CHARITY. A PARAPHRASE On the Thirteenth Chapter of the First Epistle TO THE CORINTHIANS. Matthew Prior Alexander Huber Editor Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
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Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive
Taylor Institution Library St Giles' Oxford OX1 3NA UK info@eighteenthcenturypoetry.org https://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/
Oxford This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. T075639 Prior, Matthew, 1664-1721. Poems on Several Occasions [English poems only]. London Printed for JACOB TONSON at Shakespear's-Head over against Katharine-Street in the Strand, and JOHN BARBER upon Lambeth-Hill. MDCCXVIII. 1718 pp. 309-311. [42],506,[6]p.: ill.; 2°.

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CHARITY . A PARAPHRASE On the Thirteenth Chapter of the First Epistle TO THE CORINTHIANS . Did sweeter Sounds adorn my flowing Tongue , Than ever Man pronounc'd , or Angel sung : Had I all Knowledge , Human and Divine , That Thought can reach , or Science can define ; And had I Pow'r to give that Knowledge Birth , In all the Speeches of the babling Earth : Did Shadrach's Zeal my glowing Breast inspire , To weary Tortures , and rejoice in Fire : Or had I Faith like That which Israel saw , When Moses gave them Miracles , and Law : Yet , gracious Charity , indulgent Guest , Were not Thy Pow'r exerted in my Breast ; Those Speeches would send up unheeded Pray'r : That Scorn of Life would be but wild Despair : A Tymbal's Sound were better than my Voice : My Faith were Form : my Eloquence were Noise . Charity , decent , modest , easy , kind , Softens the high , and rears the abject Mind ; Knows with just Reins , and gentle Hand to guide , Betwixt vile Shame , and arbitrary Pride . Not soon provok'd , She easily forgives ; And much She suffers , as She much believes . Soft Peace She brings where-ever She arrives : She builds our Quiet , as She forms our Lives ; Lays the rough Paths of peevish Nature ev'n ; And opens in each Heart a little Heav'n . Each other Gift , which GOD on Man bestows , It's proper Bounds , and due Restriction knows ; To one fixt Purpose dedicates it's Pow'r ; And finishing it's Act , exists no more . Thus , in Obedience to what Heav'n decrees , Knowledge shall fail , and Prophecy shall cease : But lasting Charity's more ample Sway , Nor bound by Time , nor subject to Decay , In happy Triumph shall for ever live , And endless Good diffuse , and endless Praise receive . As thro' the Artist's intervening Glass , Our Eye observes the distant Planets pass ; A little we discover ; but allow , That more remains unseen , than Art can show : So whilst our Mind it's Knowledge wou'd improve ; ( It's feeble Eye intent on Things above ) High as We may , We lift our Reason up , By Faith directed , and confirm'd by Hope : Yet are We able only to survey Dawnings of Beams , and Promises of Day . Heav'n's fuller Effluence mocks our dazl'd Sight ; Too great it's Swiftness , and too strong it's Light . But soon the mediate Clouds shall be dispell'd ; The Sun shall soon be Face to Face beheld , In all His Robes , with all His Glory on , Seated sublime on His Meridian Throne . Then constant Faith , and holy Hope shall dye , One lost in Certainty , and One in Joy : Whilst Thou , more happy Pow'r , fair Charity , Triumphant Sister , greatest of the Three , Thy Office , and Thy Nature still the same , Lasting thy Lamp , and unconsum'd thy Flame , Shalt still survive — Shalt stand before the Host of Heav'n confest , For ever blessing , and for ever blest .