Selected Works - George Herbert

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all our hearts

      Pine, and decay,

      And drop away,

      And carrie with them th’ other parts.

      But thou wilt sinne and grief destroy;

      That so the broken bones may joy,

      And tune together in a well-set song,

      Full of his praises

      Who dead men raises.

      Fractures well cur’d make us more strong.

      20. FAITH.

      LORD, how couldst thou so much appease

      Thy wrath for sinne, as when man’s sight was dimme,

      And could see little, to regard his ease,

      And bring by Faith all things to him?

      Hungrie I was, and had no meat:

      I did conceit a most delicious feast;

      I had it straight, and did as truly eat,

      As ever did a welcome guest.

      There is a rare outlandish root,

      Which when I could not get, I thought it here:

      That apprehension cur’d so well my foot,

      That I can walk to heav’n well neare.

      I owed thousands and much more:

      I did believe that I did nothing owe,

      And liv’d accordingly; my creditor

      Beleeves so too, and lets me go.

      Faith makes me any thing, or all

      That I beleeve is in the sacred storie:

      And where sinne placeth me in Adam’s fall.

      Faith sets me higher in his glorie.

      If I go lower in the book,

      What can be lower than the common manger?

      Faith puts me there with Him, who sweetly took

      Our flesh and frailtie, death and danger.

      If blisse had lien in art or strength,

      None but the wise or strong had gained it:

      Where now by Faith all arms are of a length;

      One size doth all conditions fit.

      A peasant may beleeve as much

      As a great clerk, and reach the highest stature.

      Thus dost thou make proud knowledge bend and

      While grace fills up uneven nature. [crouch,

      When creatures had no reall light

      Inherent in them, thou didst make the sunne,

      Impute a lustre, and allow them bright:

      And in this show, what Christ hath done.

      That which before was darkned clean

      With bushie groves, pricking the looker’s eie,

      Vanisht away, when Faith did change the scene:

      And then appeared a glorious skie.

      What though my bodie run to dust?

      Faith cleaves unto it, counting ev’ry grain,

      With an exact and most particular trust,

      Reserving all for flesh again.

      21. PRAYER.

      PRAYER, the church’s banquet, angel’s age,

      God’s breath in man returning to his birth,

      The soul in paraphrase, heart in pilgrimage,

      The Christian plummet sounding heav’n and earth;

      Engine against th’ Almightie, sinner’s towre,

      Reversed thunder, Christ-side-piercing spear,

      The six daies’ world-transposing in an houre,

      A kinde of tune, which all things heare and fear;

      Softnesse, and peace, and joy, and love, and blisse,

      Exalted manna, gladnesse of the best,

      Heaven in ordinarie, man well drest,

      The milkie way, the bird of Paradise,

      Church-bels beyond the stars heard, the soul’s bloud,

      The land of spices, something understood.

      22. THE HOLY COMMUNION.

      NOT in rich furniture, or fine array,

      Nor in a wedge of gold,

      Thou, who from me wast sold,

      To me dost now thyself convey;

      For so thou should’st without me still have been,

      Leaving within me sinne:

      But by the way of nourishment and strength,

      Thou creep’st into my breast;

      Making thy way my rest,

      And thy small quantities my length;

      Which spread their forces into every part,

      Meeting sinnes force and art.

      Yet can these not get over to my soul,

      Leaping the wall that parts

      Our souls and fleshly hearts;

      But as th’ outworks, they may controll

      My rebel-flesh, and carrying thy name,

      Affright both sinne and shame.

      Onely thy grace, which with these elements comes,

      Knoweth the ready way,

      And hath the privie key,

      Op’ning the soul’s most subtile rooms:

      While those to spirits refin’d, at doore attend

      Despatches from their friend.

      Give me my captive soul, or take

      My body also thither.

      Another lift like this will make

      Them both to be together.

      Before that sinne turn’d flesh to stone,

      And all our lump to leaven;

      A fervent sigh might well have blown

      Our innocent earth to heaven.

      For sure when Adam did not know

      To sinne, or sinne to smother;

      He might to heav’n from Paradise go,

      As from one room t’ another.

      Thou hast restor’d us to this ease

      By this thy heav’nly bloud,

      Which I can go to, when I please,

      And leave th’ earth to their food.

      23. ANTIPHON.

      Cho. LET all the world in ev’ry

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