Prison-Pietie or, Meditations Divine and Moral. Digested into Poetical Heads, On Mixt and Various Subjects. Whereunto is added A Panegyrick to The Right Reverend, and most Nobly descended, Henry, Lord Bishop of London. By Samuel Speed, Prisoner in Ludgate, London |
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On Fatherly Affection. |
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On Fatherly Affection.
As in the street I walking cast my eye,It was my chance two Children to espie
Fighting together: by and by in hast
The Father of the one, who saw what past,
Stept in, and suddenly, without delay,
He parted both, and took his Son away,
And like a Father, careful of his Son,
Gave him correction for the fault he'd done.
The other Lad was left without a check,
Which made him strut and boast, and stretch his neck,
Believing he had surely won the day,
Though both alike were equal in the fray.
I thought it hard that one should punish'd be
And not the other, he escaping free.
At last I guess'd 'twas a Paternal care
One to correct, to teach him to beware:
For over him he a dominion had,
But was a stranger to the other Lad.
So when the wicked sin, the godly smart;
God in chastising shews Paternal art:
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Pursue their sins, and act them o're agen.
The reason common sense cannot avoid,
Sinners are spar'd only to be destroy'd.
What need a whip for stubborn sinners backs,
When 'tis decreed their heads are for the axe?
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