But suddenly a storm spoils all the sport, So he that saileth in this world of pleasure, Feeding on sweets, that never bit of th' sowre, That's full of friends, of honour and of treasure, Fond fool, he takes this earth ev'n for heav'n's bower. But sad affliction comes and makes him see O Time the fatal wrack of mortal things, That draws oblivion's curtains over kings, Their sumptuous monuments, men know them not, Their names without a Record are forgot, Their parts, their ports, their pomp's all laid in th' dust, Nor wit, nor gold, nor buildings 'scape time's rust; But he whose name is graved in the white stone Shall last and shine when all of these are gone. OLD AGE RECOUNTS THE HISTORY OF THE PURITAN PERIOD What you have been, ev'n such have I before, An end of all perfection now I see. It's not my valour, honour, nor my gold, My ruin'd house, now falling can uphold; It's not my Learning, Rhetoric, wit so large, I've seen a Prince, to live on others' lands, But not their Prince's love, nor state so high; ALEXANDER MEETS DARIUS-FROM THE FOUR MONARCHIES CP THE WORLD. And on he goes Darius for to meet; Who came with thousand thousands at his feet, A number of spare horses next were led, Two hundred thousand men that day were slain, THE FLESH AND THE SPIRIT. In secret place where once I stood Things that are past and things to come. Doth contemplation feed thee so Notion without reality? Dost dream of things beyond the moon And dost thou hope to dwell there soon? That all in th' world thou count'st but poor? To catch at shadows which are not? What canst desire, but thou mayst see Dost honor like? acquire the same, Disturb no more my settled heart, My thoughts do yield me more content Than can thy hours in pleasure spent. With which enriched I would be; My garments are not silk nor gold, A christal river there doth run, Which doth proceed from the Lamb's throne: Nor sun, nor moon, they have no need, No candle there, nor yet torch light, For evermore there shall be free, For things unclean there shall not be; PETER FOLGER. PETER FOLGER, the maternal grandfather of Benjamin Franklin, and only child of John Folger, came to America with his father from Norwich, England, in 1635, at the age of eighteen. They settled soon after their arrival at Martha's Vineyard, where John died in 1660, leaving a widow, Meribell, who was living in 1663. Peter married, in 1644, Mary Morrell, an inmate in the family of the celebrated Hugh Peters, who is said to have been a fellow-passenger of the Folgers in their voyage to America. In 1663 he removed to Nantucket, and was among the first settlers of that island. He was one of five commissioners to lay out land, a task for which he was well qualified by his knowledge of surveying; and the words of the order prove the estimation in which he was held in the community, it being therein stated, that "whatsoever shall be done by them, or any three of them, Peter Folger being one, shall be accounted legal and valid." He learned the language of the Indians, and was of much service as an interpreter. The aid rendered by him in this manner to the Rev. Thomas Mayhew, the Indian missionary at Martha's Vineyard, is thus recorded by Thomas Prince in his account of that good and able man, the ancestor of the great Dr. Mayhew of the Revolution. "He had," says Prince, an able and godly Englishman, named Peter Folger, employed in teaching the youth in reading, writing, and the principles of religion by catechizing; being well learned likewise in the Scriptures, and capable of helping them in religious matters." A long letter to his son-in-law, Joseph Pratt, is a further proof of his familiarity with the Scriptures, and with religious topics, and he is said to have occasionally preached. He died in 1690, and his wife in 1704. They had two sons and seven daughters, the youngest of whom, Abiah, was Franklin's mother. A few lines in the autobiography of his grandson, have buoyed up Peter Folger into immortality as an author. "I was born at Boston, in New England. My mother, the second wife, was Abiah Folger, daughter of Peter Folger, one of the first colonists of New England, of whom Cotton Mather makes honourable mention, in his Ecclesiastical History of that province, as a pious and learned Englishman, if I rightly recollect his expressions. I have been told of his having written a variety of little pieces; but there appears to be only one in print, which I met with many years ago. It was published in the year 1675, and is in familiar verse, agreeably to the tastes of the times and the country. The author addresses himself to the governors for the time being, speaks for liberty of conscience, and in favour of the anabaptists, quakers, and other sectaries, who had suffered persecution. To this persecution he attributes the wars with the natives, and other calamities which afflicted the country, regarding them as the judgments of God in punishment of so odious an offence, and he exhorts the government to the repeal of laws so contrary to charity. The poem appeared to be written with a manly freedom and a pleasing simplicity." The outbreaks of opinion and half-framed utterances of the Nantucket surveyor, were to be clarified, in the third generation, into the love of liberty and the clear-toned expression of the essayist, philosopher, and patriot. The title of Folger's poem is, A Looking-glass for the Times, or the Former Spirit of New England revived in this generation. It was reprinted in 1763. Copies of it are very rare. We are indebted for the one from which we have reprinted, to a MS. copy in possession of Mr. Bancroft. A LOOKING-GLASS FOR THE TIMES, OR THE FORMER SPIRIT OF NEW ENGLAND REVIVED IN THIS GENERATION. Let all that read these verses know, That I intend something to show The plague of war is now begun And many towns are desolate we may lament also, Who in the war have lost their lives, Our women also they have took The enemy that hath done this, If we then truly turn to God, Let us then search, what is the sin Sure 'tis not chiefly for those sins, But 'tis for that same crying sin, The sin of persecution such laws established, By which laws they have gone so far, as blood hath touched blood. It is now forty years ago, since some of them were made, Which was the ground and rise of all the persecuting trade. Then many worthy persons were lose their most precious bloods. And since that, many godly men, Have been to prison sent, They have been fined, and whipped also, and suffered banishment. The cause of this their suffering was not for any sin, But for the witness that they bare against babe sprinkling. Of later time there hath been some men come into this land, To warn the rulers of their sins as I do understand. They call on all, both great and small, to fear God and repent; And for their testimonies thus Yea some of them they did affirm, that God would send his rod. Against those colonies, because the end would be in blood. And though that these were harmless men, and did no hurt to any, But lived well like honest men, as testified by many; Yet did these laws entrap them so, that they were put to death,And could not have the liberty to speak near their last breath. But these men were, as I have heard, against our College men; And this was, out of doubt to me, that which was most their sin. They did reprove all hirelings, with a most sharp reproof, Because they knew not how to preach till sure of means enough. Now to the sufferings of these men Because that in George Bishop's* book you may see all in print. But may we know the counsellors They were the tribe of ministers, These are the men that by their wits have spun so fair a shred, That now themselves and others are of natives in a dread. What need is there of such a fear if we have done no ill? But 'tis because that we have been not doing of God's will. When Cain had slain his brother, then began this fear to be, That every man would do to him the same that did him see. The Scripture doth declare the cause why Cain did kill his brother; It was because the deeds of one Then let us all, both great and small, *George Bishop, a Quaker, published "New England judged, not by man's but by the Spirit of the Lord, and the sum sealed up of New England's persecutions; being a brief relation of the sufferings of the Quakers in that part of America, from the beginning of the fifth month, 1656, to the end of the tenth month, 1660; wherein the cruel whippings and scourgings, bonds and imprisonments, and burning in the hand, and cutting off of ears, banishment upon pain of death, and putting to death, &c., are shortly touched." 1661. A second part appeared in 1667, and both were reprinted in 1708, with An Answer to Cotton Mather's Abuses in his late History of New England, by John Whiting, with an Appendix." Bishop joined the Quakers in 1654. He was the author of several works on the doctrines of the sect to which he belonged, published at intervals from 1660 to 1668. Which have been made as traps and snares to catch the innocents, And whereby it has gone so far to acts of violence. I see you write yourselves in print, the Balm of Gilead; Then do not act as if you were like men that are half mad. If you can heal the land, what is the cause things are so bad? I think instead of that, you make the hearts of people sad. Is this a time for you to press, to draw the blood of those That are your neighbours and your friends? as if you had no foes. Yea, some there are, as I have heard, have lately found out tricks To put the cause of all the war Or rather on some officers, I do affirm to you, if that Now, loving friends and countrymen, "Tis now a time for every man to see with his own eyes. 'Tis easy to provoke the Lord To show a spirit that is high, To covet what is not our own, To swear and lie, and to be drunk, To live in such hypocrisy, as men may think us good, Although our hearts within are full of evil and of blood. All these and many evils more we have no strength unto. Let us then seek for help from God, and turn to him that smite: Let us take heed that at no time we sin against our light. Let's bear our testimony piain against sin in high and low; And see that we no cowards be, to hide the light we know. When Jonathan is called to court, shall we as standers by, Be still and have no word to speak, but suffer him to die? If that you say you cannot help, That you shall lose some carnal things, Tis true there are some times, indeed, of silence to the meek; Not ever, for the Lord doth say, there is a time to speak. Be vigilant then for to see the movings of your heart, And you will know right well the time when you shall act your part. I would not have you for to think, The rulers in the country, I But that which I intend hereby, is, that they would keep bounds, And meddle not with God's worship, for which they have no ground. And I am not alone herein, there's many hundreds more, That have for many years ago spake much upon that score. Indeed I really believe, it's not your business To meddle with the Church of Christ There's work enough to do besides, And I do think that now you find Much more at such a time as this, Indeed I count it very low, I count it worse in magistrates To do that work which Christ alone will do by his own word. The Church may now go stay at home, there's nothing for to do; Their work is all cut out by law, and almost made up too. Now, reader, least you should mistake, in what I said before Concerning ministers, I think to write a few words more. I would not have you for to think that I am such a fool, To write against learning, as such, or to cry down a school. But 't is that Popish college way, that I intend hereby, Where men are mew'd up in a cage; fit for all villainy. But I shall leave this puddle stuff to neighbours at the door, That can speak more unto such things, upon a knowing score. And now these men, though ne'er so bad, when they have learn'd their trade, They must come in and bear a part, whatever laws are made. I can't but wonder for to see And stir them up to do that work, those that they judge are saints. There's one thing more that I believe But I shall leave this dirty stuff, and give but here a hint, Because that you have Cradock's book,* and may see more in print. There are some few, it may be, that are clear of this same trade; And of those men, I only say, these verses are not made. Now for the length of time, how long these wars are like to be, I may speak something unto that, The Scripture doth point out the time, The prophet Jeremy doth say, when war was threat'ned sore, That if men do repent and turn, God will afflict no more. But such a turning unto God, as is but verbally, When men refuse for to reform, it is not worth a fly. "Gospel Liberty, in the Extensions and Limitations of it," Lond. 1646, 4to., by Walter Cradock, is probably the work referred to. Another Cradock, Samuel, a non-conformist divine, born 1620, died 1706, however, published "Gospel Liberty: his Glad Tidings from Heaven;" no date. Both were the authors of a number of sermons and religious works. |