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Meditation I

1

What means this Paradox?
How can the Rich be poor?
Or Poor men Rich? What is their Wealth?
Or where is all their store?
I know thy Poverty,
Saith Christ, yet thou art Rich,
To Smyma's undefiled Church:
Thou seest there may be such

2

But to Laodicea ;

1

Why say'st thou Jacob , and,
O Israel spoken hast,
My way is hidden from the Lord,
My judgment from him past?
Hast thou not known nor heard,
Th'Eternal God, the Lord
Who hath the Ends of all the Earth
Created by his Word.

2

He never waxeth faint,
No wearied is he:
His understanding is so deep

A Dialogue wherein the Speakers are Troubled Conscience and Rectified Judgment.

Troub. Consc.

1

Oh, but my weakness brings
Unserviceableness,
And takes me off from Christ's sweet works:
Who can this grief express?
When as the Body fails
The Soul, and hindereth it
In all its motions, like a clog;
I am for nothing fit

Rect Judgm.

2

1

And now for want of strength
And weakness Bodily,
I could say much; For few, I think,
Have felt it more then I
I have been many years
So impotent and weak
As none are able to conceive
That onely hear me speak.

2

And when I find most strength
And thereupon assay
To serve the Lord with all my heart

1

Men's Strength meer Weakness is,
As frail as Venice Glass:
And all his Excellency like
The flower upon the grass
Adam in Paradise,
And in his perfect state,
When left of God unto himself,
Could soon degenerate.

2

He that was strong at first
Immediately grew weak;
And let the stock of Grace run out,

That weak ones may grow strong
We very often see:
But Strength in Weakness to behold,
This is a Noveltie.

To see a Weak man Strong,
And strongest when most Weak;
To see the Strong through Weakness fall
And all their bones to break:
This is a Mystery
A Christian Paradox;
But this ensuing little Key

XI.

Turn then, ye erring Pilgrims! turn,
Who perfect bliss on earth pursue:
Her steps ye never shall discern;
To Heav'n the radiant Cherub flew,
When Adam fell. Go seek her there
By humble virtue, ardent prayer,
And Charity's directing light.

VI.

What tho' the earth, now sterile grown,
Will but by toil her products bring;
What tho' her climes no longer own
An Eden's ever-during spring:
Use shall the native reconcile
To each adversity of soil,
Or art allay the wild extreme.
Necessity shall summon forth

I.

W HY should the melancholy Muse
Repress the ardour of the soul,
And o'er young Hope's enchanting views,
Devolve affliction's sable stole?
While fancy's groves inviting spread,
Shall she the vale of mourning tread?
Disease and guilt inhabit there.

A Dialogue or Discourse between the Believing Soul and her Savior.

Oh Christ my grief is such,
Because I love not much;
As addeth to my sore,
Because I grieve no more.

Give me a broken heart,
That may both bleed and smart,
That I so often stray,
That I no more obey.

Oh make me love thee dearly,
And trust in thee sincerely:
And help me well to prove
Mine interest in thy Love.

That God Omnipotent
Is freely well content
To cancel all my debts,
And all my sins forgets.