University of Virginia Library


447

OF FAITH THE FIRST THEOLOGICALL VERTUE.

Faith is a sunbeame of th'Æternall light,
That in man's soule infusd by grace doth shine:
Which giues her dazled eye soe cleare a sight
As evidently sees the truith divine;
This beame that cleares our eyes, inflames our hearts,
And Charitie's kind fire doth there begett;
For sunlike, it both light and heate imparts:
Faith is the light, and Charitie the heate:
This light of faith the noblest wisdome is,
For it the onely truith allowes and a'plyes:
The virgin's lamp, that lights the soule to blisse;
The Jacob's scales, whereby shee clymes the skyes;
The eye that sees, the hand that apprehends;
The cause of causes, and the end of ends.