Advice, To Have One's Poem by Rees Prichard

Be thy demeanour of the Christian sort,
Be it obliging, affable, and right,
In ev'ry place to which thou may'st resort,
As is becoming in a child of light.

Be, like a star, that blazes forth by night,
Be, like a candle, that illumes the room,
Be, an example of the Christian light
To all, that to thy company shall come.

Be holy, in whate'er does God regard,
Be just, nor to thy neighbour use deceit,
Be sober, and thyself with prudence guard,
For these three points are of the greatest weight.

Be thou, as harmless as the gentle dove,
Be, as the serpent vigilant and wise,
As patient as a lamb, in suff'ring, prove,
And God will such a good behaviour prize.

Like Daniel with due moderation eat,
And keep the flesh, by temp'rate diet, low,
Beware of wine, and of high-season'd meat,
Lest thou shou'dst wanton and rebellious grow.

Be chaste, be clear from ev'ry act unclean,
Like Joseph's, faultless let thy conduct be,
Where-e'er thou art, thou still by God art seen:
Be therefore pure, and from pollution free.

In all thy dealings be exactly fair,
And in thy bargains use no fraud nor art ;
For God determines, with the nicest care,
Between the guilty and the guiltless heart.

Let thy religion, and thy faith be right,
And fear the Lord, thy God, with all thy heart :
Do nothing that is evil in his sight ;
For he beholds thee, wheresoe'er thou art.

Unto thy Pastors due attention give,
And strive thy Rulers in all things to please,
In love and friendship with thy neighbours live,
And with all Christians in the bond of peace.

In thy expressions always kind appear,
Be, pertinently just, when thou dost speak,
Be, to thy promise, steady and sincere,
Be, in thy actions, and demeanour, meek.

In ev'ry company with prudence move,
Amongst the worst, be thou a Saint in grace,
And howe'er bad the multitude may prove,
Be good, like Noah, 'mongst the giant-race.

Salute each person with a cheerful air,
With courtesy to thy superiors bow,
Authority, and hoary age revere,
And due submission to thy betters show.

Be calm, and contumely suffer long,
And never give, to wrath and passion, way,
But bear, ere thou art mov'd to anger, wrong:
For he that bears, will ever win the day.

Submit to those that are in higher place,
For God is known the haughty to detest ;
But freely to the humble gives his grace,
And those that are of lowly minds possest.

Boast not of any virtue thou hast got,
Of wealth, or honours, that to thee may fall,
But be extremely thankful for thy lot,
Lest God enrag'd shou'd rob thee of them all.

Be in thy cloathing, always neat enough,
And dress'd, according to thy calling, go:
Cut out thy coat according to thy stuff ;
And neither be a sloven, nor a beau.

Transgress not thou, thy company to please.
Death is the sentence that on sin is past.
As often as thou dost thy sins increase,
So many deaths thou dost deserve to taste.

E'er since the day transgression first began,
Death and transgression have been firm allies:
So that whoever dares transgress, that man
Must fall to Death a certain sacrifice.

In thy expressions never be obscene,
Nor in the closest solitude unchaste;
But be thy conduct in each lonely scene
The same, as if thou on the cross wert plac'd.

Shou'd angel, man, or fiend, desire of thee
To sin against thy God, when most apart,
Remember thou, his
Seven Eyes
can see,
And find thee out, however close thou art.

Though man, near-sighted reptile! cannot spy
A thousand acts that are in private done;
God sees them with his all-surveying eye,
Though man imagines that he sees not one.

If thou dost think thy vices to conceal,
God will the whole of thy design declare,
And to the world, before the sun, reveal
How bad thy thoughts and secret actions are!

Avoid conversing with the lewd and vile,
To ev'ry Christian virtue dead and gone;
For they'll thy morals sully and defile,
As pitch will soil the clothes it drops upon.

As the fresh water, by the salt, is spoil'd,
Soon as the river runs into the main:
So the best morals always are defil'd
By vicious converse, and imbibe a stain.

Beware the serpent's sting, or thou shalt smart,
And from the plague, lest it shou'd seize thee, run,
And, if salvation thou hast much at heart,
With equal care bad conversation shun.

Love thou each godly person as thy eyes -
Keep correspondence with the just and good -
Follow th' examples of the learn'd and wise -
But utterly abhor and shun the lewd.