Self-knowledge, and Abstraction from Earth.
1 My God, permit me not to be
A stranger to myself and thee:
Amidst a thousand thoughts I rove,
Forgetful of my highest love.
2 Why should my passions mix with earth,
And thus debase my heavenly birth?
Why should I cleave to things below,
And let my God, my Saviour go?
3 Call me away from flesh and sense;
Thy sovereign word can draw me thence:
I would obey the voice divine,
And all inferior joys resign.
4 Be earth, with all her scenes, withdrawn,
Let noise and vanity be gone:
In secret silence of the mind,
My heaven, and there my God, I find.