Threatning to bind our fouls with fecular chains:
Help us to fave free confcience from the paw
Of hireling wolves, whofe gospel is their maw.

XVII.

To Sir HENRY VANE the younger.

Vane, young

in years, but in fage counsel old,

Than whom a better fenator ne'er held

The helm of Rome, when gowns not arms repell'd
The fierce Epirot and the African bold,
Whether to fettle peace, or to unfold

The drift of hollow ftates hard to be fpell'd
Then to advise how war may best.

upheld Move by her two main nerves, iron and gold,

In all her equipage: befides to know

5

Both fpiritual pow'r and civil, what each means, 10 What feyers each, thou haft learn'd, which few

have done:

The bounds of either fword to thee we owe a
Therefore on thy firm hand religion leans
In peace, and reckons thee her eldest son..

XVIII.

On the late maffacre in Piemont.

Avenge, O Lord, thy flaughter'd faints, whofe bones
Lie fcatter'd on the Alpine
I mountains cold;
Ev'n them who kept thy truth fo pure of old,
When all our fathers worshipt stocks and stones,
Forget not: in thy book record their groans
Who were thy fheep, and in their ancient fold
Slain by the bloody Piemontefe, that roll'd

Mother

5

From the hard feason gaining? time will run
On smoother, till Favonius re-infpire
The frozen earth, and clothe in fresh attire
The lily' and rofe, that neither fow'd nor fpun.
What neat repaft fhail feaft us, light and choice,
Of Attic tafte, with wine, whence we may rife 10
To hear the lute well touch'd, or artful voice
Warble immortal notes and Tuscan air?

He who of thofe delights can judge, and spare
To interpofe them oft, is not unwife.

XXI.

To CYRIAC SKINNER

Cyriac, whofe grandfire on the royal bench
Of British Themis, with no mean applaufe
Pronounc'd and in his volumes taught our laws,
Which others at their bar fo often wrench;
To-day deep thoughts refolve with me to drench
In mirth, that after no repenting draws;
Let Euclid reft and Archimedes pause,

5

And what the Swede intends, and what the French. To measure life learn thou betimes, and know Toward folid good what leads the nearest way; 10 For other things mild Heav'n a time ordains, And difapproves that care, though wife in show: That with fuperfluous burden loads the day, And, when God fends a chearful hour, refrains.

*

XXII.

Son of William Skinner, Efq; and grandfon of Sir
Vincent Skinner; and his mother was Bridget, one
of the daughters of the famous Sir Edward Coke
Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench.

XXII.

To the fame.

Cyriac, this three years day thefe eyes, though clear,
To outward view, of blemish or of spot,
Bereft of light, their feeing have forgot!
Nor to their idle orbs doth fight appear
Of fun, or moon, or ftar, throughout the year, S
Or man, or woman. Yet I argue not
Againit Heav'n's hand or will, nor bate a jot
Of heart or hope; but ftill bear up and fteer
Right onward. What fupports me, doft thou afk?
The confcience, Friend; to have loft them overply'd,
In liberty's defence, my noble task,

Of which all Europe talks from fide to fide.

This thought might lead me through the world's vain mask

Content though blind, had I no better guide.

XXIII.

On his deceased WIFE

Methought I faw my late efpoufed faint

Brought to me like Alceftis from the grave,

Whom Jove's great fon to her glad hufband gave, Refcued from death by force, though pale and faint. Mine, as whom wafh'd from spot of child-bed taint Purification in the old Law did fave,

And fuch, as yet once more I trust to have

Full

This was his fecond wife, Catharine the daughter of Captain Woodcock of Hackney, who lived with him not above a year after their marriage, and died in childbed of a daughter.,

Full fight of her in Heav'n without restraint, Came vefted all in white, pure as her mind:

Her face was veil'd, yet to my fancied fight. Love, sweetness, goodness, in her perfon fhin'd So clear, as in no face with more delight.

But as to embrace me the inclin'd,

ΙΟ

I wak'd, fhe fled, and day brought back my night,

XXIV.

On occafion of the PLAGUE in LONDON.

Found on a glass window at Chalfont, in Buckingham. fhire, where Milton refided during the continuance of that calamity.

[From Birch's Life.]

Fair mirror of foul times; whose fragile fheen
Shall, as it blazeth, break; while Providence
(Aye watching o'er his faints with eye unfeen)
Spreads the red rod of angry peftilence,

To fweep the wicked and their counfels hence; '5 Yea, all to break the pride of luftful kings,

Who heav'n's lore reject for brutish fenfe; As erft he fcourg'd Jeffides' fin of yore,

For the fair Hittite, when, on feraph's wings, He fent him war, or plague, or famine fore.

10