 | Otia Sacra Optima Fides |  |
Before a Sacrament.
Is there a Feast to day? must I make oneAt so great Celebration?
And am I yet to seeke how to be drest
As to become a worthy Guest?
If to some other Table bid I were
My Taylor, and my Shoomaker,
Sempster, and Barber, all might mustred be
To add to my Formality.
But this more reall than all else, implies
A Banquet fill'd with mysteries:
God's manifested in the Flesh, and thus
The height of mercy shown to us:
And if the Rule of charity begins
At home, let's call to mind our sins,
Befreind our selves so farre as to Confesse,
How much He did, and we doe lesse;
Be joyfull for so Great a Saviours Power,
Yet in Contrition melt a shower,
To think how oft whilst lewd affections guilde
We make our Lord New crucifide,
We may approach and take this bread
And wine, the Comfort and the staffe, whereby
Not Life but Lifes Eternity
Secured is, and then with Grace possest,
Shew that we have an interest
In his high merits which alone Comprise
Power to quell our Enemies.
And though our former Actions turn'd to weed,
Let's now bring Faith though but a Mustard seed.
So may we all remove that high appears
In our Conceipts, into a sea of Tears;
For 'tis His Blood no other Jordan can
Cuer the Leperous Assyrian.
| Otia Sacra Optima Fides | |