OF FAITH THE FIRST THEOLOGICALL VERTUE.

Faith is a sunbeame of th' Æternall light,

That in man's soule infusd by grace doth shine:

Which giues her dazled eye soe cleare a sight

As evidently sees the truith divine;

This beame that cleares our eyes, inflames our hearts,

And Charitie's kind fire doth there begett:

For sunlike, it both light and heate imparts:

Faith is the light, and Charitie the heate:

This light of faith the noblest wisdome is,

For it the onley truith allowes and a'plyes:

The virgin's lamp, that lights the soule to blisse;

The Jacob's scales,[246] whereby shee clymes the skyes;

The eye that sees, the hand that apprehends;

The cause of causes, and the end of ends.

[Footnote 246: Scala = ladder. G.]

The Complete Poems of Sir John Davies. Volume 2 of 2. · 第 204 / 226 题