Henry Charles Beeching, ed. (1859–1919). Lyra Sacra: A Book of Religious Verse. 1903.
By Richard Crashaw (1613?1640)The Dear Bargain
LORD! what is man? why should he cost you | |
So dear? what had his ruin lost you? | |
Lord! what is man, that Thou hast overbought | |
So much a thing of nought? | |
Love is too kind, I see, and can | 5 |
Make but a simple merchant man; | |
’Twas for such sorry merchandise, | |
Bold painters have put out his eyes. | |
Alas! sweet Lord, what wer’t to Thee, | |
If there were no such worms as we? | 10 |
Heaven ne’er the less still heav’n would be | |
Should mankind dwell | |
In the deep hell, | |
What have his woes to do with Thee? | |
Let him go weep | 15 |
O’er his own wounds, | |
Seraphims will not sleep, | |
Nor spheres let fall their faithful rounds: | |
Still would the youthful spirits sing, | |
And still the spacious palace ring: | 20 |
Still would those beauteous ministers of light | |
Burn all as bright, | |
And bow their flaming heads before Thee, | |
Still thrones and dominations would adore Thee, | |
Still would those wakeful sons of fire | 25 |
Keep warm Thy praise | |
Both nights and days, | |
And teach Thy loved name to their noble lyre. | |
Let froward dust then do its kind, | |
And give itself as sport to the proud wind; | 30 |
Why should a piece of peevish clay plead shares | |
In the eternity of Thy old cares? | |
Why should’st Thou bow Thy awful breast to see | |
What mine own madnesses have done with me? | |
Should not the king still keep his throne, | 35 |
Because some desperate fool’s undone? | |
Or will the world’s illustrious eyes | |
Weep for every worm that dies? | |
Will the gallant sun | |
E’er the less glorious run? | 40 |
Will he hang down his golden head, | |
Or e’er the sooner seek his western bed, | |
Because some foolish fly | |
Grows wanton, and will die? | |
If I was lost in misery, | 45 |
What was it to Thy heav’n and Thee? | |
What was it to the precious blood, | |
If my foul heart call’d for a flood? | |
What if my faithless soul and I | |
Would needs fall in | 50 |
With guilt and sin? | |
What did the Lamb that He should die? | |
What did the Lamb that He should need, | |
When the wolf sins, Himself to bleed? | |
If my base lust | 55 |
Bargain’d with death and well-beseeming dust, | |
Why should the white | |
Lamb’s bosom write | |
The purple name | |
Of my sin’s shame? | 60 |
Why should His unstain’d breast make good | |
My blushes with His own heart-blood? | |
O my Saviour, make me see, | |
How dearly Thou hast paid for me, | |
That lost again my life may prove, | 65 |
As then in death, so now in love. | |