by
John Donne.
Tamely,
fraile body,'
abstaine to day; to day
My soule eates twice,
Christ hither and away.
She sees him man, so like
God made in this,
That of them both a circle embleme is,
Whose first and last concurre; this doubtfull day
Of feast or fast,
Christ came, and went away.
Shee sees him nothing twice at once, who'is all;
Shee sees a
Cedar plant it selfe, and fall,
Her
Maker put to making, and the head
Of
life, at once, not yet alive, yet dead.
She sees at once the
virgin mother stay
Reclus'd at home,
Publique at
Golgotha;
Sad and rejoyc'd shee's seen at once, and seen
At almost fiftie, and at scarce fifteene.
At once a
Sonne is promis'd her, and gone,
Gabriell gives Christ to her, He her to
John;
Not fully a mother, Shee's in Orbitie,
At once receiver and the legacie.
All this, and all betweene, this day hath showne,
Th'Abridgement of Christs story, which makes one
(As in plaine Maps, the furthest West is East)
Of the'Angels Ave,'and Consummatum est.
How well the
Church, Gods
Court of faculties
Deales, in some times, and seldome joyning these!
As by the selfe-fix'd
Pole wee never doe
Direct our course, but the next
starre thereto,
Which showes where the'other is, and which we say
(Because it strayes not farre) doth never stray;
So God by his Church, neerest to him, wee know,
And
stand firme, if wee by her motion goe;
His
Spirit, as his fiery Pillar doth
Leade, and his Church, as cloud; to one end both.
This Church, by letting these daies
joyne, hath shown
Death and
conception in
mankinde is one;