Poetical recreations consisting of original poems, songs, odes, &c. with several new translations : in two parts / part I, occasionally written by Mrs. Jane Barker, part II, by several gentlemen of the universities, and others.

MY RELIGION.

I.

ME in the Church, 'tis true, you often see, But there I come not with intent To hear a thick-scull'd Parson vent His phlegmatick Divinitie: No, my Graciana, 'tis to look on thee; On thee I gaze, and in thy Eyes find sence, Beyond the Gown-man's holy Eloquence; For what has his dull tale of Doom, And horrid things to come, To doe with Love, and Thee, which I alone For my Established Religion own?

II.

The Croud, nay the more Learn'd, and Wise, for this Perhaps will me an Atheist call, And say that I believe no God at all: But oh they judge, they judge amiss,

And wond'rously themselves deceive; For I a mighty Deity believe, To whom ten thousand Sighs, as many Tears, With painfull Groans, and with incessant Pray'rs, As a due Sacrifice each day I give, Which, sometimes, she disdains not to receive; And one kind thing from her weighs more with me, Than all their Bodies of Divinitie.

III.

With much more sence, indeed they may, Accuse me of Idolatrie; That I to you that Worship pay, Which only Heav'n shou'd have from me: But let the wisest of them all, The most precise, and Pharisaical, Tell me, if my Graciana wou'd be kind; What holy indignation cou'd they find; What pious zeal, what sanctity of mind, To guard them from a sin so charming sweet, But wou'd fall down, and worship at thy feet; Striving, like me, in lasting Verse, to raise Eternal Trophies to thy praise.

IV.

For, if to me she once her Love wou'd give, Graciana's Name shou'd then for ever live, And in each proud, and swelling line, Graciana's Name shou'd like rich Iewels shine: Nor wou'd it less avail, to make My Verse immortal, as her Fame: For consecrated with her Name, All Men wou'd read them for Graciana's sake.