XIX.
O H, to vex me, contraryes meet in one:
Inconstancy unnaturally hath begott
A constant habit; that when I would not
I change in vowes, and in devotione.
5As humorous is my contritione
As my prophane Love, and as soone forgott:
As ridlingly distemper'd, cold and hott,
As praying, as mute; as infinite, as none.
I durst not view heaven yesterday; and to day
10In prayers, and flattering speaches I court God:
To morrow I quake with true feare of his rod.
So my devout fitts come and go away
Like a fantastique Ague: save that here
Those are my best dayes, when I shake with feare.
XIX. W: first printed in Gosse's Life &c.
3 that] yt W, so always
4 and] & W, so always
The Crosse.
SINCE Christ embrac'd the Crosse it selfe, dare I
His image, th'image of his Crosse deny?
Would I have profit by the sacrifice,
And dare the chosen Altar to despise?
5It bore all other sinnes, but is it fit
That it should beare the sinne of scorning it?
Who from the picture would avert his eye,
How would he flye his paines, who there did dye?
From mee, no Pulpit, nor misgrounded law,
10Nor scandall taken, shall this Crosse withdraw,
It shall not, for it cannot; for, the losse
Of this Crosse, were to mee another Crosse;
Better were worse, for, no affiction,
No Crosse is so extreme, as to have none.
15Who can blot out the Crosse, which th'instrument
Of God, dew'd on mee in the Sacrament?
Who can deny mee power, and liberty
To stretch mine armes, and mine owne Crosse to be?
Swimme, and at every stroake, thou art thy Crosse;
20The Mast and yard make one, where seas do tosse;
Looke downe, thou spiest out Crosses in small things;
Looke up, thou seest birds rais'd on crossed wings;
All the Globes frame, and spheares, is nothing else
But the Meridians crossing Parallels.
25Materiall Crosses then, good physicke bee,
But yet spirituall have chiefe dignity.
These for extracted chimique medicine serve,
And cure much better, and as well preserve;
Then are you your own physicke, or need none,
30When Still'd, or purg'd by tribulation.
For when that Crosse ungrudg'd, unto you stickes,
Then are you to your selfe, a Crucifixe.
As perchance, Carvers do not faces make,
But that away, which hid them there, do take;
35Let Crosses, soe, take what hid Christ in thee,
And be his image, or not his, but hee.
But, as oft Alchimists doe coyners prove,
So may a selfe-dispising, get selfe-love,
And then as worst surfets, of best meates bee,
40Soe is pride, issued from humility,
For, 'tis no child, but monster; therefore Crosse
Your joy in crosses, else, 'tis double losse.
And crosse thy senses, else, both they, and thou
Must perish soone, and to destruction bowe.
45For if the'eye seeke good objects, and will take
No crosse from bad, wee cannot scape a snake.
So with harsh, hard, sowre, stinking, crosse the rest,
Make them indifferent all; call nothing best.
But most the eye needs crossing, that can rome,
50And move; To th'other th'objects must come home.
And crosse thy heart: for that in man alone
Points downewards, and hath palpitation.
Crosse those dejections, when it downeward tends,
And when it to forbidden heights pretends.
55And as the braine through bony walls doth vent
By sutures, which a Crosses forme present,
So when thy braine workes, ere thou utter it,
Crosse and correct concupiscence of witt.
Be covetous of Crosses, let none fall.
60Crosse no man else, but crosse thy selfe in all.
Then doth the Crosse of Christ worke fruitfully
Within our hearts, when wee love harmlesly
That Crosses pictures much, and with more care
That Crosses children, which our Crosses are.
The Crosse. 1633-69 (following, 1635-69, In that, ô Queene &c. p. 427): similarly, A18, A25, B, D, H49, JC, Lec, N, O'F, P, S, TCC, TCD
8 paines] pangs JC
12 Crosse; 1635-69: Crosse. 1633
13 affliction, Ed: affliction 1633-69
14 none. Ed: none; 1633-54: none: 1669
19 Crosse; Ed: Crosse, 1633: Crosse, 1635-69
20 make] makes B, D, H49, Lec, S
where] when O'F
tosse; 1635-69: tosse. 1633
21 out] our 1669
23 is] are A25, B
26 But yet] And yet A18, D, JC, N, TC
27 medicine] medicines A25, B, JC
33 make, 1635-69: make: 1633
34 take; Ed: take. 1633: take: 1635-69
37 oft Ed: oft, 1633-69
38 selfe-love, D: selfe-love. 1633-69
42 losse. Ed: losse, 1633-69
44 destruction] corruption O'F
45 seeke] see 1650-69
48 all; call nothing best. Ed: indifferent; call nothing best. 1633 and MSS: indifferent; all, nothing best. 1635-69
50 To th'other th'objects 1633: To th'others objects 1635-69
52 Points A18, A25, N, P, S, TC: Pants 1633-69, B, D, H49, JC, Lec, O'F
53 dejections 1633: detorsions 1635-69, O'F
55 the] thy A18, D, H49, JC, Lec, N, O'F, P, TC
61 fruitfully A18, A25, B, D, H49, JC, Lec, N, O'F, P, S, TC: faithfully 1633-69
63 That A18, A25, B, D, H49, JC, Lec, N, O'F, P, S, TC: The 1633-69
Resurrection, imperfect.
S LEEP sleep old Sun, thou canst not have repast
As yet, the wound thou took'st on friday last;
Sleepe then, and rest; The world may beare thy stay,
A better Sun rose before thee to day,
5Who, not content to'enlighten all that dwell
On the earths face, as thou, enlightned hell,
And made the darke fires languish in that vale,
As, at thy presence here, our fires grow pale.
Whose body having walk'd on earth, and now
10Hasting to Heaven, would, that he might allow
Himselfe unto all stations, and fill all,
For these three daies become a minerall;
Hee was all gold when he lay downe, but rose
All tincture, and doth not alone dispose
15Leaden and iron wills to good, but is
Of power to make even sinfull flesh like his.
Had one of those, whose credulous pietie
Thought, that a Soule one might discerne and see
Goe from a body,'at this sepulcher been,
20And, issuing from the sheet, this body seen,
He would have justly thought this body a soule,
If not of any man, yet of the whole.
Desunt cætera.
Resurrection, imperfect. 1633-69 (following By Euphrates &c. p. 424), A18, N, O'F, TCC, TCD
15 good, 1633-69 and MSS.: Chambers queries gold
22 If] If, 1633-69
The Annuntiation and Passion.
TAMELY, fraile body,'abstaine to day; to day
My soule eates twice, Christ hither and away.
She sees him man, so like God made in this,
That of them both a circle embleme is,
5Whose first and last concurre; this doubtfull day
Of feast or fast, Christ came, and went away.
Shee sees him nothing twice at once, who'is all;
Shee sees a Cedar plant it selfe, and fall,
Her Maker put to making, and the head
10Of life, at once, not yet alive, yet dead.
She sees at once the virgin mother stay
Reclus'd at home, Publique at Golgotha;
Sad and rejoyc'd shee's seen at once, and seen
At almost fiftie, and at scarce fifteene.
15At once a Sonne is promis'd her, and gone,
Gabriell gives Christ to her, He her to John;
Not fully a mother, Shee's in Orbitie,
At once receiver and the legacie.
All this, and all betweene, this day hath showne,
20Th'Abridgement of Christs story, which makes one
(As in plaine Maps, the furthest West is East)
Of the'Angels Ave,'and Consummatum est.
How well the Church, Gods Court of faculties
Deales, in some times, and seldome joyning these!
25As by the selfe-fix'd Pole wee never doe
Direct our course, but the next starre thereto,
Which showes where the'other is, and which we say
(Because it strayes not farre) doth never stray;
So God by his Church, neerest to him, wee know,
30And stand firme, if wee by her motion goe;
His Spirit, as his fiery Pillar doth
Leade, and his Church, as cloud; to one end both.
This Church, by letting these daies joyne, hath shown
Death and conception in mankinde is one;
35Or'twas in him the same humility,
That he would be a man, and leave to be:
Or as creation he hath made, as God,
With the last judgement, but one period,
His imitating Spouse would joyne in one
40Manhoods extremes: He shall come, he is gone:
Or as though one blood drop, which thence did fall,
Accepted, would have serv'd, he yet shed all;
So though the least of his paines, deeds, or words,
Would busie a life, she all this day affords;
45This treasure then, in grosse, my Soule uplay,
And in my life retaile it every day.
The Annuntiation and Passion. 1633-69: Upon the Annuntiation and Passion falling upon one day. Anno Dni 1608. B, O'F, S, S96: similarly, N, TCD: The Annuntiation. D, H49, Lec: no title, P
1 Tamely, fraile body, Ed: Tamely fraile body 1633: Tamely fraile flesh, 1635-69, O'F, S96 (1650-69 accidentally drop second to day)
6 away.] away; 1633: away, 1635-39
10 yet dead. Ed: yet dead; 1633, B, P, S: and dead; 1635-69, D, H49, Lec, N, O'F, TCD (full stop, MSS.)
12 at Golgotha; Ed: at Golgotha. 1633-69
13 Sad and rejoyc'd] Rejoyc'd and sad B, O'F, P, S, S96
18 legacie. Ed: legacie; 1633-69
24 these! Ed: these? D, TCD: these; 1633: these. 1635-69
31 as 1633: and 1635-69
32 both. 1635-69: both: 1633
33 these B, D, H49, Lec, N, O'F, P, S96, TCD: those 1633-69
daies 1633, D, H49, Lec, N, TCD: feasts 1635-69, O'F, P, S, S96
34 one; Ed: one. 1633: are one. 1635-69 (one 1669)
37 hath] had B, N, O'F, P, S, S96, TCD
Goodfriday, 1613. Riding Westward.
LET mans Soule be a Spheare, and then, in this,
The intelligence that moves, devotion is,
And as the other Spheares, by being growne
Subject to forraigne motions, lose their owne,
5And being by others hurried every day,
Scarce in a yeare their naturall forme obey:
Pleasure or businesse, so, our Soules admit
For their first mover, and are whirld by it.
Hence is't, that I am carryed towards the West
10This day, when my Soules forme bends toward the East.
There I should see a Sunne, by rising set,
And by that setting endlesse day beget;
But that Christ on this Crosse, did rise and fall,
Sinne had eternally benighted all.
15Yet dare I'almost be glad, I do not see
That spectacle of too much weight for mee.
Who sees Gods face, that is selfe life, must dye;
What a death were it then to see God dye?
It made his owne Lieutenant Nature shrinke,
20It made his footstoole crack, and the Sunne winke.
Could I behold those hands which span the Poles,
And turne all spheares at once, peirc'd with those holes?
Could I behold that endlesse height which is
Zenith to us, and our Antipodes,
25Humbled below us? or that blood which is
The seat of all our Soules, if not of his,
Made durt of dust, or that flesh which was worne
By God, for his apparell, rag'd, and torne?
If on these things I durst not looke, durst I
30Upon his miserable mother cast mine eye,
Who was Gods partner here, and furnish'd thus
Halfe of that Sacrifice, which ransom'd us?
Though these things, as I ride, be from mine eye,
They'are present yet unto my memory,
35For that looks towards them; and thou look'st towards mee,
O Saviour, as thou hang'st upon the tree;
I turne my backe to thee, but to receive
Corrections, till thy mercies bid thee leave.
O thinke mee worth thine anger, punish mee,
40Burne off my rusts, and my deformity,
Restore thine Image, so much, by thy grace,
That thou may'st know mee, and I'll turne my face.
Goodfriday, &c. 1633-69: Good Friday (with or without date and Riding &c.) A18, B, Cy, N, S, S96, TCC, TCD: Good Friday. 1613. Riding towards Wales. D, Lec, O'F: Good Friday. 1613. Riding to Sr Edward Harbert in Wales. H49: Mr J. Duñ goeing from Sir H. G. on good friday sent him back this meditation on the way. A25
4 motions A18, B, Cy, D, H49, Lec, N, O'F, S, S96, TC: motion, 1633-69
8 and] bis 1650-54
10 toward 1633: do. or towards MSS.: to 1635-69, O'F
12 beget 1633: beget. 1635-69, Chambers
13 this Crosse, 1633, A18, D, H49, Lec, O'F, S, S96, TCC: his Crosse, 1635-69, B, Cy, N, TCD
16 too] two 1639-69
22 turne A18, B, Cy, N, S, TC: tune 1633-69, D, H49, Lec, O'F, S96
once,] once 1633
30 Upon his miserable 1633, A18, B, Cy, D, H49, Lec, N, O'F, S, S96, TC:
On his distressed 1635-69
40 rusts, 1633, B, Cy, D, H49, Lec, N, O'F, S96, TCD: rust, 1635-69, A18, S, TCC