Wilt thou love God as He thee? then digest, My soul, this wholesome meditation,
How God the Spirit, by angels waited on In heaven, doth make His temple in thy breast. The Father having begot a Son most blest, And still begetting, (for he ne'er begun), Hath deigned to choose thee by adoption, Co-heir to his glory, and Sabbath's endless rest : And as a robbed man, which by search doth find His stol'n stuff sold, must lose, or buy't again; The Son of Glory came down and was slain, Us, whom he had made, and Satan stole, to unbind. 'Twas much that man was made like God before, But that God should be made like man, much more.
Hymn to God, my God.
SINCE I am coming to that holy room, Where with the choir of saints for evermore I shall be made thy music, as I come I tune the instrument here at the door, And what I must do then think here before.
Whilst my physicians, by their love, are grown Cosmographers and I their map, who lie Flat on this bed, that by them may be shewn That this is my south-west discovery, Per fretum febris, by these straits to die.
I joy that in these straits I see my west; For though those currents yield return to none, What shall my west hurt me? as west and east In all flat maps (and I am one) are one, So death doth touch the resurrection.
GREAT Destiny! the commissary of God! Thou hast marked out a path and period For everything; who, where we offspring took, Our ways and ends seest at one instant: Thou Knot of all causes; Thou whose changeless brow Ne'er smiles nor frowns, oh! vouchsafe Thou to look, And shew my story in Thy eternal book, That (if my prayer be fit), I may understand So much myself as to know with what hand, How scant a liberal, this my life's race is spanned.
Ar the round earth's imagined corners blow Your trumpets, angels! and arise, arise From death, you numberless infinities Of souls, and to your scattered bodies go, All whom the flood did, and fire shall o'erthrow; All whom war, death, age, ague's tyrannies, Despair, law, chance hath slain; and you whose Shall behold God and never taste death's woe. But let them sleep, Lord! and me mourn a space; For if above all these my sins abound, 'Tis late to ask abundance of Thy grace When we are there. Here on this holy ground Teach me how to repent, for that's as good
As if Thou hadst sealed my pardon with Thy blood.
It is not growing like a tree
In bulk doth make man better be!
Or standing long an oak three hundred year, To fall a log at last, dry, bald, and sere ; A lily of a day
Although it fall and die that night; It was the plant and flower of light. In small proportions we just beauties see, And in short measures life may perfect be.
O HOLY, blessed, glorious Trinity Of Persons, still one God in unity,
The faithful man's believéd mystery,
Myself up to Thee, harrow'd, torn, and bruised By sin and Satan; and my flesh misused,
my heart lies in pieces, all confused,
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