1669. Be Thou my Succour; for Thou know'ft that I On Thy Protection, LORD, alone rely. Surround me, Father, with Thy mighty Pow'r, Support me daily by Thine holy Arm, Preferve me faithful in the evil Hour,

Stretch forth Thine Hand, to fave me from
all Harm.

Be Thou my Helmet, Breaft-plate, Sword and
Shield,

And make my Foes before Thy Power yield.
Teach me the spirit'al Battel so to fight,

That when the Enemy fhall me befet,
Arm'd Cap-a-pe with th'Armour of Thy Light,
A perfect Conqueft o'er him I may get;
And with Thy Battle-Axe may cleave the Head
Of him, who bites that Part whereon I tread.
Then being from domeftick Foes fet free,
The Cruelties of Men I fhall not fear ;
But in thy Quarrel, LORD, undaunted be,
And, for Thy Sake, the Lofs of all Things

bear.

Yea, tho' in Dungeon lock'd, with Joy will fing
An ODE of Praife to Thee, my God, my King.

Suffex, the Eleventh
Month 1669.

T. E.

As

As foon as I had dispatcht the Business I went 1669. about, I returned home without Delay, and to. my great Comfort found my Wife well, and myself very welcome to her; both which I efteemed as great Favours,

Towards the latter Part of the Summer fol-1670. lowing, I went into Kent again, and in my Paffage through London, received the unwelcome News of the Lofs of a very hopeful Youth, who had formerly been under my Care for Education. It was Ifaac Penington (the second Son

of

my worthy Friends Ifaac and Mary Penigton) a Child of excellent natural Parts, whofe great Abilities befpake him likely to be a great Man, had he lived to be a Man. He was defigned to be bred a Merchant, and before he was thought ripe enough to be entred thereunto, his Parents, at Some-body's Requeft, gave Leave that he might go a Voyage to Barbadoes, only to spend a little Time, fee the Place, and be fomewhat acquainted with the Sea, under the Care and Conduct of a choice Friend and Sailor, John Grove of London, who was Master of a Vessel, and traded to that Ifland; and a little Venture he had with him, made up by divers of his Friends, and by me among the reft. He made the Voyage thither very well, found the wat'ry Element agreeable, had his Health there, liked the Place, was much pleased with his Entertainment there, and was returning home with his little Cargo, in Return for the Goods he carried out; when on a fudden, through Unwarinefs, he dropt over-board, and (the Veffel being

1669. under Sail with a brifk Gale) was irrecoverably

loft, notwithstanding the utmoft Labour, Care and Diligence of the Mafter and Sailors to have faved him.

This unhappy Accident took from the afflicted Mafter all the Pleasure of his Voyage, and he mourn'd for the Lofs of this Youth, as if it had been his own, yea, only Son ; for as he was in himself a Man of a worthy Mind, fo the Boy, by his witty and handsome Behaviour in general, and obfequious Carriage towards him in particular, had very much wrought himself into his Favour.

As for me, I thought it one of the sharpest Strokes I had met with, for I both loved the Child very well, and had conceived great Hopes of general Good from him; and it pierced me the deeper, to think how deeply it would pierce his afflicted Parents.

Sorrow for this Difafter was my Companion in this Journey, and I travelled the Roads under great Exercife of Mind, revolving in my Thoughts the manifold Accidents, which the LIFE of Man was attended with and subject to, and the great Uncertainty of all human Things; I could find no Center, no firm Bafis for the Mind of Man to fix upon, but the divine Power and Will of the Almighty. This Confideration wrought in my Spirit a fort of Contempt of what fuppofed Happiness or Pleasure this World, or the Things that are in, and of it, can of themfelves yield, and raised my Contemplation higher; which, as it ripened,

and

and came to fome degree of Digeftion, I breath- 1670. ed forth in mournful Accents, thus:

Solitary THOUGHTS

On the Uncertainty of human Things,

Occafioned by the fudden Lofs of an
HOPEFUL YOUTH.

Tranfibunt cito, quæ vos manfura putatis.
Those Things foon will pass away,

Which ye think will always ftay.

HAT ground, alas! has any

Man

WHA To fet his Heart on Things below,

Which, when they feem moft like to stand,
Fly like an Arrow from a Bow!
Things fubject to exterior Sense

Are to Mutation moft propenfe.

If ftately Houfes we erect,

And therein think to take Delight, On what a fudden are we checkt,

And all our Hopes made groundlefs quite!

One little Spark in Ashes lays

What we were building half our Days.

1670. If on Eftate an Eye we caft,

Under

fiand

And Pleasure there expect to find,
A fecret providential Blast

Gives Disappointment to our Mind.
Who now's on Top, e're long may feel

The circling Motion of the Wheel.
If we our tender Babes embrace,

And Comfort hope in them to have,
Alas, in what a little Space,

Is Hope, with them, laid in the Grave!
Whatever promiseth Content,

Is in a Moment from us rent.
This World cannot afford a Thing,
Which, to a well-compofed Mind,
Can any lasting Pleasure bring,

But in its Womb its Grave will find.
All Things unto their Center tend

;

What had * Beginning will have End.

This of, But is there nothing then that's fure,

Natural

hings.

For Man to fix his Heart upon ?

Nothing that always will endure,

When all these tranfient Things are gone?
Sad State where Man, with Grief oppreft,

Finds nought whereon his Mind

may

reft.

O yes!