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True rests consists not in the oft revying*
Of worldly dross;

Earth's miry purchase is not worth the buying;
Her gain is loss;

Her rest but giddy toil, if not relying
Upon her cross.

How worldlings droil † for trouble! That fond breast
That is possest

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
Of honour, pleasure, health, and wealth such crosses,
Look here, and tell me what your arms engross :
When the best end of what he hug's a cross.

*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
Thy brains in wasteful slumbers? up, and rouse
Thy leaden spirit: Is this a time to sleep?

Adjourn thy sanguine dreams, awake, arise,
Call in thy thoughts; and let them all advise,
Had'st thou as many heads as thou hast wounded eyes.

2..

Look, look, what horrid furies do await

Thy flatt'ring slumbers! If thy drowsy head.
But chance to nod, thou fall'st into a bed
Of sulph'rous flames, whose torments want a date.
Fond boy, be wise: let not thy thoughts be fed
With Phrygian wisdom; fools are wise too late :
Beware betimes; and let thy reason sever

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."
His bow is bent, and he hath notch'd his dart ¿
He aims, he levels at thy slumb`ring heart :
The wound is posting; O be wise, beware.
What, has the voice of danger lost the ar
To raise the spirit of neglected care?

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The Foe lies close in wait, and canst thou keep

Thy Station here, and thus securely sleep

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
With earth's false pleasure, and the world's delight,
Whose fruit is fair, and pleasing to the sight,
But sour in taste, false as the putrid core:

Thy flaring glass is gems at her half light.
She makes thee seeming rich, but truly poor:
She boasts a kernel, and bestows a shell;
Performs an inch of her fair promis'd ell:
Her words protest a heav'n; her works produce an hell.

5.

O thou, the fountain of whose better part
Is earth'd and gravell'd up with vain desire:
That daily wallow'st in the fleshly mire
And base pollution of a lustful heart,

That feel'st no passion, but in wanton fire,
And own'st no torment but in Cupid's dart;
Behold thy type: thou sit'st upon this ball
Of earth, secure, while death, that flings at all,
Stands arm'd to strike thee down, where flames attend
[thy fall.

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.

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