for ever. 3. Mark, how the ready hands of death prepare." Well, sleep thy fill, and take thy soft reposes; But know, withal, sweet tastes have sour closes; And he repents in thorns, that sleeps in beds of roses. 4. Yet, sluggard, wake, and gull thy soul no more Thy flaring glass is gems at her half light. 5. O thou, the fountain of whose better part That feel'st no passion, but in wanton fire, S. BERN. Security is no-where: neither in heaven, nor in paradise, much less in the world: in heaven the angels fell from the divine presence; in Paradise, Adam fell from his place of pleasure; in the world, Judas fell from the school of our Saviour. |