"Taste not," said God; "'tis mine and angels' meat; "A certain death doth fit, "Like an ill worm, i' th' core of it. "Ye cannot know and live, nor live or know and eat." Thus fpoke God, yet man did go Ignorantly on to know ; Grew fo more blind, and the Who tempted him to this, grew yet more blind than he. The only science man by this did get, Was but to know he nothing knew: His ignorant poor eftate, and was asham'd of it. Yet fearches probabilities, And rhetorick, and fallacies, And feeks by useless pride, With flight and withering leaves that nakedness to hide. "Henceforth," faid God," the wretched fons of earth "Shall fweat for food in vain, “That will not long sustain ; "And bring with labour forth each fond abortive birth. "That ferpent too, their pride, “Which aims at things deny'd; "Instead of mounting high, fhall creep upon the dust.” S THE USE OF IT IN DIVINE MATTERS. OME blind themselves, 'caufe poffibly they may They build on fands, which if unmov'd they find, 'Tis but becaufe there was no wind. Lefs hard 'tis, not to err ourselves, than know Viñions and infpirations fome expect- Like fenfelefs chemifts their own wealth deftroy, Imaginary gold t' enjoy: So ftars appear to drop to us from sky, But when they fall, and meet th' oppofing ground, Sometimes their fancies they 'bove reafon fet, And faft, that they may dream of meat s Sometimes ill fpirits their fickly fouls delude, And baftard forms obtrude: So Endor's wretched forcerefs, although She Saul through his difguife did know, Yet, when the devil comes up difguis'd, the cries, "Behold the Gods arife." In vain, alas! these outward hopes are try'd; Reason, which (God be prais'd!) ftill walks, for all Its old original fall : And, fince itself the boundless Godhead join'd With a reasonable mind, It plainly fhows that myfteries divine The holy book, like the eighth sphere, does fhine So numberless the stars, that to the eye, Yet Reafon muft affift too; for, in feas Though Reason cannot through Faith's myfteries fes, It fees that there and fuch they be ; Leads to heaven's door, and there does humbly keep, And there through chinks and key-holes peep: Though it, like Mofes, by a fad command, Mult not come into th' Holy Land, Yet thither it infallibly does guide, 1 ON THE DEATH OF MR. CRASHAW. OET and Saint! to thee alone are given POET The two moft facred names of Earth and Heaven; The hard and rareft union which can be, Next that of godhead with humanity. Like Mofes thou (though fpells and charms withstand) hell! Thou need'ft not make new fongs, but fay the old; Find stars, and tie our fates there in a face, And paradise in them, by whom we loft it, place. Thy spotlefs Mufe, like Mary, did contain And for a facred mistress fcorn'd to take, But her whom God himself fcorn'd not his spouse to make. It (in a kind) her miracle did do ; A fruitful mother was, and virgin too. * How well (bleft fwan!) did Fate contrive thy death, And made thee render up thy tuneful breath In thy great miftrefs' arms, thou most divine And richest offering of Loretto's fhrine! Where, like fome holy facrifice t' expire, A fever burns thee, and Love lights the fire. Angels (they fay) brought the fam'd chapel there, And bore the facred load in triumph through the air: 'Tis furer much they brought thee there; and they, And thou, their charge, went finging all the way. Pardon, my mother-church! if I confent That angels led him when from thee he went; For ev'n in error fure no danger is, When join'd with so much piety as his, Mr. Crashaw died of a fever at Loretto, being newly chofen canon of that church. Ah, |