In tabernacle thine, O Lord, who shall remaine?
Lord, of thy holy hill, who shall the rest obtaine?
Ev'n he that leades a life of uncorrupted traine
Whose deedes of righteous hart, whose harty wordes be plain:
Who with deceitfull tongue hath never us'd to faine;
Nor neighboure hurtes by deede, nor doth with slander stain:
Whose eyes a person vile doth hold in vile disdaine,
But doth, with honour greate, the godly entertaine:
Who othe and promise given doth faithfully maintain,
Although some worldly losse thereby he may sustain;
From bityng usury who ever doth refraine:
Who sells not guiltlesse cause for filthy love of gain,
Who thus proceedes for ay, in sacred mount shall raign.
You may not like this old English at first; but if you can find
anybody to read it to you who has an ear, its cadence is massy
and grand, more than that of most verse I know, and never a word is
lost. Whether you like it or not, the sense of it is true, and the way
to the sacred mount, (of which mounts, whether of Pity, or of Roses,
are but shadows,) told you for once, straightforwardly,--on which
road I wish you God-speed.
Ever faithfully yours,