Classic Poem

Song I

1

Unto this General Head
We need not much to say
For all that went before doth tend
Our Sorrows to allay.
Yet forasmuch as Grief
From various causes springs
Nor it is possible to name,
Each thing that Sorrow Brings.

2

Wee'll spend a few leaves more
Concerning Grief, th' Effect
That so we may apply a Salve
And no man's sore neglect.
If then thou art a Saint
That languisheth in Grief,
God hath provided Cordials
To yield thy soul relief.

3

Thou must these Cordials know
And how to take and use them
Beware thou do not in a pett,
Neglect, much less refuse them.
God would not have us Blocks
That nothing lay to heart,
Nor would he have us mourn like those,
In Christ that have no part.

4

Perhaps thou hast displeas'd him,
And therefore art in pain,
But Jesus Christ will soon appease him,
If thou return again.
He is thy Father still,
And doth not cease to love thee,
Although he scourge thee for thy faults
Or for thy sins reprove thee.

5

Art thou in heaviness,
For some great outward loss?
Of choicest Comforts, dearest Friends,
Or for some other Cross?
'Tis fit that when God smites,
Thou shouldest feel the smart,
But let afflictions Bitterness,
Make thee lay sin to heart.

6

If this Affliction be
An evil bitter thing:
Oh what a bitter thing is sin,
That doth Affliction bring?
More evil is the Cause
Then the Effect can be:
For God doth punish less by far
Then thine iniquitie.

7

It is a bitter thing
To be in Heaviness?
What is it then to grieve the Lord,
And with my sins to press?
To wrong a loving Father?
Provoke a gracious God
(Who takes no pleasure in our smart)
To whip me with his Rod?

8

Convert thy Sorrow's stream
Into the Channel right:
And chiefly mourn because thou hast
Done evil in his sight.
Thus into godly sorrow
Thy worldly sorrow turn,
And God will turn away his wrath
When thus he sees thee mourn.

9

As oftentimes we see
In some acute disease,
To cut a Vein and let him blood
Will give him present ease.
Right so doth godly Sorrow
The bleeding of the Heart
Asswage the most heart-killing Grief,
and wondrous ease impart.

10

Empty Bad humours out;
First cool and cleanse the Blood,
And then a Cordial will revive
And do the man more good.
So when thou humbled art,
And purged from thy sin,
The Lord himself will comfort thee,
And Cordials sweet give in.

11

The deeper that the plow
Of true Repentance goes,
The richer Crop of spiritual joy
And holiness there grows.
The greater Spiritual joy,
The Lord to us imparts,
The more again it humbleth us,
And breaks our stony hearts.