A collection of the choicest epigrams and characters of Richard Flecknoe being rather a new work, then [sic] a new impression of the old.
Flecknoe, Richard, d. 1678?
To Her Majesty. Of the Dignity and Efficacy of Prayer.
AS by the Sun we set our Dials, so,
Madam, we set our Pieties by You;
Without whose light, we shou'd in darkness be,
And nothing truly good, nor vertuous see.
You in the Temple so assidual are,
Your whole life seems but one contrived Pray'r,
And every place an Oratory you make,
When from the Temple Y'are returned back.
Like vapors Prayers ascend, and Heaven in Rain
Of Blessings, show'rs them down on us again;
And if Heaven suffers violence, from whence,
But onely Pray'r, proceeds this violence?
O mighty Pray'r that canst such wonders do,
To force both Heaven, and the Almighty too I
Fools were those Giants then, since, if instead
Of heaping Hills on Hills, as once they did,
They had but heapt up Pray'rs on Pray'rs as fast,
They might have eas'ly conquer'd Heaven at last.
