| |
| THOU, whose diviner soul hath caused thee now | |
| To put thy hand unto the holy plough, | |
| Making lay-scornings of the ministry | |
| Not an impediment, but victory; | |
| What bring’st thou home with thee? how is thy mind | 5 |
| Affected since the vintage? Dost thou find | |
| New thoughts and stirrings in thee? and, as steel | |
| Touch’d with a loadstone, dost new motions feel? | |
| Or, as a ship after much pain and care | |
| For iron and cloth brings home rich Indian ware, | 10 |
| Hast thou thus traffick’d, but with far more gain | |
| Of noble goods, and with less time and pain? | |
| Thou art the same materials, as before, | |
| Only the stamp is changèd, but no more. | |
| And as new crowned kings alter the face, | 15 |
| But not the money’s substance, so hath grace | |
| Changed only God’s old image by creation, | |
| To Christ’s new stamp, at this thy coronation; | |
| Or, as we paint angels with wings, because | |
| They bear God’s message and proclaim His laws, | 20 |
| Since thou must do the like and so must move, | |
| Art thou new feather’d with celestial love? | |
| Dear, tell me where thy purchase lies, and show | |
| What thy advantage is above, below. | |
| But if thy gainings do surmount expression, | 25 |
| Why doth the foolish world scorn that profession, | |
| Whose joys pass speech? Why do they think unfit | |
| That gentry should join families with it? | |
| As if their day were only to be spent | |
| In dressing, mistressing and compliment. | 30 |
| Alas! poor joys, but poorer men, whose trust | |
| Seems richly placed in sublimed dust, | |
| —For such are clothes and beauty, which though gay, | |
| Are, at the best, but of sublimèd clay— | |
| Let then the world thy calling disrespect, | 35 |
| But go thou on, and pity their neglect. | |
| What function is so noble, as to be | |
| Ambassador to God, and destiny? | |
| To open life? to give kingdoms to more | |
| Than kings give dignities? to keep heaven’s door? | 40 |
| Mary’s prerogative was to bear Christ, so | |
| ’Tis preachers’ to convey Him, for they do, | |
| As angels out of clouds, from pulpits speak; | |
| And bless the poor beneath, the lame, the weak. | |
| If then th’ astronomers, whereas they spy | 45 |
| A new-found star, their optics magnify, | |
| How brave are those, who with their engine can | |
| Bring man to heaven, and heaven again to man? | |
| These are thy titles and pre-eminences, | |
| In whom must meet God’s graces, men’s offences; | 50 |
| And so the heavens which beget all things here, | |
| And th’ earth, our mother, which these things doth bear; | |
| Both these in thee, are in thy calling knit | |
| And make thee now a blest hermaphrodite. | |
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