Poetry

with thee? how is thy mind
Affected since the vintage? Dost thou find
New thoughts and stirrings in thee? and, as steel
Touch’d with a loadstone, dost new motions feel?
Or, as a ship after much pain and care
For iron and cloth brings home rich Indian ware,
Hast thou thus traffick’d, but with far more gain
Of noble goods, and with less time and pain?
Thou art the same materials, as before,
Only the stamp is changèd, but no more.
And as new crowned kings alter the face,
But not the money’s substance, so hath grace
Changed only God’s old image by creation,
To Christ’s new stamp, at this thy coronation;
Or, as we paint angels with wings, because
They bear God’s message and proclaim His laws,
Since thou must do the like and so must move,
Art thou new feather’d with celestial love?
Dear, tell me where thy purchase lies, and show
What thy advantage is above, below.
But if thy gainings do surmount expression,
Why doth the foolish world scorn that profession,
Whose joys pass speech? Why do they think unfit
That gentry should join families with it?
As if their day were only to be spent
In dressing, mistressing and compliment.
Alas! poor joys, but poorer men, whose trust
Seems richly placèd in sublimèd dust,
—For such are clothes and beauty, which though gay,
Are, at the best, but of sublimèd clay⁠—
Let then the world thy calling disrespect,
But go thou on, and pity their neglect.
What function is so noble, as to be
Ambassador to God, and destiny?
To open life? to give kingdoms to more
Than kings give dignities? to keep heaven’s door?
Mary’s prerogative was to bear Christ, so
’Tis preachers’ to convey Him, for they do,
As angels out of clouds, from pulpits speak;
And bless the poor beneath, the lame, the weak.
If then th’ astronomers, whereas they spy
A newfound star, their optics magnify,
How brave are those, who with their engine can
Bring man to heaven, and heaven again to man?
These are thy titles and pre-eminences,
In whom must meet God’s graces, men’s offences;
And so the heavens which beget all things here,
And th’ earth, our mother, which these things doth bear;
Both these in thee, are in thy calling knit
And make thee now a blest hermaphrodite.

A Hymn to Christ, at the Author’s Last Going Into Germany

In what torn ship so ever I embark,
That ship shall be my emblem of Thy ark;
What sea soever swallow me, that flood
Shall be to me an emblem of Thy blood;
Though Thou with clouds of anger do disguise
Thy face, yet through that mask I know those eyes,
Which, though they turn away sometimes,
They never will despise.

I sacrifice this island unto Thee,
And all whom I love there, and who love me;
When I have put our seas ’twixt them and me,
Put thou Thy seas betwixt my sins and Thee.
As the tree’s sap doth seek the root below
In winter, in my winter now I go,
Where none but Thee, the eternal root
Of true love, I may know.

Nor Thou nor Thy religion dost control
The amorousness of an harmonious soul;
But Thou wouldst have that love Thyself; as Thou
Art jealous, Lord, so I am jealous now;
Thou lovest not, till from loving more Thou free
My soul; Who ever gives, takes liberty;
Oh, if Thou carest not whom I love,
Alas! Thou lovest not me.

Seal then this bill of my divorce to all,
On whom those fainter beams of love did fall;
Marry those loves, which in youth scatter’d be
On fame, wit, hopes⁠—false mistresses⁠—to Thee.
Churches are best for prayer, that have least light;
To see God only, I go out of sight;
And to escape stormy days, I choose
An everlasting night.

The Lamentations of Jeremy, for the Most Part According to Tremellius

Chapter I

1. How sits this city, late most populous,
Thus solitary, and like a widow thus?
Amplest of nations, queen of provinces
She was, who now thus tributary is?

2. Still in the night she weeps, and her tears fall
Down by her cheeks along, and none of all
Her lovers comfort her; perfidiously
Her friends have dealt, and now are enemy

3. Unto great bondage, and afflictions,
Judah is captive led; those nations
With whom she dwells, no place of rest afford;
In straits she meets her persecutors’ sword.

4. Empty are the gates of Zion, and her ways
Mourn, because none come to her solemn days.
Her priests do groan, her maids are comfortless;
And she’s unto herself a bitterness.

5. Her foes are grown her head, and live at peace,
Because, when her transgressions did increase,
The Lord strook her with sadness; the enemy
Doth drive her children to captivity.

6. From Zion’s daughter is all beauty gone;
Like harts which seek for pasture, and find none,
Her princes are; and now before the foe
Which still pursues them, without strength they go.

7. Now in their days of tears, Jerusalem
—Her men slain by the foe, none succouring them⁠—
Remembers what of old she esteemed most,
Whiles her foes laugh at her, for what she hath lost.

8. Jerusalem hath sinn’d, therefore is she
Removed, as women in uncleanness be;
Who honour’d, scorn her, for her foulness they
Have seen; herself doth groan, and turn away.

9. Her foulness in her skirts was seen, yet she
Remember’d not her end; miraculously
Therefore she fell, none comforting; behold,
O Lord, my affliction, for the foe grows bold.

10. Upon all things where her delight hath been,
The foe hath stretch’d his hand, for she hath seen
Heathen, whom thou command’st should not do so,
Into her holy sanctuary go.

11. And all her people groan, and seek for bread;
And they have given, only to be fed,
All precious things, wherein their pleasure lay;
How cheap I’m grown, O Lord, behold, and weigh.

12. All this concerns not you, who pass by me;
O see, and mark if any sorrow be
Like to my sorrow, which Jehovah hath
Done to me in the day of His fierce wrath?

13. That fire, which by Himself is governed,
He hath cast from heaven on my bones, and spread
A net before my feet, and me o’erthrown,
And made me languish all the day alone.

14. His hand hath of my sins framèd a yoke
Which wreathed, and cast upon my neck, hath broke
My strength; the Lord unto those enemies
Hath given me, from whom I cannot rise.

15. He under foot hath trodden in my sight
My strong men; He did company