University of Virginia Library

Meditat. 6.

So poore a thing is Man. No Flesh and blood
Deserves the stile of Absolutely Good:
The righteous man sins oft; whose power's such,
To sin the least, sins (at the least) too much:
The man, whose Faith disdain'd his Isaacks life,
Dissembled once, a Sister, for a Wife:
The righteous Lot, being drunk, did make (at once)
His Daughters both halfe sisters to their sonnes:
The royall Favorite of heaven, stood
Not guiltlesse of Adultery and Blood,
And he, whose hands did build the Temple, doth
Bow downe his lustfull knees to Ashtaroth
The sinfull Woman was accus'd, but none
Was found, that could begin to fling a stone:

198

From mudled Springs, can Christall water come?
In some things, all men sin; in all things, some.
Even as the soyle, (which Aprils gentle showers
Have fild with sweetnesse, and inricht with flowers)
Reares up her suckling plants, still shooting forth
The tender blossomes of her timely Birth,
But, if deny'd the beames of cheerly May,
They hang their withered heads, and fade away:
So man, assisted by th'Almighties Hand,
His Faith doth flourish, and securely stand,
But left a while, forsooke (as in a shade)
It languishes, and nipt with sin doth fade:
No Gold is pure from Drosse, though oft refin'd;
The strongest Cedar's shaken with the wind;
The fairest Rose hath no prerogative,
Against the fretting Canker-worme; The Hive
No honey yeelds unblended with the wax,
The finest Linnen hath both soyle and bracks:
The best of men have sins; None lives secure,
In Nature nothing's perfect, nothing pure.
Lord, since I needs must sin, yet grant that I
Forge no advantage by infirmity:
Since that my Vesture cannot want a staine,
Assist me, lest the tincture be in Graine.
To thee (my great Redeemer) doe I flye,
It is thy Death alone, can change my Dye;
Teares, mingled with the Blood, can scower so,
That Scarlet sinnes shall turne as white as Snow.