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| THOU whose sweet youth and early hopes enhance | |
| Thy rate and price, and mark thee for a treasure, | |
| Hearken unto a Verser, who may chance | |
| Rhyme thee to good, and make a bait of pleasure: | |
| A verse may find him who a sermon flies | 5 |
| And turn delight into a sacrifice. * * * * * | |
| When thou dost purpose aught (within thy power), | |
| Be sure to doe it, though it be but small; | |
| Constancie knits the bones, and make us stowre, | |
| When wanton pleasures beckon us to thrall. | 10 |
| Who breaks his own bond, forfeiteth himself: | |
| What nature made a ship, he makes a shelf. * * * * * | |
| By all means use sometimes to be alone. | |
| Salute thyself: see what thy soul doth wear. | |
| Dare to look in thy chest; for ’t is thine own; | 15 |
| And tumble up and down what thou find’st there. | |
| Who cannot rest till he good fellows finde, | |
| He breaks up house, turns out of doores his minde. | |
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| In clothes, cheap handsomenesse doth bear the bell. | |
| Wisdome’s a trimmer thing than shop e’er gave. | 20 |
| Say not then, This with that lace will do well; | |
| But, This with my discretion will be brave. | |
| Much curiousnesse is a perpetual wooing; | |
| Nothing, with labor; folly, long a doing. * * * * * | |
| When once thy foot enters the church, be bare. | 25 |
| God is more there than thou; for thou art there | |
| Only by his permission. Then beware, | |
| And make thyself all reverence and fear. | |
| Kneeling ne’er spoiled silk stockings; quit thy state; | |
| All equal are within the church’s gate. | 30 |
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| Resort to sermons, but to prayers most: | |
| Praying ’s the end of preaching. O, be drest! | |
| Stay not for th’ other pin: why thou hast lost | |
| A joy for it worth worlds. Thus hell doth jest | |
| Away thy blessings, and extremely flout thee, | 35 |
| Thy clothes being fast, but thy soul loose about thee. * * * * * | |
| Judge not the preacher; for he is thy judge: | |
| If thou mislike him, thou conceiv’st him not. | |
| God calleth preaching folly. Do not grudge | |
| To pick out treasures from an earthen pot. | 40 |
| The worst speak something good: if all want sense, | |
| God takes a text, and preacheth Pa-ti-ence. | |
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