« back to search

"As by instinct the Loadstone draws / The iron, as the Amber straws; / So let thy grace mine heart attract, / Dear Lord!"

— Billingsley, Nicholas (bap. 1633, d. 1709)

Author

Billingsley, Nicholas (bap. 1633, d. 1709)

Work Title

Deo Ter Opt. Max. [from KOSMOBREGGIA, or the infancy of the world: With an Appendix of Gods resting day, Edon Garden; Mans Happiness before, Misery after, his Fall. Whereunto is added, The Praise of Nothing; Divine Ejaculations; The four Ages of the world; The Birth of Christ; Also a Century of Historical Applications; With a Taste of Poetical fictions. Written some years since by N. B. ... And now published at the request of his Friends

Place of Publication

London

Publisher

Printed for Robert Crofts [etc.]

Date

1658

Metaphor

"As by instinct the Loadstone draws / The iron, as the Amber straws; / So let thy grace mine heart attract, / Dear Lord!"

Metaphor in Context

Oh from thy Radient Throne above
Look down on me, Great God of love:
With sacred Light my Soul infuse,
And wing, for flight, mine unfledg'd Muse,
That she may like the morning Lark
Mount up and sing: Lord I'me a spark;
But if thy Bellows please to blow
Me up, Oh then I needs must glow.
My God to me a Being gave,
To use those little gifts I have;
Oh may I then to after days
Make known my All-Creators praise;
As by instinct the Loadstone draws
The iron, as the Amber straws;
So let thy grace mine heart attract,
Dear Lord! O make me have respect
To all thy righteous Laws, begin
To purge out all my dross: my Tinn
Remove far from me; Oh inflame
My frozen Spirit, to praise thy Name.
Let Heaven fill me to the brim
Above the world, Oh may I swim.
And (as it were) my soul divorce
From Transient joys: Oh steer my course
According to thy compass: Guid
My reeling Pinace, make the Tide
Tranquil, and let the milder gale
Of thy sweet Spirit, stuff my Sail,
Until I safely am arriven
At the desired Haven, Heaven;
Where I shall see the God of nature,
And always praise the worlds Creator.