Next enters Childhood with a painted frock,
As fickle-minded as a weather-cock;

Frisking and dancing, up and down he runs,
Pleafing himself with tops and eldern guns :
At length time calls to fchool, he muft prepare,
To learn his book, and we shall leave him there.
Then flow'ring Youth comes forth in rich arry
Adorn'd with garlands in the month of May:
In mirth delighting, vainly puft with pride,
Jets like a peacock when he courts his bride;
In fports and pleasures he confumes his age,
Till Manhood turns him off and mounts the ftage:
Where clad in armour bright, with fword in hand,
His daring foes he bravely doth withstand;
And hero-like his prowefs doth display
In bold atchievements, till he wins the day :
Then leaves the field, and marches home again,
Crown'd with the fpoils, and fo concludes that scene.
Next riper age appears, whose sober looks
Is like a merchant with his counting books;
Confulting how to raise his thriving store
With treasures wafted from a foreign shore:
And then he mufing walks an eafy rate,
Enquiring where to purchase an estate
For his young iffue, that his heir may be
Poffefs'd of fome inheritance in fee:
Which having fettled, next his project runs
To make up portions for his younger fons.

While thus he labours with an anxious itch,
To fill his coffers-make his children rich;
Time fteals away, and he must leave the stage,
Being closely follow'd by the hand of age;
Now weary with the toils of ages past,
He joys to fee his children thrive so fast :
To whom in fober fadness he declares
A long, long story of his former cares,
And how he has transacted great affairs ;
Of all his travels, where he once hath been,
What things have happen'd,what his eyes have seen ;
What this man did, and who his grandfire was,
From whence he came, and how it came to pass,
He fold his land, why this and that was done,
And what had happened ages past and gone.
His telious story being ended so,

He rifes up, and walking to and fro,

Gives fage advice unto his wond'ring fons;
Then throws him on his couch to reft his bones :
Where he's no fooner laid, but fleep attends
His palfy-fmitten limbs, fo that fcene ends.
And laft of all decrepid age comes in,
With fable countenance and wither'd fkin,
A fnow-white beard, and blood-forfaken veins,
And feeble body vext with daily pains:

His eyes grown dim, he neither hears nor finells,
A lump of living clay and nothing else;

VOL. L

M

Suftain'd

Suftain'd by crutches under either arm,

m}

Wrapt up in clothes well lin❜d to keep him warm,
Expecting daily Nature's last alarm.

His words fometimes from deep experience rife,
Declaring him to be discreet and wife;
Yet by and by he speaks in fuch a strain,

As makes him seem to be a child again :

At length he lays him down, and Death draws nigh, Stabs him at heart, and ends the tragedy.

ON SIN.

THE world's a peft-house, and the plague of Sin

Surprizes every one that comes therein.

No country's free; that peftilential air,
Which rofe in Eden, now blows every where.
'Tis univerfal, none from Adam come,

But are polluted from their mother's womb.
Lord, I'm infected, and th' infection's spread
In fwelling tumours e'en from foot to head;
Whose fiery venom runs thro' every part,
But most of all it centres at my heart;
There is the fore, 'tis there I feel the fmart.

A de

A defp'rate cafe! Sweet Jefus, look upon me,
Before this plague of Sin hath quite undone me.
I fear 'twill gangrene: oh! my Saviour, why
Should I want help, when fuch a Doctor's by?
Nor Galen's art, nor great Machaon's skill`
Can cure my fore, which if not cur'd will kill.
'Tis thou, and only thou, canft make me whole,
Remove my guilt, and heal my fin-fick foul.
To thee I come, Lord, fee what I endure,
Be my Phyfician, undertake the cure:

Put in thy probe, and fearch my finking wound,
Apply thy blood, and I fhall foon be found.

On Caleb and fofbua.

CALEB and Joshua were by Moses sent,

And other ten, with this commandment,
Go up to Canaan, fearch, and take a view
Of that long-hop'd for country promis'd you
Obferve the people-whether skill'd in war,
Or few, or many-what their manners are ;
Whether they in tents or cities dwell;
Survey their forts and all their ramparts well:
And bring us word, with all convenient speed,

That we may know the better to proceed;

By your relation fo directed, we

We may fuit our efforts, and the danger fee.
Then, having thus receiv'd their Captain's order,
They march with speed, and ent'ring Canaan's border,
From Rohob march, ascending up the hill
Where Hebron stands, upon discov❜ries ftill.
From thence their ready footsteps they incline
To Efhcol's valley, famous for the vine;
Whose uberous clusters, with a filent fuit,
Invited Ifrael's fons to taste this fruit.

They cut the bunch, of which the branches were
Two men's burthen on their way to bear.
The fairest fruits are found in valleys low,
In humble hearts the choiceft graces grow.
Now forty times the fun had whirl'd about
This globe terrestrial, fince the spies set out
From Ifrael's camp, and having search'd around
The land, and took fuch fruit as there they found,
Back they return unto the faithless Jews,
Whofe eager ears had thirfted for the news.
Then all, but Caleb and the fon of Nun,

With one confent ftood up, and thus begun :
"Since we departed laft, my friends, from you,
"At Canaan we have been, and paffing thro',

Survey'd it round, obferving all things well "Our eyes have seen, what now we come to tell. "The country is a fair and fertile foil,

66

Replete with honey, corn, and wine, and oil,

"There