in thy ebony box
Thou dost inclose us, till the day
Put our amendment in our way,
And give new wheels to our disorder’d clocks.
I muse, which shows more love,
The day or night; that is the gale, this th’ harbour;
That is the walk, and this the arbour;
Or that the garden, this the grove.
My God, thou art all love.
Not one poore minute ’scapes thy breast,
But brings a favour from above;
And in this love, more than in bed, I rest.
37. CHURCH-MONUMENTS.
WHILE that my soul repairs to her devotion,
Here I entombe my flesh, that it betimes
May take acquaintance of this heap of dust;
To which the blast of death’s incessant motion,
Fed with the exhalation of our crimes,
Drives all at last. Therefore I gladly trust
My bodie to this school, that it may learn
To spell his elements, and finde hb birth
Written in dustie heraldrie and lines;
Which dissolution sure doth best discern,
Comparing dust with dust, and earth with earth.
These laugh at Jeat, and Marble put for signes,
To sever the good fellowship of dust,
And spoil the meeting. What shall point out them,
When they shall bow, and kneel, and fall down flat
To kisse those heaps, which now they have in trust?
Deare flesh, while I do pray, learn here thy stemme
And true descent; that when thou shalt grow fat,
And wanton in thy cravings, thou mayst know,
That flesh is but the glasse, which holds the dust
That measures all our time; which also shall
Be crumbled into dust. Mark here below,
How tame these ashes are, how free from lust,
That thou mayst fit thyself against thy fall.
38. CHURCH-MUSICK.
SWEETEST of sweets, I thank you: when displeasure
Did through my bodie wound my minde,
You took me thence; and in your house of pleasure
A daintie lodging me assign’d.
Now I in you without a bodie move,
Rising and falling with your wings:
We both together sweetly live and love,
Yet say sometimes, God help poore Kings.
Comfort, I’ll die; for if you poste from me,
Sure I shall do so and much more:
But if I travell in your companie,
You know the way to heaven’s doore.
39. CHURCH-LOCK AND KEY.
I KNOW it is my sinne, which locks thine eares,
And bindes thy hands!
Out-crying my requests, drowning my tears;
Or else the chilnesse of my faint demands.
But as cold hands are angrie with the fire,
And mend it still;
So I do lay the want of my desire,
Not on my sinnes, or coldnesse, bat thy will.
Yet heare, O God, onely for his blood’s sake,
Which pleads for me:
For though sinnes plead too, yet like stones they make
His bloud’s sweet current much more loud to be.
40. THE CHURCH-FLOORE.
MARK you the floore? that square and speckled stone,
Which looks so firm and strong,
Is Patience:
And th’ other black and grave, where with each one
Is checker’d all along,
Humilitie:
The gentle rising, which on either hand
Leads to the quire above,
Is Confidence:
But the sweet cement, which in one sure band
Ties the whole frame, is Love
And Charitie.
Hither sometimes Sinne steals, and stains
The marble’s neat and curious veins:
But all is cleansed when the marble weeps.
Sometimes Death, puffing at the doore,
Blows all the dust about the floore:
But while he thinks to spoil the room, he sweeps.
Blest be the Architect, whose art
Could build so strong in a weak heart.
41. THE WINDOWS.
LORD, how can man preach thy eternall word?
He
