PATIENCE confifts in a well pleafed fubmiffion to the divine will, and a quiet yielding to whatever it pleases the Deity to afflict us with. If we are poffeffed with a fincere reverence and efteem of God, humility will fortify us with patience to fuffer, and not murmur, at his difpenfations. IN every affair of life, defpair fhould give way to hope, and impatience to content; for the hand of Providence is always nearest to us, when perils are most evident. AFFLICTIONS, if we make a difcreet use of them, are meffengers of love from Heaven to invite us thither. A SOUL immortal, spending all her fires, The Knowledge of God natural to Man. THAT gracious Pow'r, who from his kindred clay, Proofs of a God on ev'ry fide arise. Or Or view the livid wonders of the sky, Who fram'd the fyftem, and impos'd their laws. CHRISTIANITY is not a fpeculative fcience, but a practical obligation. PIETY and pride can no more thrive together, than health and sickness, light and darkness. THOUGH our nature is imperfect and corrupt, yet it is fo far improveable, by the grace of God upon our own good endeavours, that we all may, though not equally, be inftruments of his glory, ornaments and bleffings to this world, and capable of eternal happinefs. THERE is a certain candour in true virtue, which none can counterfeit. IN the moderate ufe of lawful things, there can be no crime; but in all extremes there is. "WE cannot (fays Amafis in his epiftle to Polycrates) "expect in this world an unmixt happiness, without be"ing tempered with troubles and difafters." THE family is the proper province for private women to shine in. TEMPERANCE is a regimen into which all fons may put themselves. per GOD hath promifed pardon to him that repenteth; but he hath not promifed repentance to him that finneth. HEAVEN'S HEAVEN's favours here are trials, not rewards; A call to duty, not discharge from care, And fhould alarm us full as much as woes; Awake us to their caufe and confequence, O'er our fcan'd conduct give a jealous eye, And make us tremble, weigh'd with our defert. TO man's falfe optics (from his folly falfe) Time, in advance, behind him hides his wings, And feems to creep, decrepid with his age. Behold him when pafs'd by! what then is feen But his broad pinions swifter than the winds? And all mankind, in contradiction ftrong, Rueful, aghast! cry out at his career. A DRE A M. TORTUR'D with pain, as late I fleepless lay, With odious leprofy, one horrid fore. This wretch approach'd, and laid him by my fide, .. Yet "Yet here, diftin&tions cease; a beggar's duft Shall rife with kings-more happy if more juft. "Till then we both one common mafs fhall join, "And fpite of fcorn, my afhes mix with thine." BLESS'D be the man, his memory at least, The friend was gone, which fome kind moments gave, When for a wife the youthful Patriarch fent, The rings and bracelets woo'd her hands and arms; To catch the foul when drawn into the eye, WERE it lawful and becoming in man to choose his circumstances in life, a mediocrity would perhaps be the moft ufeful, and the freeft from temptation; though notwithstanding these advantages, fome might think it not the moft defirable. Opulence may tempt us to diffipation, indolence, fenfuality, and total forgetfulness of God; poverty, to envy, falfhood, difhoneity, and perjury. Let us, therefore, fay with Agur," Give me neither poverty nor riches, feed me with food conve"nient for me; left I be full and deny thee, and fay, "Who is the Lord ? or be poor and steal, and take the 66 name <name of my God in vain." But even thofe Chriftians, who move in this middle fphere, have their forrows and their joys; they feel fome degree of pain, fome proportionable meafure of anxiety and care; they tafte a bitter mixed with every fweet, and they find a faithful monitor within, who tells them that the earth is not their portion, was not given as their reft, nor intended as their home. MY God, the steps of pious men Tho' they should fall, they rife again, Not all the riches of the earth Could make me fo rejoice. To MIRA, on removing into the Country, MIRA, while on earth we stay, Change our refidence we may; Change it often, and yet ftill May be happy if we will. Virtue ftill fhall be our care, D Chicks |