Selected Works. George Herbert

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      Christ’s stamp to boot: both images regard.

      God reckons for him, counts the favour his:

      Write, So much giv’n to God; thou shalt be heard.

      Let thy almes go before, and keep heav’n’s gate

      Open for thee; or both may come too late.

      Restore to God his due in tithe and time:

      A tithe purloin’d cankers the whole estate.

      Sundaies observe: think when the bells do chime,

      ’Tis angel’s musick; therefore come not late.

      God then deals blessings: If a king did so,

      Who would not haste, nay give, to see the show?

      Twice on the day his due is understood;

      For all the week thy food so oft he gave thee.

      Thy cheere is mended; bate not of the food,

      Because ’tis better, and perhaps may save thee.

      Thwart not th’ Almighty God: O be not crosse.

      Fast when thou wilt; but then ’tis gain, not losse.

      Though private prayer be a brave designe,

      Yet publick hath more promises, more love:

      And love’s a weight to hearts, to eies a signe.

      We all are but cold suitours; let us move

      Where it is warmest. Leave thy six and seven;

      Pray with the most: for where most pray, is heaven.

      When once thy foot enters the church, be bare.

      God is more there, then thou: for thou art there

      Onely by his permission. Then beware,

      And make thyself all reverence and fear.

      Kneeling ne’re spoil’d silk stocking: quit thy state.

      All equall are within the churches gate.

      Resort to sermons, but to prayers most:

      Praying’s the end of preaching. O be drest;

      Stay not for th’ other pin: why thou hast lost

      A joy for it worth worlds. Thus hell doth jest

      Away thy blessings, and extreamly flout thee,

      Thy clothes being fast, but thy soul loose about thee.

      In time of service seal up both thine eies,

      And send them to thine heart; that spying sinne,

      They may weep out the stains by them did rise:

      Those doores being shut, all by the eare comes in.

      Who marks in church-time other symmetric,

      Makes all their beautie his deformitie.

      Let vain or busie thoughts have there no part:

      Bring not thy plough, thy plots, thy pleasures thither.

      Christ purg’d his temple; so must thou thy heart.

      All worldly thoughts are but theeves met together

      To couzin thee. Look to thy actions well;

      For churches either are our heav’n or hell.

      Judge not the preacher; for he is thy Judge:

      If thou mislike him, thou conceiv’st him not.

      God calleth preaching folly. Do not grudge

      To pick out treasures from an earthen pot.

      The worst speaks something good: if all want sense,

      God takes a text, and preacheth patience.

      He that gets patience, and the blessing which

      Preachers conclude with, hath not lost his pains.

      He that by being at church escapes the ditch,

      Which he might fall in by companions, gains.

      He that loves God’s abode, and to combine

      With saints on earth, shall one day with them shine

      Jest not at preacher’s language, or expression:

      How know’st thou, but thy sinnes made him miscarrie?

      Then turn thy faults and his into confession:

      God sent him, whatsoe’re he be: O tarry,

      And love him for his Master: his condition,

      Though it be ill, makes him no ill Physician.

      None shall in hell such bitter pangs endure

      As those, who mock at God’s way of salvation.

      Whom oil and balsames kill, what salve can cure?

      They drink with greedinesse a full damnation.

      The Jews refused thunder; and we, folly.

      Though God do hedge us in, yet who is holy?

      Summe up at night, what thou hast done by day;

      And in the morning, what thou hast to do.

      Dresse and undresse thy soul: mark the decay

      And growth of it: if with thy watch, that too

      Be down, then winde up both, since we shall be

      Most surely judg’d, make thy accounts agree.

      In brief, acquit thee bravely; play the man.

      Look not on pleasures as they come, but go.

      Defer not the least vertue: life’s poore span

      Make not an ell, by trifling in thy wo.

      If thou do ill, the joy fades, not the pains:

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