BXXTER'S POEMS. 135 Ev'n Satan, promising to make him wise, . Thou mad'st him holy, sin bath made him bad. Did not endeavours, blessed by thy grace, Restore some holy wisdom in thine own ? The souls which' sin and Satan did deface, Would not from brutes and devils well be known . It's strange in man, how these two ~wisted oe, To be a brute, and a malignant devil! Folly and wickedness too well agree, A fool to goodness is wise to do evil. Children do quickly leam to serve the flesh, Their pride, their appetite, and their self-will, Eager for every thing that these can wish, But little knowing what is good or ill. Their sense and fancy do so strongly rage, That teachers speak in vain, flesh will not hear, B1;utishness gets advantage by their age, Till grace comes in, and opens heart and ear. Depraved nature, made by custom worse, 'Makes reason now a fetter'd slave to sense; Increased sin becomes a double curse, Fights against (!t>d, and is its. own defence. As flesh grows up, so sense and fancy grow, Lust and vain pleasure now do tyrannize; What crosseth these they hate, and would not know, And raging flesh abhorreth to be wise. Yet wise in wickedness, they needs will seem; They can confute their teachers with a breath ;, All that reproves them they as error deem, And become advocates for sin and death.
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