01c. 1765 ADGrace leads the right way: if you choose the wrong, Take it and perish, but restrain your tongue; Charge not, with light sufficient, and left free, Your wilful suicide on God’s decree.William Cowper / quote ↗
02c. 1765 ADTrue freedom is where no restraint is known That scripture, justice, and good sense disown, Where only vice and injury are tied, And all from shore to shore is free beside.William Cowper / quote ↗
03c. 1765 ADFriend of the friendless and the faint! Where should I lodge my deep complaint? Where, but with Thee, whose open door Invites the helpless and the poor? Did ever mourner plead with Thee, And Thou refuse that mourner’s plea? Does not that word still fixed remain, That “none shall seek thy face in vain?”William Cowper / quote ↗
04c. 1765 ADWho never felt the impatient throb— The longing of a heart that pants And reaches after distant good.William Cowper / quote ↗
05c. 1765 ADO, I have seen, (nor hope perhaps in vain, Ere life go down, to see such sights again,) A veteran warrior in the Christian field, Who never saw the sword he could not wield; Grave without dulness, learned without pride, Exact, yet not precise, though meek, keen-eyed; A man that would have foiled, at their own play, A dozen would-be’s of the modern day; Who, when occasion justified its use, Had wit as bright, as ready to produce; Could fetch the records of an earlier age, Or from philosophy’s enlightened page His rich materials, and regale your ear With strains it was a privilege to hear: Yet, above all, his luxury supreme, And his chief glory was the gospel theme; There he was copious as old Greece or Rome, His happy eloquence seemed there at home,— Ambitious not to shine, or to excel, But, to treat justly what he loved so well.William Cowper / quote ↗
06c. 1765 ADI want that grace which springs from Thee, Which quickens all things where it flows, And makes a wretched thorn like me Bloom as the myrtle, or the rose.William Cowper / quote ↗
07c. 1765 ADHe is a happy man whose life, e’en now, Shows somewhat of that happier life to come; Who, doomed to an obscure, but tranquil state, Is pleased with it, and, were he free to choose, Would make his fate his choice; whom peace, the fruit Of virtue, and whom virtue, fruit of faith, Prepare for happiness; bespeak him one Content indeed to sojourn while he must Below the skies, but having there his home. The world o’erlooks him in her busy search Of objects more illustrious in her view; And, occupied as earnestly as she, Though more sublimely, he o’erlooks the world. She scorns his pleasures, for she knows them not; He seeks not hers, for he has proved them vain.William Cowper / quote ↗
08c. 1765 ADHope, with uplifted foot, set free from earth, Pants for the place of her ethereal birth; On steady wings, sails through the immense abyss, Plucks amaranthine joys from bowers of bliss, And crowns the soul, while yet a mourner here, With wreaths like those triumphant spirits wear. Hope, as an anchor, firm and sure, holds fast The Christian vessel, and defies the blast.William Cowper / quote ↗
09c. 1765 ADHypocrisy, detest her as we may, (And no man’s hatred ever wronged her yet) May claim this merit still, that she admits The worth of what she mimics with such care, And thus gives virtue indirect applause.William Cowper / quote ↗
10c. 1765 ADThey, and they only, amongst all mankind, Received the transcript of the Eternal Mind; Were trusted with His own engraven laws, And constituted guardians of His cause; Theirs were the prophets, theirs the priestly call, And theirs, by birth, the Saviour of us all.William Cowper / quote ↗
11c. 1765 ADThe silver trumpet’s heavenly call Sounds for the poor, but sounds alike for all; Kings are invited, and, would kings obey, No slaves on earth more welcome were than they; But royalty, nobility, and state, Are such a dead preponderating weight, That endless bliss, how strange soe’er it seem, In counterpoise flies up, and kicks the beam.William Cowper / quote ↗
12c. 1765 ADBut there is yet a liberty, unsung By poets, and by senators unpraised, Which monarchs cannot grant, nor all the powers Of earth and hell confederate, take away; A liberty which persecution, fraud, Oppression, prisons, have no power to bind; Which whoso tastes can be enslaved no more. ’Tis liberty of heart, derived from Heaven, Bought with His blood, who gave it to mankind, And sealed with the same token.William Cowper / quote ↗
13c. 1765 ADOpening the map of God’s expansive plan, We find a little isle, this life of man; Eternity’s unknown expanse appears Circling around, and limiting his years. The busy race examine and explore Each creek and cavern of the dangerous shore, With care collect what in their eyes excels, Some shining pebbles, and some weeds and shells, Thus laden, dream that they are rich and great, And happiest be that groans beneath his weight. The waves o’ertake them in their serious play, And every hour sweeps multitudes away; They shriek and sink—survivors start and weep, Pursue their sport, and follow to the deep.William Cowper / quote ↗
14c. 1765 ADThe Sacred Book, its value understood, Received the seal of martyrdom in blood. These holy men, so full of truth and grace, Seem, to reflection, of a different race; Meek, modest, venerable, wise, sincere, In such a cause they could not dare to fear; They could not purchase earth with such a price, Or spare a life too short to reach the skies. From them to thee conveyed along the tide, Their streaming hearts poured freely when they died; Those truths which neither use nor years impair, Invite thee, woo thee, to the bliss they share.William Cowper / quote ↗
15c. 1765 ADGod of my life, to thee I call, Afflicted at Thy feet I fall; When the great waterfloods prevail, Leave not my trembling heart to fail! Did ever mourner plead with Thee, And Thou refuse that mourner’s plea? Does not Thy word still fix’d remain, That none shall seek Thy face in vain?William Cowper / quote ↗
16c. 1765 ADThe song of Zion is a tasteless thing, Unless when rising on a joyful wing, The soul can mix with the celestial bands, And give the strain the compass it demands.William Cowper / quote ↗
17c. 1765 ADFrom dearth to plenty, and from death to life, Is Nature’s progress, when she lectures man In heavenly truth; evincing as she makes The grand transition, that there lives and works A soul in all things, and that soul is God.William Cowper / quote ↗
18c. 1765 ADNature, employed in her allotted place, Is hand-maid to the purposes of Grace; By good vouchsafed, makes known superior good, And bliss not seen, by blessings understood.William Cowper / quote ↗
19c. 1765 ADPleasure, admitted in undue degree, Enslaves the will, nor leaves the judgment free. ***** Peace follows virtue as its sure reward; And pleasure brings as surely in her train Remorse, and sorrow, and vindictive pain.William Cowper / quote ↗
20c. 1765 ADNo soil like poverty for growth divine, As leanest land supplies the richest mine. Earth gives too little, giving only bread, To nourish pride, or turn the weakest head.William Cowper / quote ↗
21c. 1765 ADBut above all, in her own light array’d, See mercy’s grand apocalypse display’d! The sacred book no longer suffers wrong, Bound in the fetters of an unknown tongue; But speaks with plainness, art could never mend, What simplest minds can soonest comprehend. God gives the word, the preachers throng around, Live from his lips, and spread the glorious sound: That sound bespeaks salvation on her way, The trumpet of a life-restoring day; ’Tis heard where England’s eastern glory shines, And in the gulfs of her Cornubian mines. And still it spreads. See Germany send forth Her sons to pour it on the farthest north: Fired with a zeal peculiar, they defy The rage and rigour of a polar sky, And plant successfully sweet Sharon’s rose On icy plains, and in eternal snows.William Cowper / quote ↗
22c. 1765 ADWhat!—will a man play tricks, will he indulge A silly fond conceit of his fair form, And just proportion, fashionable mien, A pretty face, in presence of his God?William Cowper / quote ↗
23c. 1765 ADThough, various foes against the truth combine, Pride, above all, opposes her design; Pride, of a growth superior to the rest, The subtlest serpent, with the loftiest crest, Swells at the thought, and, kindling into rage, Would hiss the cherub Mercy from the stage.William Cowper / quote ↗
24c. 1765 ADThe priestly brotherhood, devout, sincere, From mean self-interest and ambition clear, Their hope in Heaven, servility their scorn, Prompt to persuade, expostulate, and warn. There wisdom pure, and given them from above, Their usefulness ensured by zeal and love, As meek as the man Moses, and withal As bold as in Agrippa’s presence, Paul, Should fly the world’s contaminating touch, Holy and unpolluted.William Cowper / quote ↗
