Selected Works. George Herbert
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his pains.
He that by being at church escapes the ditch,
Which he might fall in by companions, gains.
He that loves God’s abode, and to combine
With saints on earth, shall one day with them shine
Jest not at preacher’s language, or expression:
How know’st thou, but thy sinnes made him miscarrie?
Then turn thy faults and his into confession:
God sent him, whatsoe’re he be: O tarry,
And love him for his Master: his condition,
Though it be ill, makes him no ill Physician.
None shall in hell such bitter pangs endure
As those, who mock at God’s way of salvation.
Whom oil and balsames kill, what salve can cure?
They drink with greedinesse a full damnation.
The Jews refused thunder; and we, folly.
Though God do hedge us in, yet who is holy?
Summe up at night, what thou hast done by day;
And in the morning, what thou hast to do.
Dresse and undresse thy soul: mark the decay
And growth of it: if with thy watch, that too
Be down, then winde up both, since we shall be
Most surely judg’d, make thy accounts agree.
In brief, acquit thee bravely; play the man.
Look not on pleasures as they come, but go.
Defer not the least vertue: life’s poore span
Make not an ell, by trifling in thy wo.
If thou do ill, the joy fades, not the pains:
If well; the pain doth fade, the joy remains.
2. SUPERLIMINARE.
THOU, whom the former precepts have
Sprinkled and taught, how to behave
Thy self in church; approach, and taste
The churches mysticall repast.
Avoid profanenesse; come not here:
Nothing but holy, pure, and cleare,
Or that which groneth to be so,
May at his perill further go.
3. THE ALTAR.
A BROKEN ALTAR, Lord, thy servant reares,
Made of a heart, and cemented with teares:
Whose parts are as thy hand did frame;
No workman’s tool hath touch’d the same.
A HEART alone
Is such a stone,
As nothing but
Thy pow’r doth cut.
Wherefore each part
Of my hard heart
Meets in this frame,
To praise thy name:
That, if I chance to hold my peace,
These stones to praise thee may not cease.
O let thy blessed SACRIFICE be mine,
And sanctifie this ALTAR to be thine.
4. THE SACRIFICE.
OH all ye, who passe by, whose eyes and minde
To worldly things are sharp, but to me blinde;
To me, who took eyes that I might you finde:
Was ever grief like mine?
The Princes of my people make a head
Against their Maker: they do wish me dead,
Who cannot wish, except I give them bread:
Was ever grief like mine?
Without me each one, who doth now me brave,
Had to this day been an Egyptian slave.
They use that power against me, which I gave:
Was ever grief like mine?
Mine own Apostle, who the bag did beare,
Though he had all I had, did not forbeare
To sell me also, and to put me there:
Was ever grief like mine?
For thirtie pence he did my death devise,
Who at three hundred did the ointment prize,
Not half so sweet as my sweet sacrifice:
Was ever grief like mine?
Therefore my soul melts, and my heart’s deare treasure
Drops bloud (the only beads) my words to measure:
O let this cup passe, if it be thy pleasure:
Was ever grief like mine?
These drops being temper’d with a sinner’s tears,
A Balsome are for both the Hemispheres,
Curing all wounds, but mine; all, but my fears.
Was ever grief like mine?
Yet my Disciples sleep: I cannot gain
One houre of watching; but their drowsie brain
Comforts not me, and doth my doctrine stain:
Was ever grief like mine?
Arise, arise; they come. Look how they runne!
Alas! what haste they make to be undone!
How with their lanterns do they seek the sunne!
Was ever grief like mine?
With clubs and staves they seek me, as a thief,
Who am the way of truth, the true relief,
Most true to those who are my greatest grief:
Was ever grief like mine?
Judas, dost thou betray me with a kisse?
Canst thou finde hell about my lips? and misse
Of life, just at the gates of life and blisse?
Was ever grief like mine?
See, they lay hold on me, not with the hands
Of faith, but furie; yet at their commands
I suffer binding, who have loos’d their bands:
Was ever grief like mine?
All my Disciples flie; fear puts a barre
Betwixt my friends and me. They leave the starre,
That brought the wise men of the East from farre:
Was ever grief like mine?
Thea from one ruler to another bound
They leade me: urging, that it was not found
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