The Beauty of Holiness, Emblem
A Divine EMBLEME, tending to raise our hearts to a Divine love of the most holy God.
QVARLES EMBLEMS Lib. 5. Embl. 6.
1
I Love (and have some cause to love) the earth;
She i… my makers creature, therefore Good;
She is my mother, for She gave me birth;
She is my tender Nurse, she gives me food:
But what's a Creature, Lord, compar'd with Thee?
Or what's my mother or my Nurse to me?
2
I love the Ayre, her dainty sweets refresh
My drooping soul, and to new sweets invite me;
Her shril mouth'd Quire sustaine me with their flesh,
And with their Polyphonian notes delight me:
But what's the Air, or all the sweets that she
Can blesse my soul withall, compar'd to Thee?
3
I love the Sea, she is my fellow Creature;
My carefull Purveyor; she provides me store;
She walls me round, she makes my diet greater;
She waf…s my treasure from a forreigne shore:
But Lord of Oceans when compar'd with Thee,
What is the Ocean, or her wealth to me?
4
To heavens high City I direct my Journey,
Whose spingled Suburbs entertaine mine eye:
Mine eye by contemplations great Atturney,
Transcends …he Christall pavement of the skie.
But what is heaven, great God compared to Thee?
Without thy presence Heaven's no Heaven to me.
5
Without thy presence Earth gives no Refection.
Without thy presence Sea affords no Treasure:
Without thy presence Ay'rs a rank Infection.
Without thy presence Heaven it sel'fs no Pleasure:
If not possest, if not injoy'd by Thee,
What's Earth or Sea, or Air, or Heav'n to me?
6
The hightest Honours that the World can boast,
Are subjects farre too low for my desire:
The brightest beams of glory are (at most)
But dying sparkles of thy living fires,
The proudest flames that earth can kindle, be
But nightly Glow-worms if compar'd to Thee.
7
Without thy presence, Wealth are bags of Cares;
Wisdome but Folly, Joy disquiet Sadness,
Friendship is Treason, and Desights are Snares;
Pleasures but Pain, and Mirth but pleasing Madness;
Without thee Lord, things be not what they be,
Nor have they being, when compar'd with Thee.
8
In having all things, and not Thee, what have I?
Not having Thee, what have my labours got?
Let me enjoy but Thee, what farther crave I?
And having Thee alone, what have I not?
I wish nor Sea, nor Land, nor would I be
Possest of Heaven, Heaven unpossest of Thee.
FINIS.
End of the text · Thomas Hall, The Beauty of Holiness (1655)