A Hymn To Christ At The Author’s Last Going Into Germany

• In what torn ship soever I embark,
• That ship shall be my emblem of thy Ark;
• What sea soever swallow me, that flood
• Shall be to me an emblem of thy blood;
• Though thou with clouds of anger do disguise
• Thy face, yet through that mask I know those eyes,
• Which, though they turn away sometimes,
• They never will despise.
•  
• I sacrifice this Island unto thee,
• And all whom I loved there, and who loved me;
• When I have put our seas ‘twixt them and me,
• Put thou thy sea betwixt my sins and thee.
• As the tree’s sap doth seek the root below
• In winter, in my winter now I go,
• Where none but thee, th’ Eternal root
• Of true Love, I may know.
•  
• Nor thou nor thy religion dost control
• The amorousness of an harmonious Soul,
• But thou wouldst have that love thyself: as thou
• Art jealous, Lord, so I am jealous now,
• Thou lov’st not, till from loving more, Thou free
• My soul: who ever gives, takes liberty:
• O, if thou car’st not whom I love
• Alas, thou lov’st not me.
•  
• Seal then this bill of my Divorce to All,
• On whom those fainter beams of love did fall;
• Marry those loves, which in youth scattered be
• On Fame, Wit, Hopes (false mistresses) to thee.
• Churches are best for Prayer, that have least light:
• To see God only, I go out of sight:
• And to ’scape stormy days, I choose
• An Everlasting night.