No More Learning

THE VIRGIN MARY.

The Virgin Mary was, as I have read,
The House of God, by Christ inhabited;
Into the which He entered, but, the door
Once shut, was never to be open'd more.


191. TO GOD.

God's undivided, One in Persons Three,
And Three in inconfused unity.
Original of Essence there is none,
'Twixt God the Father, Holy Ghost, and Son:
And though the Father be the first of Three,
'Tis but by order, not by entity.


192. UPON WOMAN AND MARY.

So long, it seem'd, as Mary's faith was small,
Christ did her woman, not her Mary call;
But no more woman, being strong in faith,
But Mary call'd then, as St. Ambrose saith.


193. NORTH AND SOUTH.

The Jews their beds and offices of ease,
Placed north and south for these clean purposes;
That man's uncomely froth might not molest
God's ways and walks, which lie still east and west.


194. SABBATHS.
Sabbaths are threefold, as St. Austin says:
The first of time, or Sabbath here of days;
The second is a conscience trespass-free;
The last the Sabbath of Eternity.


195. THE FAST, OR LENT.

Noah the first was, as tradition says,
That did ordain the fast of forty days.


196. SIN.

There is no evil that we do commit,
But hath th' extraction of some good from it:
As when we sin, God, the great Chemist, thence
Draws out th' elixir of true penitence.


197. GOD.

God is more here than in another place,
Not by His essence, but commerce of grace.


198. THIS, AND THE NEXT WORLD.

God hath this world for many made, 'tis true:
But He hath made the World to Come for few.


199. EASE.