The TRYING of the Heart. PROV. xvii. 3. The fining pot for silver, and the furnace for gold: but the Lord trieth the hearts. EFIG. 21. THINE heart, my dear, more precious is than gold, ODE XXI. 1. What! take it at adventure, and not try Take sullen lead for silver, sounding brass, What would become of it in the great day 2. The heart thou giv'st me must be such a one, 'Tis not a glitt'ring outside I desire, Whose seeming shews do soon expire : But real worth within, which neither dross, Nor base allays, make subject unto loss. If, CORDIS PROTECTIO. Egide Cor magni mea Lux defende Laboris, Quem pro Corde buus ferre coegit Amor. The DEFENCE of the HEART. 0 Thou my Light and Life! thy Aid impart, And let thy Sufferings now defend my Heart. 31 If, in the composition of thine heart, That will not bow and bend to me, Óf tinsel-trimm'd hypocrisy, I care not for it, though it shew as fair. 4. The heart that in my furnace will not melt, Of true repentance for its faults, that hears My threat'ning voice, and never fears, 5. The heart, that, cast into my furnace, spits Of discontented grudging, whines My fatherly correction, is an heart 6. The heart that in my flames asunder flies, In heaps of ashes here and there, In a firm union, hath no metal in't VOL. II. The 7. The heart that vapours out itself in smoak, Soever thou esteemest it, is such As never will endure my touch. Before I take't for mine, then I will try 8. I'll bring it to my furnace, and there see The hottest fire that can be to endure, And I shall draw it out more pure, Affliction may refine, but cannot waste That heart wherein my love is fixed fast. The |