SACRED

ΤΟ

THE MEMORY OF THE DEAD.

AN EPITAPH ON

KING WILLIAM THE THIRD,

OF GLORIOUS MEMORY, WHO DIED MARCH 8, 1701.

BENEATH these honours of a tomb
Greatness in humble ruin lies:

(How earth confines in narrow room
What heroes leave beneath the skies!)

Preserve, O venerable pile,

Inviolate thy sacred trus: ;
To thy cold arms the British isle,
Weeping, commits her richest du y.

Ye gentlest ministers of fate

Attend the monarch as he lies,
And bid the softest slumbers wait
With silken cords to bind his eyes.

Rest his dear sword beneath his head;

Round him his faithful arms shall stand:

Fix his bright ensigns on his bed,

The guards and honours of our land.

Ye sister arts of paint and verse,
Place Albion fainting by his side,
Her groans arising o'er the hearse,
And Belgia sinking when he died.

High o'er the grave Religion set

In solemn guise; pronounce the ground Sacred, to bar unhallow'd feet,

And plant her guardian virtues round.

Fair Liberty, in sables drest,

Write his lov'd name upon his urn, William, the scourge of tyrants past, And awe of princes yet unborn.

Sweet Peace his sacred relics keep,
With olives blooming round her head,
And stretch her wings across the deep
To bless the nations with the shade.

Stand on the pile, immortal Fame,
Broad stars adorn thy brightest robe;
Thy thousand voices sound his name
In silver accents round the globe.

Flattery shall faint beneath the sound,
While hoary truth inspires the song:
Envy grow pale and bite the ground,
And slander gnaw her forky tongue.

Night and the grave, remove your gloom; Darkness becomes the vulgar dead,

But glory bids the royal tomb

Disdain the horrors of a shade.

Glory, with all her lamps, shall burn,
And watch the warrior's sleeping clay,
Till the last trumpet rouse his urn
To aid the triumphs of the day.

EPITAPHIUM VIRI VENERABILIS

DOM. N. MATHER,

Carmine Lapidario conscriptum.

M. S.

REVERENDI ADMODUM VIRI

NATHANAELIS MATHER1.

QUOD mori potuit hic subtus depositum est:
Si quæris, hospes, quantus et qualis fuit,
Fidus enarrabit lapis.

Nomen à familia duxit Sanctioribus studiis et evangelio devotâ, Et per utramque Angliam celebri ; Americanum se, atque Europæum.

Et hic quoque in sancti ministerii spem eductus
Non fallacem :

Et hunc utraque novit Anglia
Doctum et docentem.

Corpore fuit procero, formâ placidè verendâ ;
At supra corpus et formam sublimè eminuerunt
Indoles, ingenium, atque eruditio:

Supra hæc pietas, et (si fas dicere)

Supra pietatem modestia

Cæteras enim dotes obrumbravit.

Quoties in rebus divinis peragendis
Divinitus afflatæ mentis specimina
Præstantiora edidit,

Toties hominem sedulus occuluit
Ut solus conspiceretur Deus:
Voluit totus latere, nec potuit;

Heu quantum tamen sui nos latet!

Et majorem laudis partem sepulchrale marmor
Invito obruit silentio.

Gratiam Jesu Christi salutiferam
Quam abundè hausit ipse, aliis propinavit,
Puram ab humanâ fæce!
Veritatis evangelicae decus ingens,

Et ingens propugnaculum:
Concionator gravis aspectu, gestu, voce;
Cui nec aderat pompa oratoria,
Nec deerat ;

Flosculos rhetorices supervacaneos fecit

Rerum dicendarum majestas, et Deus præsens.
Hinc arma militiæ suæ non infelicia,
Hinc toties fugatus Satanas,

Et hinc victoria

Ab inferorum portis toties reportats.
Solers ille ferreis impiorum animis infigere
Altum et salutare vulnus;

Vulneratas idem tractare leniter solers,
Et medelam adhibere magis salutarem.
Ex defecato cordis fonte

Divinis eloquiis affatim scatebant labia,
Etiam in familiari contubernio:

Spirabat ipse undique cœlestes suavitates,
Quasi oleo lætitiæ semper recens delibutus,
Et semper supra socios;

Gratumque dilectissimi sui Jesu odorem
Quaquaversus et latè diffudit.

Dolores tolerans supra fidem,

Erumnæque heu quam assiduæ ! Invicto animo, victrice patentiâ Varias curarum moles pertulit,

Et in stadio et in metâ vitæ :

Quam ubi propinquam vidit,
Plerophoriâ fidei quasi curru alato vectus
Properè et exultim attigit.

Natus est in agro Lancastriensi 20° Martii, 1630.
Inter Nov-Anglos theologiæ tyrocinia fecit.
Pastorali munere diu Dublinii in Hiberniâ functus,
Tandem (ut semper) providentiam secutus ducem,
Cœtui fidelium apud Londinenses præpositus est,
Quos doctrinâ, precibus, et vitâ beavit:

Ah brevi!

Corpore solutus 26° Julii, 1697, ætat. 67,
Ecclesiis mœrorem, theologis exemplar reliquit,
Probis piisque omnibus

Infandum sui desiderium ;

Dum pulvis Christo charus hic dulcè dormit
Expectans stellam matutinam.

ON THE

SUDDEN DEATH OF MRS. MARY PEACOCK.

HARK! she bids all her friends adieu;
Some angel calls her to the spheres;
Our eyes the radiant saint pursue
Through liquid telescopes of tears.

Farewell, bright soul, a short farewell,
Till we shall meet again above,

In the sweet groves where pleasures dwell,
And trees of life bear fruits of love: