 | Piety, and Poesy |  |
LET US PRAY.
After the Creed, our holy Pastors sayUnto their Congregations Let us pray.
The Custome is divine, it argues, they
That are Beleivers must not cease to Pray.
Protect Beleevers, therefore Let us pray.
Would we resist temptation, the broad way
That leads to black Damnation? Let us pray.
Would we have Names and Honors nere decay,
But flourish like the Spring-time? Let us pray.
Would we live long and happy, have each day
Crown'd with a thousand blessings? Let us pray.
Would we have Jesus Christ the onely stay
Of our sick souls and bodies? Let us pray.
Are we with Judas ready to betray
Our Friends for fatal treasure? Let us pray.
Are we grown proudly wise, will know no way
To Heaven but our own? pray Let us pray.
Are we so full of wrath, that we could slay
Our nearest, dearest Kindred? Let us pray.
Have we committed Treason, and no way
Is left but desperation? Let us pray.
Do we with Dives let poor Laz'rus stay
Fasting, while we are Feasting? Let us pray.
Lest evil-Angels bear our Souls away,
As they did his, to torment, Let us pray.
Are we in dismal Dungeons doom'd to stay,
'Till Death allow enlargement? Let us pray.
Are we so us'd to swear, that Yea and Nay
Are words of no Assertion? Let us pray.
Doth Pestilence possess us? lest Delay
Consume us in a moment, Let us pray.
Are we in wrathfull War, where Tyrants sway
The sword of black injustice? Let us pray.
From our red Adversaries? Let us pray.
Doth Famine vex our Nation, and decay
Our (once too pamper'd) bodies? Let us pray.
Doth Causeless Care oppresse us, that to day
We cast for food to Morrow? Let us pray,
Are we despis'd? contemn'd? made to obey
The wrath of other Nations? Let us pray.
Are we in sicknesse, and would gladly play
The sanctifi'd Physitians? Let us pray.
Doth Death approach us? lest too long Delay
Lose both our Souls and Bodies, Let us pray.
Would we be ready for Dooms dreadfull day?
Let us (like Ninevites) Fast, Watch, and Pray.
Sure sinfull Sodom had been sav'd, had they
With one entire consent said, Let us pray.
And put those words in practise; what we may
Obtain by Faith and Prayer, who can say,
But those blest Souls in Heaven? If Despair
Poyson the Soul, no Antidote like Prayer.
If, in the stead of Disputatious, we
These seven years, had put our Piety
Into the Act of Prayer, we might have bin
Free from those Mischiefs past, or now begin:
Prayer is the Key of Heaven, way to quiet,
The Lands preservative, the Angels diet:
It breaks the rage of Thunder, calms the Ocean,
It is the sweetest Issue of Devotion;
The Soul put into Language, a Design
That (by just claim) doth make Gods Kingdom thine:
The Christian's Sacrifice, the Path to Peace,
If we would have more blisse than Men can say,
Pens write, or Angels tell us, Let us pray.
| Piety, and Poesy | |