Hard by yon Wood, now fmiling as in Scorn, Mutt'ring his wayward Fancies he would rove; 'Now drooping, woeful wan, like one forlorn, 'Or craz'd with Care, or crofs'd in hopeless Love •One Morn I mifs'd him on the cuftom'd Hill; Along the Heath, and near his fav'rite Tree, Another came; nor yet befide the Rill, Nor up the Lawn, nor at the Wood was he. "The next with Dirges due in fad Array • Slow through the Church-way Path we saw him borne, Approach and read (for thou can't read) the Lay, 'Grav'd on the Stone beneath yon aged Thorn.' The EPITAPH. HERE refts his Head upon the Lap of Earth, Large was his Bounty, and his Soul fincere, Fe gave to Mis'ry all he had, a Tear, He gain'd from Heaven, ('twas all he wish'd) a Friend. No farther feek his Merits to ditclofe, Or draw his Frailties from their dread Abode, (There they alike in trembling Hope repofe) The Bofom of his Father and his GOD. Reface Reflections on a folitary walk in Weftminster Abby SPECTATOR. W HEN I am in a ferious Humour, I very often walk by myfelf in Westminster Abby; where the Gloominefs of the Place, and the Ufe to which it is applied, with the Solemnity of the Building, and the Condition of the People who lye in it, are apt to fill the Mind with a Kind of Melancholy, or rather Thoughtfulness, that is not disagreeable. I know that Entertainments of this Nature are apt to raile dark and dismal Thoughts in timorous Minds, and gloomy Imaginations: but for my own Part, though I am always ferious, I do not know what it is to be melancholy; and can therefore take a View of Nature in her deep and folemn Scenes, with the fame Pleasure as in her moft gay and delightful ones. By this Means I can improve myfelf with thofe Objects which others confider with Terror. When I look upon the Tombs of the Great, every Emotion of Envy dies in me; when I read the Epitaphs of the Beautiful, every inordinate Defire goes out; when I meet with the Grief of Parents upon a TombStone, my Heart melts with Compaffion; when I fee the Tomb of the Parents themselves, I confider the Vanity of grieving for those whom we muft quickly follow: When I fee Kings lying by those who depofed them, when I confider rival Wits placed Side by Side, or the holy Men that divided the World with their Contests and Difputes, I reflect with Sorrow and astonishment on the little Competitions, Factions, and Debates of Man Mankind. When I read the feveral Dates of the 'Tombs, of fome that died Yesterday, and fome Six Hundred Years ago, I confider that great Day when we fhall all of us be contemporaries, and make our Appearance together. Reflections on the Diffolution of the vifible World. L ET us reflect upon this Occafion on the Vanity and tranfient Glory of this habitable World. How by the Force of one Element breaking loofe upon the reft, all the Vanities of Nature, all the Works of Art, all the Labours of Men, are reduced to Nothing. All that we admired and = adored before as great and magnificent, is obliterated or vanished; and another Form and Face of Things, plain, fimple, and every where the fame, overspreads the whole Earth. Where are now the great Empires of the World, and their great Imperial Cities? Their Pillars, Trophies, and Monuments of Glory? Shew me where they flood, read the Infcription, tell me the Victors Name. What Remains, what Impreffions, what Difference, or Distinction, do you fee in this Mafs of Fire? Rome itself, eternal Rome, the great City, the Emprefs of the World, whofe Domination and Superftition, ancient and Modern, make a great Part of the Hiftory of this Earth; what is become of her now? She laid her Foundations deep, and her Palaces were ftrong and fumptuous: She glorified herself, and lived deliciously, and faid in her Heart I fit a Queen, and shall fee no Sorrow: But her her Hour is come, fhe is. wiped away from the Face of the Earth, and buried in everlafting Obli vion. But it is not Cities only, and Works of Mens Hands, but the everlafting Hills, the Mountains and Rocks of the Earth are melted as Wax before the Sun, and their Place is no where found. Here flood the Alps, the Load of the Earth, that covered many Countries, and reached their Arms from the Ocean to the Black Sea; this huge Mas of Stone is foftened and diffolved as a tender Cloud into Rain. Here ftood the African Mountains, and Atlas with his Top above the Clouds; there was frozen Caucafus, and Taurus, and Imaus, and the Mountains of Afia; and yonder towards the North ftood the Riphaun Hills, cloath'd in Ice and Snow All these are vanish'd, dropt away as the Snow upon their Heads. Great and Marvellous are thy Works, juft and true are thy Ways, thou King of Saints! Hallelujah! Contemplations on future Bleffedness a noble Souraf Joy to the true Chriftian. TILLOTSON. ITH what Joy fhould we think of those "great and glorious Things which Goo "hath prepared for them that love him, of that "Inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, which fad"eth not away, reserved for us in the Heavens?" How fhould we welcome the Thoughts of that happy Hour, when we fhall make our Escape out of thefe Prifons, when we fhall pafs out of this howling Wilderness into the promised Land," when when we fhall be removed from all the Troubles and Temptations of a wicked and ill-natured World; when we shall be past all Storms, and fecured from all further Danger of Shipwreck, and shall be safely landed in the Regions of Bliss and Immortality? O bleffed Time! “when all Tears shall be "wiped from our Eyes, and Death and Sorrow "shall be no more; when Mortality shall be swal"lowed up of Life," and we shall enter upon the Poffeffion of all that Happiness and Glory which GOD hath promised, and our Faith hath believed, and our Hopes have raised us to the Expectation of; when we fhall be eased of all our Pains, and refolved of all our Doubts, and be purged from all our Sins, and be freed from all our Fears, and be happy beyond all our Hopes, and have all this Happiness secured to us beyond the Power of Time and Change; when we fhall know GoD and other Things without Study, and love him and one another without Measure, and ferve and praise him without Weariness, and obey his Will without Reluctancy; and shall still be more and more delighted in the knowing, and loving, and praising, and obeying of GOD to all Eternity, Eternity! that boundless Race, Which Time himself can never run, Swift as he flies with an unwearied Pace, Which when Ten Thousand Thousand Years are done, Is ftill the fame, and ftill to be begun. |