Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that desire beside thee.

I LOVE (and have some cause to love) the earth;
She is my Maker's creature, therefore good:
She is my mother, for she gave me birth;
She is my tender nurse; she gives me food:
But what's a creature, LORD, compar'd with thee?
Or what's my mother, or my nurse, to me?

I love the air; her dainty sweets refresh
My drooping soul, and to new sweets invite me;
Her shrill-mouth'd choir sustain me with their
flesh,

And with their Polyphonian notes delight me:
But what's the air, or all the sweets, that she
Can bless my soul withal, compar'd to thee?

I love the sea; she is my fellow-creature,
My careful purveyor; she provides me store:
She walls me round; she makes my diet greater;
She wafts my treasure from a foreign shore:

But, LORD of oceans, when compar'd with thee,
What is the ocean, or her wealth to me?

To Heav'n's high city I direct my journey,
Whose spangled suburbs entertain mine eye;
Mine eye, by contemplation's great attorney,
Transcends the crystal pavement of the sky:
But what is Heav'n, great GOD, compar❜d to
thee?

Without thy presence, Heav'n's no Heav'n to me.

Without thy presence, earth gives no refection; Without thy presence, sea affords no treasure; Without thy presence, air's a rank infection; Without thy presence, Heav'n itself's no pleasure; If not possess'd, if not enjoy'd in thee,

What's earth, or sea, or air, or Heaven, to me?

The highest honours that the world can boast
Are subjects far too low for my desire;
The brightest beams of glory are (at most)
But dying sparkles of thy living fire:

The proudest flames that earth can kindle be But nightly glowworms, if compar'd to thee.

Without thy presence, wealth are bags of cares; Wisdom, but folly; joy, disquiet sadness: Friendship is treason, and delights are snares; Pleasure's but pain, and mirth but pleasing mad

ness;

Without thee, LORD, things be not what they be, Nor have their being, when compar'd with thee.

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 Possess'd of Heav'n, Heav'n unpossess'd of thee.

S. BONAVENT. Soliloq. Cap. i.

Alas! my God, now I understand (but blush to confess) that the beauty of thy creatures hath deceived mine eyes, and I have not observed that thou art more amiable than all the creatures; to which thou hast communicated but one drop of thy inestimable beauty: for who hath adorned the heavens with stars? who hath stored the air with fowl, 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. v. 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 universal reward.

EPIG. 6.

Who would not throw his better thoughts about

him,

And scorn this dross within him; that, without him? Cast up, my soul, thy clearer eye; behold,

If thou be fully melted, there's the mould.

Woe is me, that I sojourn in Mesech, that I dwell in the tents of Kedar!

Is nature's course dissolv'd? doth time's glass

stand?

Or hath some frolic heart set back the hand

Of fate's perpetual clock? will't never strike? Is crazy time grown lazy, faint, or sick,