Narrow is the way that leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.
Prepost'rous foole, thou troul'st amisse:
Thou err'st; That's not the way, 'Tis this;
Thy hopes instructed by thine Eye,
Make thee appeare more neare than I;
My floore is not so flat, so fine,
And has more obvious Rubs than thine;
'Tis true; my way is hard, and strait,
And leads me through a thorny Gate;
Whose ranckling pricks are sharp, and fell;
The common way to heav'n's by Hell:
'Tis true; Thy path is short and faire,
And free of Rubbs. Ah, foole, beware,
The safest Road's not alwayes ev'n;
The way to Hell's a seeming Heav'n;
Think'st thou, the Crowne of Glory's had
With idle ease, fond Cyprian Lad?
Think'st thou, that mirth, and vaine delights,
High feed, and shadow-shortning nights,
Soft knees, full bones, and Beds of Downe
Are proper Prologues to a Crowne?
Or canst thou hope to come, and view,
Like prosperous Caesar, and subdue?
The bond-slave Usurer will trudge
In spite of Gouts, will turne a drudge,
And serve his soule-condemning purse,
T'increase it with the widowes Curse;
And shall the Crowne of glory stand
Not worth the waving of a hand?
The fleshly wanton, to obtaine
His minit-lust, will count it gaine
To lose his freedome, his Estate
Upon so deare, so sweet a rate;
Shall pleasures thus be priz'd, and must
Heav'ns Palme be cheaper than a lust?
The true-bred Spark, to hoyse his name
Upon the waxen wings of Fame,
Will fight, undaunted, in a Flood
That's rais'd with brackish drops, and blood:
And shall the promis'd Crowne of life
Be thought a Toy, not worth a Strife?
And easie Good brings easie Gaines,
But things of price are bought with paines:
The pleasing way is not the right:
He that would conquer heav'n, must fight.
S. HIEROM. in Ep.
No labour is hard, no time is long, wherein the glory of Eternity is the mark we levell at.
S. GREG. lib.8. Mor.
The valour of a just man is to conquer the flesh, to contradict his owne
will, to quench the delights of this present life, to indure and love the
miseries of this world for the reward of a better, to contmne the flatteries of
prosperiy, and inwardly to overcome the feares of adversity.
