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; There is a rare outlandish root, Which when I could not get, I thought it here: That apprehension cur'd so well my foot, That I can walk to heav'n well near. I owed thousands, and much more: I did believe that I did nothing owe, And liv'd accordingly; my creditor Believes so too, and lets me go. Faith makes me any thing, or all, 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, Where now, by faith, all arms are of a length; 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 ev'ry grain, With an exact and most particular trust, Reserving all for flesh again. THE TEMPER. How should I praise thee, Lord! how should my rhymes Gladly engrave thy love in steel, If what my soul doth feel sometimes, My soul might ever feel! Although there were some forty heav'ns, or more, Sometimes I peer above them all; Sometimes I hardly reach a score; O rack me not to such a vast extent; Wilt thou meet arms with man, that thou dost stretch A crumb of dust from heav'n to hell? O let me, when thy roof my soul hath hid, Then of a sinner thou art rid, And I of hope and fear. Yet take thy way; for sure thy way is best: To make the music better. Whether I fly with angels, fall with dust, EMPLOYMENT. If as a flower doth spread and die, Before I were by frost's extremity Nipt in the bud,— The sweetness and the praise were thine; Which in thy garland I should fill, were mine For as thou dost impart thy grace, Let me not languish then, and spend As is the dust, to which that life doth tend, All things are busy; only I Neither bring honey with the bees, Nor flowers to make that, nor the husbandry To water these. I am no link of thy great chain, But all my company is as a weed. Lord, place me in thy concert, give one strain To my poor reed. THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. I. OH Book! infinite sweetness! let my heart Suck every letter, and a honey gain Precious for any grief in any part, To clear the breast, to mollify all pain. Thou art all health, health thriving till it make A full eternity: thou art a mass Of strange delights, where we may wish and take. Ladies, look here; this is the thankful glass That mends the looker's eyes: this is the well That washes what it shows. Who can endear Thy praise too much? thou art heaven's lieger here, Working against the states of death and hell. Thou art joy's handsel : heaven lies flat in thee, Subject to every mounter's bended knee. II. Oh that I knew how all thy lights combine, This verse marks that, and both do make a motion Unto a third, that ten leaves off doth lie. Then, as dispersed herbs do watch a potion, These three make up some Christian's destiny. Such are thy secrets, which my life makes good, R |