LITMIR.BIZ

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without those things that do excel

       What do in brave but empty notions dwell.

      {5} 'Well, yet I am not fully satisfied,

       That this your book will stand, when soundly tried.'

       Why, what's the matter? 'It is dark.' What though?

       'But it is feigned.' What of that? I trow?

       Some men, by feigned words, as dark as mine,

       Make truth to spangle and its rays to shine.

      'But they want solidness.' Speak, man, thy mind.

       'They drown the weak; metaphors make us blind.'

      Solidity, indeed, becomes the pen

       Of him that writeth things divine to men;

       But must I needs want solidness, because

       By metaphors I speak? Were not God's laws,

       His gospel laws, in olden times held forth

       By types, shadows, and metaphors? Yet loth

       Will any sober man be to find fault

       With them, lest he be found for to assault

       The highest wisdom. No, he rather stoops,

       And seeks to find out what by pins and loops,

       By calves and sheep, by heifers and by rams,

       By birds and herbs, and by the blood of lambs,

       God speaketh to him; and happy is he

       That finds the light and grace that in them be.

      {6} Be not too forward, therefore, to conclude

       That I want solidness--that I am rude;

       All things solid in show not solid be;

       All things in parables despise not we;

       Lest things most hurtful lightly we receive,

       And things that good are, of our souls bereave.

      My dark and cloudy words, they do but hold

       The truth, as cabinets enclose the gold.

      The prophets used much by metaphors

       To set forth truth; yea, who so considers Christ,

       his apostles too, shall plainly see,

       That truths to this day in such mantles be.

      Am I afraid to say, that holy writ,

       Which for its style and phrase puts down all wit,

       Is everywhere so full of all these things--

       Dark figures, allegories? Yet there springs

       From that same book that lustre, and those rays

       Of light, that turn our darkest nights to days.

      {7} Come, let my carper to his life now look,

       And find there darker lines than in my book

       He findeth any; yea, and let him know,

       That in his best things there are worse lines too.

      May we but stand before impartial men,

       To his poor one I dare adventure ten,

       That they will take my meaning in these lines

       Far better than his lies in silver shrines.

       Come, truth, although in swaddling clouts, I find,

       Informs the judgement, rectifies the mind;

       Pleases the understanding, makes the will

       Submit; the memory too it doth fill

       With what doth our imaginations please;

       Likewise it tends our troubles to appease.

      Sound words, I know, Timothy is to use,

       And old wives' fables he is to refuse;

       But yet grave Paul him nowhere did forbid

       The use of parables; in which lay hid

       That gold, those pearls, and precious stones that were

       Worth digging for, and that with greatest care.

      Let me add one word more. O man of God,

       Art thou offended? Dost thou wish I had

       Put forth my matter in another dress?

       Or, that I had in things been more express?

       Three things let me propound; then I submit

       To those that are my betters, as is fit.

      {8} 1. I find not that I am denied the use

       Of this my method, so I no abuse

       Put on the words, things, readers; or be rude

       In handling figure or similitude,

       In application; but, all that I may,

       Seek the advance of truth this or that way

       Denied, did I say? Nay, I have leave

       (Example too, and that from them that have

       God better pleased, by their words or ways,

       Than any man that breatheth now-a-days)

       Thus to express my mind, thus to declare

       Things unto thee that excellentest are.

      2. I find that men (as high as trees) will write

       Dialogue-wise; yet no man doth them slight

       For writing so: indeed, if they abuse

       Truth, cursed be they, and the craft they use

       To that intent; but yet let truth be free

       To make her sallies upon thee and me,

       Which way it pleases God; for who knows how,

       Better than he that taught us first to plough,

       To guide our mind and pens for his design?

       And he makes base things usher in divine.

      3. I find that holy writ in many places

       Hath semblance with this method, where the cases

       Do call for one thing, to set forth another;

       Use it I may, then, and yet nothing smother

       Truth's golden beams: nay, by this method may

       Make it cast forth its rays as light as day.

       And now before I do put up my pen,

       I'll shew the profit of my book, and then

       Commit both thee and it unto that Hand

       That pulls the strong down, and makes weak ones stand.

      This book it chalketh out before thine eyes

       The man that seeks the everlasting prize;

       It shews you whence he comes, whither he goes;

       What he leaves undone, also what he does;

       It also shows you how he runs and runs,

       Till he unto the gate of glory comes.

      {9} It shows, too, who set out for life amain,

       As if the lasting crown they would obtain;

       Here also you may see the reason why

       They lose their labour, and like fools do die.

      This book will make a traveller of thee,

       If by its counsel thou wilt ruled be;

       It will direct thee to the Holy Land,

       If thou wilt its directions understand:

       Yea, it will make the slothful active be;

       The blind also delightful things to see.

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