A Dialogue wherein the Speakers are Distressed Conscience and Rectified Judgment.

Consc

1

'Tis not Affliction barely
That doth my Soul distress:
But rather multitude of sins
And mine own wickedness
Nor is it former faults
That now are brought to mind,
So much, as swarms of present sins
And hateful Lusts I find.

2

Had ever any one

Another Dialogue or Combate between the Flesh and Spirit.

Flesh

1

Oh but I greatly fear,
My sufferings are not such
As Childrens Nurture use to be,
But that they differ much.
They are too great and long,
I fear, to stand with love:
Such everwhehning strokes, methinks,
Do rather hatred prove.

2

Were I a child of God

Being a Dialogue wherein the Speakers are Spirit and Flesh.

Spirit

1

My Soul what aileth thee
Thus heavily to droop,
And under thine Affliction
Dejectedly to stoop?
Art thou the onely man
That hath Affliction seen?
And have not better men then thou
As much afflicted been?

2

Hast thou no part in God?

1

Thus far in generall
About Afflictions,
Wherewith the Lord will exercise
All whom he owns for sons.
Now of particular Ailes
And Exercises great
(Such as most commonly befall)
We purpose to entreat.

2

The Spirit of a man
Will many Griefs sustain:
But who can bear a wounded Sp'rit?

XI.

The youth, whom admiration draws
To sacrifice at Beauty's shrine,
'Till, mad'ned with his own applause,
He deems the mortal nymph divine.
How does he time, and fate upbraid,
'Till wedded to th' all perfect maid.
But then the fond illusion flies:

VI.

Not in the public walks of men
Can we possess our full desires;
Behold! to some sequster'd glen
Defeated Enterprize retires.
There Solitude, and quiet rest,
Shall drive Ambition from his breast;
Would it could drive remembrance too?
But all the wrongs of base mankind,
Engraven on the feeling mind,
Shall o'er his foul dissuse Misanthropy's sad hue.

VII.

Yon cottage fee. The mantling vine
O'er the white wall redundant strays:
Content! this residence is thine;
The rosy tenants chaunt thy praise.

I.

A ND thus doth Jury's sapient King,
Who full felicity enjoy'd,
The dirge of disappointment sing,
And deeply mourn the total void?
With festal roses see him crown'd;
The nymphs of Sion, gather'd round,
Expect delight, and love the theme.
He modulates the harp's soft flow

SCENE XI.

HEIGHTS OF MOUNT HERMON.

I SRAPHIL , A ZOARA , O RAZIEL , A STARTE , A NK .

ISRAPHIL .

Our power is gone from us; to tempt it more
Were but to perish; we await our doom,
The justice or the mercy of the Lord.

AZOARA .

Farewell my hope that was not hope! I felt
A consciousness that we were bound to earth.
Here we remain, the mark of elements,
Until insensible to suffering.

ASTARTE .

SCENE X.

MOUNTAINOUS SOLITUDES OF HERMON.

I SRAPHIL , A ZOARA , O RAZIEL , A STARTE .

ASTARTE .

Is this our doom decreed, to perish thus?
To confront death, and feel the stroke ere dealt,
Hopeless in God as in ourselves? I heard
The threat, but deemed it was a sound; I felt
His mercy infinite as is his love.

ORAZIEL .

And doth Astarte in her fears forget
Her Angel's presence?

ASTARTE .

Look on me! — do I fear?

SCENE . IX

THE WILDERNESS OF MOUNT HERMON.

Time — Daybreak

IRAD .

Morn breaks on earth, not joyously as wont,
But seraph-like with her fringed eyes o'ercast,
Their azure light seen dimly through her tears.
The world beneath is slumbering — how still!
Unnatural rest, or rather listening fear,
Waiting with pulse and respiration hushed
For the great thing to come.
My voice appals
As if I were the only living thing.
Calmly they sleep beneath me, the foredoomed,