Schola Cordis or the Heart of it Selfe, gone away from God ::

Whilst the soft hands of sleep tie up my sences,
My watchfull heart, free from all such pretences,
Searches for thee, enquires of all about thee,
Nor day, nor night, able to be without thee.

Ode. 32.

1

It must be so: that God that gave
Me senses, and a mind, would have
Me use them both, but in their severall kinds.
Sleep must refresh my senses, but my mind's
A sparke of heav'nly fire, that feeds
On action, and employment, needs
No time of rest: for, when it thinks to please
It fell with idlenesse, 'tis least at ease.
Though quiet rest refresh the head,
The heart that stirres not sure is dead.

2

Whilst then my body ease doth take,
My rest refusing heart shall wake:
And that mine heart the better watch may keep,
I'll lay my senses for a time to sleep.
Wanton de re shall not entice,
Nor lust enveigle them to vice:
No fading colours shall allure my sight,

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Nor sounds enchant mine eares with their delight:
I'll bind my smell, my touch, my tast,
To keep a strict religious fast.

3

My worldly businesse shall lie still,
That heav'nly thoughts my mind may fill:
My Marthaes cumb'ring cares shall cease their noise,
That Mary may attend her better choise.
That meditation may advance
Mine heart on purpose, not by chance,
My body shall keep holy day, that so
My mind with better liberty may goe
About her bus'nesse, and ingrosse
That gaine, which worldly men count losse.

4

And though my senses sleep the while,
My mind my senses shall beguile
With dreames of thee, dear Lord, whose rare perfections
Of excellence are such, that bare inspections
Cannot suffice my greedy soule,
Nor her fierce appetite controule,
But that the more she lookes the more she longs,
And strives to thrust into the thickest throngs
Of those divine discoveries,
Which dazell even Angels eyes.

5

Oh could I lay aside this flesh,
And follow after thee with fresh
And free desires, my disentangled soule,
Ravisht with admiration, should roule
It self, and all its thoughts on thee,
And by beleeving strive to see,
What is invisible to flesh and blood,
And only by fruition understood,

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The beauty of each sev'rall grace,
That shines in thy Sunne-shaming face.

6

But what I can doe that I will,
Waking and sleeping, seek thee still:
I'll leave no place unpri'd into behind me,
Where I can but imagine I may find thee:
I'll aske of all I meet, if they
Can tell thee where thou art, which way
Thou go'st, that I may follow after thee,
Which way thou com'st, that thou mai'st meet with me.
If not thy face, Lord, let mine heart
Behold with Moses thy back part.

University of Virginia Library

The watching of the Heart.

Epigr. 32.

Ode. 32.

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