Whom have I in heav'n but Thee? and what desire I on earth in respect of Thee?
1
I love (and have some cause to love) the earth;
She is my Makers Creature; therefore Good:
She is my Mother; for shee gave me birth;
She is my tender Nurse; she gives me food:
But what a Creature, Lord, compar'd with Thee?
Or what's my mother, or my nurse to me?
2
I love the Ayre; her dainty sweets refresh
My drooping soule, and to new sweets invite me;
Her shrill-mouth'd Quire sustaine me with their flesh,
And with their Polyphonian notes delight me:
But what's the Ayre, or all the sweets that she
Can blesse my soule withall, compar'd to Thee?
3
I love the sea; She is my fellow-Creature;
My carefull Purveyor; She provides me store;
She wals me round; She makes my diet greater;
She wafts my treasure from a forreigne shore;
But Lord of Oceans, when compar'd with thee,
What is the Ocean, or her wealth, to me?
4
To heav'ns high City I direct my Journey,
Whose spangled Suburbs entertaine mine eye;
Mine Eye, by Contemplations Great Atturney,
Transcends the Christall pavement of the sky;
But what is heav'n, great GOD, compar'd to Thee?
Without Thy presence Heav'ns no Heav'n to me.
5
Without Thy presence Earth gives no Refection;
Without Thy presence, Sea affords no treasure;
Without Thy presence Ayre's a rank Infection;
Without Thy presence Heav'ns selfe's no pleasure;
If not possest, if not enjoy'd in Thee,
What's Earth, or Sea, or Ayre, or Heav'n to me?
6
The highest Honours that the world can boast
Are subjects farre too low for my desire;
The brightest beames of glory are (at most)
But dying sparkles of thy living fire:
The proudest flames that earth can kindle, be
But nightly Glow-wormes, if compar'd to Thee.
7
Without Thy presence, wealth are Bags of Cares;
Wisdome, but Folly; Joy, disquiet sadnesse;
Friendship is Treason, and Delights are snares;
Pleasures but paine; and mirth, but pleasing Madnesse;
Without Thee, Lord, things be not what they be,
Nor have they being, when compar'd with Thee.
8
In having all things, and not Thee, what have I?
Not having Thee, what have my labours got?
Let me enjoy but Thee, what farther crave I?
And having Thee alone what have I not?
I wish nor Sea, nor Land; nor would I be
Possest of Heav'n, Heav'n unpossest of Thee.
BONAVENT. Cap. 1. Soliloq.
Alas my God, now I understand (but blush to confesse) that the beauty of thy
Creatures have deceived mine eyes; and I have not observed that thou art more
amiable than all thy creatures; to which thou hast communicated but one drop of
thy inestimable Beauty; For who hath adorned the heaven with Starres? Who hath
stored the ayre with fowle? the waters, with fish? the earth, with plants and
flowers? But what are all these, but a small spark of divine beauty.
S. CHRYS. Hom. 5 in Ep. ad Rom.
In having nothing I have all things, because I have Christ;
Having therefore all things in Him, I seek no other reward, for he is the
universall Reward.
