When thou for sin rebukest man,
Forthwith he waxeth woe and wan:

Bitterness fills our bowels; all our hearts

Pine, and decay,

And drop away,

And carry with them th' other parts.

But thou wilt sin and grief destroy;
That so the broken bones may joy,
And tune together in a well-set song,
Full of his praises

Who dead men raises.

Fractures well cured make us more strong.

FAITH.

LORD, how couldst thou so much appease Thy wrath for sin, as, when man's sight was dim, And could see little, to regard his ease,

And bring by Faith all things to him?

Hungry I was, and had no meat:

I did conceit a most delicious feast;
I had it straight, and did as truly eat,
As ever did a welcome guest.

There is a rare outlandish root, Which when I could not get, I thought it here: That apprehension cured so well my foot,

That I can walk to heaven well near.

I owed thousands and much more: I did believe that I did nothing owe, And lived accordingly; my creditor Believes so too, and lets me go.

Faith makes me anything, or all That I believe is in the sacred story : And when sin placeth me in Adam's fall, Faith sets me higher in his glory.

If I go lower in the book,

What can be lower than the common manger?
Faith puts me there with Him, who sweetly took
Our flesh and frailty, death and danger.

If bliss had lien in art or strength,

None but the wise and strong had gained it :
Where now by Faith all arms are of a length ;
One size doth all conditions fit.

A peasant may believe as much

As a great Clerk, and reach the highest stature.
Thus dost thou make proud knowledge bend and crouch,
While Grace fills up uneven Nature.

When creatures had no real light Inherent in them, thou didst make the sun,

Impute a lustre, and allow them bright :

And in this show what Christ hath done.

That which before was darken'd clean
With bushy groves, pricking the looker's eye,
Vanish'd away, when Faith did change the scene:
And then appear'd a glorious sky.

What though my body run to dust? Faith cleaves unto it, counting every grain, With an exact and most particular trust, Reserving all for flesh again.

PRAYER.

PRAYER, the Church's banquet, Angel's age.
God's breath in man returning to his birth,
The soul in paraphrase, heart in pilgrimage,
The Christian plummet sounding heaven and earth;

Engine against th' Almighty, sinner's tower,

Reversed thunder, Christ-side-piercing spear, The six days' world-transposing in an hour, A kind of tune, which all things hear and fear;

Softness, and peace, and joy, and love, and bliss,
Exalted Manna, gladness of the best,

Heaven in ordinary, men well drest,

The Milky Way, the bird of Paradise,

Church-bells beyond the stars heard, the soul's blood,
The land of spices, something understood.

HOLY COMMUNION.

NoT in rich furniture, or fine array,
Nor in a wedge of gold,

Thou, who from me wast sold,
To me dost now thyself convey;

For so thou should'st without me still have been, Leaving within me sin :

But by the way of nourishment and strength,
Thou creep'st into my breast;

Making thy way my rest,

And thy small quantities my length; Which spread their forces into every part, Meeting sin's force and art.

Yet can these not get over to my soul,
Leaping the wall that parts

Our souls and fleshly hearts;
But as th' outworks, they may control
My rebel-flesh, and, carrying thy name,
Affright both sin and shame.

Only thy grace, which with these elements comes,
Knoweth the ready way,

And hath the privy key,

Opening the soul's most subtile rooms : While those to spirits refined, at door attend Despatches from their friend.

GIVE me my captive soul, or take
My body also thither.

Another lift like this will make
Them both to be together.

Before that sin turn'd flesh to stone,
And all our lump to leaven;

A fervent sigh might well have blown
Our innocent earth to heaven.

For sure, when Adam did not know
To sin, or sin to smother;

He might to heaven from Paradise go,
As from one room t' another.

Thou hast restored us to this ease
By this thy heavenly blood,

Which I can go to, when I please,

And leave th' earth to their food.

ANTIPHON.

CHO. LET all the world in every corner sing,

My God and King.

VER.

The heavens are not too high,

His praise may thither fly:

The earth is not too low,

His praises there may grow.

CHO. Let all the world in every corner sing,

My God and King.

VER.

The Church with Psalms must shout,
No door can keep them out:

But above all, the heart

Must bear the longest part.

CHO. Let all the world in every corner sing,

My God and King.