Emblemes (1635) and Hieroglyphikes (1638) [in the critical edition by John Horden] |
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I see another Law in my members warring against the Law of my mind, and
bringing me into captivitie to the Law of sin.
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 | Emblemes (1635) and Hieroglyphikes (1638) |  |
I see another Law in my members warring against the Law of my mind, and bringing me into captivitie to the Law of sin.
1
O how my will is hurried to and fro,And how my unresolv'd resolves do varies!
I know not where to fix; sometimes I goe
This way; then that; and then the quite contrary:
I like, dislike; lament for what I could not;
I doe; undoe; yet still do what I should not;
And at the selfe same instant; will the Thing I would not.
2
Thus are my weather-beaten Thoughts opprestWith th'earth-bred winds of my prodigious will;
Thus am I hourely tost from East to West
Upon the rouling streames of Good and Ill:
Thus am I driv'n upon these slipppry Sudds,
From reall Ills to false apparent Goods;
My life's a troubled sea, compos'd of Ebbs and Floods.
3
The curious Penman, having trim'd his PageWith the dead language of his dabled Quill,
Lets fall a heedlesse drop, then, in a Rage,
Cashieres the fruits of his unlucky skill;
Ev'n so my pregnant soule in th'infant bud
Of her best thoughts, showres down a Cole-black flood
Of unadvised Ills, and cancels all her Good.
4
Sometimes a sudden flash of sacred heatWarmes my chill soule, and sets my thoughts in frame:
But soone that fire is shouldred from her seat
By lustfull Cupids much inferiour flame;
I feele two flames, and yet no flame, entire.
Thus are the Mungrill thought of mixt desire
Consum'd between that heav'nly and this earthly fire.
5
Sometimes my trash-disdaining thoughts out-passeThe common Period of terrene conceit;
O then, me thinks I scorne the Thing I was,
Whilst I stand ravisht at my new Estate:
But when th'Icarian wings of my desire
Feele but the warmth of their owne native fire,
O then they melt and plunge within their wonted mire.
6
I know the nature of my wav'ring mind;I know the frailty of my fleshly will:
My Passion's Eagle-ey'd; my Judgement, blind;
I know what's good, but yet make choice of ill;
When the Ostrich wings of my desires shalbe
So dull, they cannot mount the least degree,
Yet grant my soule desire but of desiring Thee.
S. BERN. Med. 9.
My heart is a vaine, a vagabond, and instable heart; whilst it is led by its owne judgement, and wanting divine counsell, cannot subsist in it selfe, and whilst it divers ways seeks rest, finds none, but remaines miserable through labour, and void of peace: it agrees not with itselfe; it dissents from itselfe; it alters resolutions, changes the judgement, frames new thoughts, puls downe the old, and builds them up againe: It wils and wils not, and never remaines in the same state.
S. AUGUST. de Ver. Apost.
When it would it cannot, because when it might, it would not: Therefore, by an evill will man lost his good power.
| Emblemes (1635) and Hieroglyphikes (1638) | |