Divine emblems Embellished with etchings on copper, after the fashion of Master Francis Quarles. Designed and written by, Johann Abricht [i.e. Jonathan Birch |
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| 1. | FIRST PART. |
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 | Divine emblems |  |
1. FIRST PART.
Lighten mine eyes, O Lord, lest I sleep the sleep of death.
PSALM 13, v. 3.
[To tread]
I
To treadWhere sleep the dead;
To muse upon the past,
Is life to know, whilst life does last.
The flow'r that blooms upon the conic sod
Exhaling fragrant sweets—emblems a soul with God!
II
Where lieThe great that die?
I'th' earth!—and their abode
Is with the slave that bore the load!
Death knows not of degrees—he equal makes
The clown, the priest, the monarch! when their breath he takes.
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III
The deadO'er whom we tread:
But few years past trod o'er
The church-yard—and are now no more:
Silent and dank they rest—the boist'rous world,
With all its storms, affrights them not—their sails are furl'd.
IV
To muse,And to diffuse
Our musings 'mongst the young,
Ready to join the busy throng,
Of men—is what Experience owes to Youth:
Let them beware of slighting wisdom and reproof!
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V
UponA plank we run,
Across a gulph that yawns—
Life's path is thick beset with thorns!
It is a meadow all bestrew'd with flowers!
It is a stormy sea!—a day of gentle showers!
VI
The past!The thought how vast—
Epoch on Epoch, have evolv'd!
Yet “the first cause” is still unsolv'd;
The problem's, not for man's infirmity
Of mind—we cannot comprehend “eternity!”
84
O Wisdom! with how sweet an art doth thy wine and oil restore health to my healthless soul! how powerfully merciful, how mercifully powerful art thou! powerful for me, merciful to me!
S. GREG., in pastoral.
The Church-yard is a delightful garden, and the Charnel-house a mansion of sweet savour to the enquiring soul; for they lead to meditation on the fragileness and noisomeness of this corruptible, and the necessary preparation for the incorruptible state.
ANON.
But it is good for me to draw near to God; I have put my trust in the Lord God.
PSALM 73, v. 28.
EPIG.
[The Tombstone “records” of the village dead]
The Tombstone “records” of the village deadInvite the passer-by to—“stop and read!”
O Reader! read and stop—behold thy bed
Of earth! whate'er thy rank—whate'er thy creed.
| Divine emblems | |