50. An Hymn upon St. Bartholomew’s Day

WHAT powerful Spirit lives within!

What active Angel doth inhabit here!

What heavenly light inspires my skin,

Which doth so like a Deity appear!

A living Temple of all ages, I

Within me see

A Temple of Eternity!

All Kingdoms I descry

In me.

An inward Omnipresence here

Mysteriously like His within me stands,

Whose knowledge is a Sacred Sphere

That in itself at once includes all lands.

There is some Angel that within me can

Both talk and move,

And walk and fly and see and love,

A man on earth, a man

Above.

Dull walls of clay my Spirit leaves,

And in a foreign Kingdom doth appear,

This great Apostle it receives,

Admires His works and sees them, standing here,

Within myself from East to West I move

As if I were

At once a Cherubim and Sphere,

Or was at once above

And here.

The Soul’s a messenger whereby

Within our inward Temple we may be

Even like the very Deity

In all the parts of His Eternity.

O live within and leave unwieldy dross!

Flesh is but clay!

O fly my Soul and haste away

To Jesus’ Throne or Cross!

Obey!