[The Ermine rather chose to die]
I was afraid least thou wouldest hear me, and deliver me instantly
from the disease of lust, which I rather wished might be satisfied.
Aug. Conf. lib. 8. Cap. 7.
1
The Ermine rather chose to die
A Martyr of its purity,
Then that one uncouth soile should stain
Its hitherto preserved skin:
2
And thus resolv'd she thinks it good
To write her whitenesse in her blood.
It I had rather die, then e're,
Continue from my soulnesse cleere.
3
Nay I suppose by that I live
That onely doth destruction give.
Mad-man I am, I turn mine Eye
On every side, but what doth lie
4
Within I can no better find,
Then if I ever had been blind.
Is this the reason thou dost claime
Thy sole prerogative, to frame
5
Engines again thy self? O fly
Thy self as greatest enemy;
And think thou sometimes life wilt get
By a secure contemning it.
Epigram 4.
His whitenesse man no sooner blots with sin,
But desperately he wadeth deeper in.
As if no other means did now remain
To make him clean, but to be all one stain.
