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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The Free Giver. |
 | Prison-Pietie |  |
The Free Giver.
Great Alexander, when he youthful was,A check received from Leonidas
His Governour, for being too profuse
In wasting his perfumes in pious use:
For on a day being to sacrifice
Unto the Gods, to shew himself unnice,
Fill'd both his hands with Frankincense; that done,
Gave it the fire as his devotion.
But afterwards when he became a man,
He conquered Judea, over-ran
That Country whence those spices took their birth,
Then to conclude his piety with mirth,
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Too much) to him grutch'd what he gave the Gods.
Thus they that sowing plentifully keep
A zeal unspotted, plentifully reap.
He that doth niggardly his Talent spare,
Shall sow, but in the end reap but a Tare.
Give God the choicest branches of thy fruit;
For by that means God may give thee the Root.
| Prison-Pietie | |