Lyra sacra, being a collection of hymns ancient and modern, odes and ...

LXXXIII.

WOMAN.

HAT is there in this vale of life
Half fo delightful as a wife,

Where friendship, love, and peace com-
bine

To ftamp the marriage-bond divine ?
The ftream of pure and genuine love
Derives its current from above;
And earth a fecond Eden fhows,
Where'er the healing water flows.

Cowper.

LXXXIV.

WOMAN.

HE was a woman of a fteady mind,
Tender and deep in her excefs of love;
Not speaking much, pleased rather with

the joy

Of her own thoughts; by fome especial

care,

Her temper had been framed, as if to make
A Being, who by adding love to peace,
Might live on earth a life of happiness.

WORDSWORTH.

LXXXV.

WOMAN.

HE reafon firm, the temperate will, Endurance, forefight, ftrength and skill; A perfect woman, nobly planned, To warn, to comfort, and command; And yet a fpirit, ftill and bright, With fomething of an angel light.

WORDSWORTH.

LXXXVI.

WOMAN.

F ever angels walked on weary earth,
In human likeness, thou wert one of
them.

Thy native heaven was with thee, but
fubdued

By fuffering, life's inevitable lot;

But the sweet spirit did affert its home
By faith and hope, and only owned its yoke
In the ftrong love that bound it to its kind.

LXXXVII,

THE CATHOLIC FAITH.

HAT anciet Fathers thus expound the page,

Gives truth the reverend majefty of

age;

Confirms its force, by binding every teft;

For beft authority's next rules are best.
And ftill the nearer to the fpring we go,
More limpid, more unfoiled the waters flow.

In doubtful queftions 'tis the fafeft way
To learn what unfufpected ancients fay;
For 'tis not likely we should higher foar
In fearch of Heaven, than all the Church before:
Nor can we be deceived unless we fee
The Scriptures and the Fathers disagree.

I think thofe truths their facred works contain,
The Church alone can certainly explain:
That following ages, leaning on the past,
May reft upon the Primitive at laft.

DRYDEN.

LXXXVIII.

TRADITION.

UPPOSE we on things traditive divide, And both appeal to Scripture to decide:

By various texts we both uphold our claim,

Nay, often ground our titles on the fame;

After long labour loft, and time's expense,
Both grant the words, and quarrel for the senfe;
Thus all difputes for ever muft depend,
For no dumb rule can controverfies end:
Thus, when you faid, Tradition must be tried
By Sacred Writ, whofe fenfe yourselves decide,
You faid no more, but that yourselves must be
The judges of the Scripture fenfe, not we.
Against our Church tradition you declare,
And yet your clerks would fit in Mofes' chair;
At least 'tis proved against your argument,
The rule is far from plain, where all diffent!