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<DATE>2008-10-02</DATE>
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<NAME>Mona Logarbo</NAME>
<RESP>MURP</RESP>
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<ITEM>Proofed and reviewed as part of batch B080831.pdcc.</ITEM>
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<STC T="W">E420</STC>
<BIBNO T="umi">99890149</BIBNO>
<VID>182530</VID>
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<TEXT LANG="eng">
<BODY>
<DIV1 TYPE="elegy">
<PB REF="1" MS="y"><!-- PDF PAGE 16 -->
<HEAD>AN ELEGY On the Learned and Zealous Mini&s;ter of the Go&s;pel, Mr. Chri&s;topher Fowler, Who departed this Life on <DATE><HI>Monday</HI> the 15th of <HI>January,</HI> 1676/7.</DATE></HEAD>
<LG>
<L>Art thou gone too, great and couragious mind!</L>
<L>And mu&s;t we fear even tho&s;e are left behind?</L>
<L>Lord, &s;tay thy hand and cau&s;e thy wrath to cea&s;e,</L>
<L>And call not home &s;o fa&s;t our Sons of Peace.</L>
<L>If Heaven do call &s;o fa&s;t for Saints to come,</L>
<L>Who will be left on Earth t' &s;upply their room?</L>
<L>The Reverend zealous <HI>FOWLER</HI>'s dead; alas,</L>
<L>What &s;adder news to us could come to pa&s;s!</L>
<L>Shall I then weep alone? come every eye,</L>
<L>Pity &s;uch du&s;t as his &s;hould e're lie dry:</L>
<L>Come every eye with tears his Coffin wet;</L>
<L>It is not what is given, but a debt.</L>
<LG>
<L>When Vice grows rampant, and <HI>Socinians</HI> &s;ay</L>
<L>They hope to triumph in a ble&s;&s;ed day,</L>
<L>To have our &s;econd <HI>Luther</HI> &s;natcht away:</L>
</LG>
<L>How did he teeze the <HI>Quaker</HI> by the Word,</L>
<L>And with his reas'ning pierc'd him as a Sword?</L>
<L><HI>Socinus</HI> Cau&s;e he level'd to the ground;</L>
<L>And Popery the &s;ame fate from him found.</L>
<L>Now where's thy Judgment, Memory and Tongue,</L>
<L>That dur&s;t &s;peak Truth when <HI>Scoffers</HI> came in throng!</L>
<L>And was not plagu'd with an inglorious &s;loth</L>
<L>To hug thy &s;elf, but dared to come forth</L>
<L>Into the open field, whil'&s;t crafty Fox</L>
<L>Lurkt in the Bu&s;hes to devour the Flock.</L>
<L>Where's thy rich fancy, man? to who beneath</L>
<L>Did&s;t thou thy rich and Go&s;pel-&s;train bequeath?</L>
<L>Tell us for thy own &s;ake, for none but he</L>
<L>That hath thy Wit can write thy Elegy:</L>
<L>Tho&s;e flattering Arts which Poets u&s;e to &s;ave</L>
<L>Decaying-Reputations in the Grave,</L>
<L>Are here but vain, for no <HI>Hyperbole</HI></L>
<L>Can tell the World how great thy Merits be;</L>
<L>And Hi&s;tory it &s;elf can &s;ay no more</L>
<L>Than what thy Learning told the World before:</L>
<L>Thy Go&s;pel-Sermons did declare thy worth:</L>
<L>Thy Expo&s;itions &s;et thy Learning forth.</L>
<L>And whil'&s;t we here lament thy being gone,</L>
<L>Angels with <HI>Anthems</HI> welcome thee at home:</L>
<L><HI>Fowler!</HI> who&s;e conver&s;ation free from ill,</L>
<L>Can't be expres'd, but by an Angels Quill;</L>
<L>To tho&s;e that mock't and &s;coft at him, I'le &s;ay,</L>
<L>He's &s;afely lodg'd in Heav'n out o' their way.</L>
<L>He'd not delight in &s;inners way to &s;tand,</L>
<L>But as the Angel with drawn Sword in's hand,</L>
<L>That &s;o their ruine might prevented be,</L>
<L>By him who was Gods Seer, and did &s;ee.</L>
<L>He lov'd his God, his King, his Country's Cau&s;e,</L>
<L>And was not led or tempted by Applau&s;e.</L>
<L>Now let the wor&s;t of men &s;narl at his flight,</L>
<L>And bark as Curs do at the Morning-light;</L>
<L>By them who'e're writes truth of him, will be</L>
<L>Slandered with byas, or with flattery.</L>
<L>But flattery can never reach his &s;tate,</L>
<L>We only prai&s;e to make men imitate;</L>
<LG>
<L>And &s;o mu&s;t &s;peak in &s;ober terms, for know,</L>
<L>If Saints in Heaven can hear things here below</L>
<L>They'l no man thank that flatteries be&s;tow.</L>
</LG>
<L>Hee's dead, let's imitate his Life, that we</L>
<L>Dying like him, may live eternally.</L>
</LG>
</DIV1>
<DIV1 TYPE="epitaph">
<HEAD>EPITAPH.</HEAD>
<LG>
<L>REader &s;tand off, and thy due di&s;tance keep,</L>
<L>For in this Grave a Friend of Chri&s;t doth &s;leep;</L>
<L>The Reverend <HI>FOWLER</HI>'s du&s;t lyes in this bed,</L>
<L>His Soul, that Bird of Paradi&s;e is fled</L>
<L>Toth' Heavenly Man&s;ions, there to &s;it and &s;ing,</L>
<L>Glory and prai&s;es to his heavenly King.</L>
<L>Stay but a while, his Lord will come again,</L>
<L>And take his very Du&s;t that doth remain.</L>
</LG>
</DIV1>
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<BACK>
<DIV1 TYPE="colophon">
<P><HI>London,</HI> Printed in the Year 1677.</P>
</DIV1>
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