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POEMS

ON

Several Occafions.

On Exodus iii. 14. I am that I am. An O D E.

Written in 1688, as an Exercife at St. JOHN's College, CAMBRIDGE.

M

I.

AN! Foolish Man!

Scarce know'ft thou how thy felf began;
Scarce haft thou Thought enough to prove

Thou art;

Yet fteel'd with ftudy'd Boldness, tho

dar'ft try

To fend thy doubting Reafon's dazled Eye

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Through the mysterious Gulph of vast Immensity.
Much thou canft there difcern, much thence impart.
Vain Wretch! fupprefs thy knowing Pride;
Mortifie thy learned Lust:

Vain are thy Thoughts, while thou thy felf art Duft.

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Let Wit her Sails, her Oars let Wisdom lend;
The Helm let politick Experience guide:
Yet cease to hope thy fhort-liv'd Bark shall ride
Down fpreading Fate's unnavigable Tide.
What, tho' ftill it farther tend?

Still 'tis farther from its End;

And, in the Bosom of that boundless Sea,
Still finds its Error lengthen with its Way.
III.

With daring Pride and infolent Delight

Your Doubts refolv'd you boast, your Labours crown'd}' And, "FTPH KA! your God, forfooth is found

Incomprehenfible and Infinite.

But is He therefore found? Vain Searcher! no:

Let your imperfect Definition fhow,

That nothing You, the weak Definer, know.

IV.

Say, why fhou'd the collected Main

It felf within it felf contain?

Why to its Caverns fhou'd it sometimes creep,
And with delighted Silence fleep

On the lov'd Bofom of its Parent Deep?
Why fhou'd its num'rous Waters stay

In comely Discipline, and fair Array,
Till Winds and Tides exert their high Command?
Then prompt and ready to obey,

Why

Why do the rifing Surges fpread

Their op'ning Ranks o'er Earth's fubmiffive Head,
Marching thro' different Paths to different Lands?

V.

Why does the conftant Sun

With meafur'd Steps his radiant Journeys run?
Why does He order the Diurnal Hours

To leave Earth's other Part, and rise in Ours?
Why does He wake the correspondent Moon,
And fill her willing Lamp with liquid Light,
Commanding Her with delegated Pow'rs
To beautifie the World, and blefs the Night?
Why does each animated Star

Love the juft Limits of it's proper Sphere?
Why does each confenting Sign

With prudent Harmony combine
In Turns to move, and fubfequent appear,
To gird the Globe, and regulate the Year?

VI.

Man does with dangerous Curiosity

These unfathom❜d Wonders try: With fancy'd Rules and arbitrary Laws

Matter and Motion he restrains;

And study'd Lines and fictious Circles draws:
Then with imagin'd Soveraignty

Lord of his new HYPOTHESIS he reigns.
He reigns: How long? 'till fome Ufurper rife;
And he too, mighty Thoughtful, mighty Wife,
Studies new Lines, and other Circles feigns.
From this laft Teil again what Knowledge flows?
Juft as much, perhaps, as fhows,

That all his Predeceffor's Rules

Were empty Cant, all JARGON of the Schools;

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That he on t'other's Ruin rears his Throne;

'And fhows his Friend's Miftake, and thence confirms his

VII.

On Earth, in Air, amidst the Seas and Skies,
Mountainous Heaps of Wonders rife;

Whose tow'ring Strength will ne'er submit
To Reafon's Batteries, or the Mines of Wit:
Yet ftill enquiring, still mistaking Man,

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Each Hour repuls'd, each Hour dare onward prefs;
And levelling at GOD his wandring Guess,
(That feeble Engine of his reafoning War,

Which guides his Doubts, and combats his Despair)
Laws to his Maker the learn'd Wretch can give:
Can bound that Nature, and prefcribe that Will,
Whofe pregnant Word did either Ocean fill: [and live.
Can tell us whence all BEINGs are, and how they move
Thro' either Ocean, foolish Man!

That pregnant Word fent forth again,

Might to a World extend each A TOм there;
For every Drop call forth a Sea, a Heav'n for every

VIII.

Let cunning Earth her fruitful Wonders hide;
And only lift thy ftaggering Reafon up

To trembling CALVARY's aftonish'd Top;

Star.

Then mock thy Knowledge, and confound thy Pride, Explaining how Perfection fuffer'd Pain,

Almighty languish'd, and Eternal dy'd:

How by her Patient Victor Death was flain;

And Earth prophan'd, yet bless'd with Deicide,

Then down with all thy boasted Volumes, down;
Only referve the Sacred One:

Low, reverently low,

Make thy ftubborn Knowledge bow;

Weep

Weep out thy Reafon's, and thy Body's Eyes;
Deject thy felf, that Thou may'ft rife;

To look to Heav'n, be blind to all below.

IX.

Then Faith, for Reafon's glimmering Light, fhall give Her Immortal Perspective;

And Grace's Prefence Nature's Lofs retrieve:

Then thy enliven❜d Soul shall see,

That all the Volumes of Philofophy,

With all their Comments, never cou'd invent
So politick an Inftrument,

To reach the Heav'n of Heav'ns, the high Abode,
Where MOSES places his Mysterious God,
As was that Ladder which old JACOB rear'd,
When Light Divine had human Darkness clear'd;
And his enlarg'd Ideas found the Road,
Which Faith had dictated, and Angels trod.

TO THE

COUNTESS of EXETER,

Playing on the LUTE.

WHAT Charms You have, from what high Race

You fprung,

Have been the pleasing Subjects of my Song:
Unskill'd and young, yet fomething still I writ.
Of CA'NDISH Beauty join'd to CECIL'S Wit

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