LOVE's Caveat

If VIRTUE move A Man to love, How can he then refuse? If NATURE move, Unless he prove, How knows he what to chuse?

For Vice's Look For VIRTUE's took By many an honest Heart, Who think they're safe, Till felt they have Her deadly stinging Smart:

And then too late, Cry O! my Fate! Was ever Grief like mine? I thought my Love Sprung from above, And that it was divine;

But now I find, With Grief of Mind, That from the Earth it came, And that the Fruit, Which thence doth shoot, Is nought but Grief and Shame.

Thus honest Men Are, now and then, Deceiv'd by Beauty's Bait, Which makes them chuse Pleasure, and lose A far more happy State.

Nor can Man be From Danger free, But as he doth abide, In that which will That Nature kill, And keeps close to his Guide.

Which if he do, 'Twill to him shew Each Motion's Root and Ground, That in this Day No Folly may In ISRAEL be found.

Which is the Cry, Of one whose Eye Hath been too apt to stray; Who could not stand, Did not GOD's Hand Support him Day by Day.