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,
Or the most precious things that can be told,
Provide first that my pure fire have try'd
Out all the dross, and pass it purifiy'd.

ODE XXI.

1.

What! take it at adventure, and not try
What metal it is made of? No, not I.
Should I now lightly let it pass,

Take sullen lead for silver, sounding brass,
Instead of solid gold, alas!

What would become of it in the great day
Of making jewels, 'twould be cast away.

2.

The heart thou giv'st me must be such a one,
As is the same throughout. I will have none
But that which will abide the fire.

'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,
A stubborn steelly wilfulness have part,

That will not bow and bend to me,
Save only in a mere formality

Óf tinsel-trimm'd hypocrisy,

I care not for it, though it shew as fair.
As the first blush of the sun-gilded air.

4.

The heart that in my furnace will not melt,
When it the glowing heat thereof hath felt,
Turn liquid, and dissolve in tears

Of true repentance for its faults, that hears

My threat'ning voice, and never fears,
Is not an heart worth having. If it be
An heart of stone, 'tis not an heart for me.

5.

The heart, that, cast into my furnace, spits
And sparkles in my face, fall into fits

Of discontented grudging, whines
When it is broken of hs will, repines
At the least suffering, declines

My fatherly correction, is an heart
On which I care not to bestow mine art.

6.

The heart that in my flames asunder flies,
Scatters itself at random, and so lies

In heaps of ashes here and there,
Whose dry dispersed parts will not draw near
To one another, and adhere

In a firm union, hath no metal in't
Fit to be stamp d and coined in my mint.

VOL. II.

The

7.

The heart that vapours out itself in smoak,
And with these cloudy shadows thinks to cloak
Its empty nakedness, how much

Soever thou esteemest it, is such

As never will endure my touch.

Before I take't for mine, then I will try
What kind of metal in thine heart doth lie.

8.

I'll bring it to my furnace, and there see
What it will prove, what it is like to be.
If it be gold, it will be sure

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