And warbling out the old, begin anew, And thus they pass their youth in summer season, Where winter's never felt by that sweet airy legion 29 Man at the best a creature frail and vain, From some of these he never finds cessation, But day or night, within, without, vexation, Troubles from foes, from friends, from dearest, near'st Relation 30 And yet this sinfull creature, frail and vain, Can make him deeply groan for that divine Translation. 31 The Mariner that on smooth waves doth glide, And makes him long for a more quiet port, 32 So he that saileth in this world of pleasure, M Fond fool, he takes this earth ev'n for heav'ns bower. Here's neither honour, wealth, nor safety; 33 O Time the fatal wrack of mortal things, Their sumptuous monuments, men know them not, Their parts, their ports, their pomp's all laid in th❜dust то 1 TO MY DEAR AND LOVING HUSBAND If ever two were one, then surely we. If ever man were lov'd by wife, then thee; Compare with me ye women if you can. I prize thy love more then whole Mines of gold, LONGING FOR HEAVEN As weary pilgrim, now at rest, his dangers past, and travailes done 1 Rev. ii. 17. The burning sun no more shall heat for thirst no more shall parch his tongue No rugged stones his feet shall gaule nor stumps nor rocks cause him to fall with sinns with cares and sorrows vext and soare on high among the blest. Mine eyes no more shall ever weep nor grinding paines my body fraile and of their maker have the sight then Come deare bridgrome Come away. Aug: 31, 69. MEDITATIONS, DIVINE AND MORALL I There is no object that we see; no action that we doe; no good that we injoy; no evill that we feele, or fear, but we may make some spirituall advantage of all: and he that makes such improvement is wise, as well as pious. II Many can speak well, but few can do well. We are better scholars in the Theory then the practique part, but he is a true Christian that is a proficient in both. III Youth is the time of getting, middle age of improving, and old age of spending; a negligent youth is usually attended by an ignorant middle age, and both by an empty old age. He that hath nothing to feed on but vanity and lyes must needs lye down in the Bed of sorrow. IV A ship that beares much saile, and little or no ballast, is easily overset; and that man, whose head hath great abilities, and his heart little or no grace, is in danger of foundering. V It is reported of the peakcock that, prideing himself in his gay feathers, he ruffles them up; but, spying his black feet, he soon lets fall his plumes, so he that glories in his gifts and adornings, should look upon his Corruptions, and that will damp his high thoughts. The finest bread hath the least bran; the purest hony, the least wax; and the sincerest christian, the least self-love. MICHAEL WIGGLESWORTH [Michael Wigglesworth, the most popular versifier of early New England Puritanism, was born in England, but came to America with his parents in 1638, at the age of seven. He was graduated from Harvard in 1651, and was for a time tutor in that institution. For nearly half a century he was pastor of the church at Malden, Mass., though for long periods of time he was unable to preach on account of ill health. During these periods his avocations seem to have been medicine and versifying. He became a skilful physician, and some of his poems show his familiarity with medical phraseology. The poem which made him famous was "The Day of Doom, or a Poetical Description of the Great and Last Judgment." This was published in 1662, and has been many times reprinted in both England and America. It consists of two hundred and twenty-four eight-line stanzas of jigging octosyllabics, and describes in detailed and graphic manner the events of the Judgment Day. In the part of the poem which the author's contemporaries probably found most edifying, different classes of sinners offer pleas for mercy, and are in turn answered by the Judge. The popularity of the poem was doubtless due in part to the vivid descriptions, which must have been especially striking to readers who knew little poetry except that which presented abstract moralizing; and in part to the fact that the answers to different sinners expounded in easily remembered jingles many of the chief doctrines of Calvinism. At all events "The Day of Doom" was long considered a religious classic. It was almost universally read, and innumerable children were required to learn it with their catechisms. Of late years the want of dignity and fitness in its form, together with the harshness of the pictures that it presents, have combined to make it as notorious as it was once famous. Michael Wigglesworth also wrote a few other poems, including "Meat out of the Eater, or Meditations concerning the Necessity, End, and Usefulness of Affliction to God's Children," published in 1669, and "God's Controversy with New England, written in the Time of the Great Drought, anno 1662, by a Lover of New England's Prosperity," first printed in the Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, for 1871. As no copy of the "Day of Doom" published in Wigglesworth's lifetime is available, the selections that follow are taken from the edition prepared by William Henry Burr in 1867. This is based on the edition of 1715, compared with the London edition of 1673. The spelling and, to some extent, the punctuation have been modernized. The closing stanzas of "God's Controversy with New England" are from the Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society.] |