1     Let mans Soule be a Spheare, and then, in this,
2     The intelligence that moves, devotion is,
3     And as the other Spheares, by being growne
4     Subject to forraigne motion, lose their owne,
5     And being by others hurried every day,
6     Scarce in a yeare their naturall forme obey:
7     Pleasure or businesse, so, our Soules admit
8     For their first mover, and are whirld by it.
9     Hence is't, that I am carryed towards the West
10   This day, when my Soules forme bends toward the East.
11   There I should see a Sunne, by rising set,
12   And by that setting endlesse day beget;
13   But that Christ on this Crosse, did rise and fall,
14   Sinne had eternally benighted all.
15   Yet dare I'almost be glad, I do not see
16   That spectacle of too much weight for mee.
17   Who sees Gods face, that is selfe life, must dye;
18   What a death were it then to see God dye?
19   It made his owne Lieutenant Nature shrinke,
20   It made his footstoole crack, and the Sunne winke.
21   Could I behold those hands which span the Poles,
22   And tune all spheares at once peirc'd with those holes?
23   Could I behold that endlesse height which is
24   Zenith to us, and our Antipodes,
25   Humbled below us? or that blood which is
26   The seat of all our Soules, if not of his,
27   Made durt of dust, or that flesh which was worne
28   By God, for his apparell, rag'd, and torne?
29   If on these things I durst not looke, durst I
30   Upon his miserable mother cast mine eye,
31   Who was Gods partner here, and furnish'd thus
32   Halfe of that Sacrifice, which ransom'd us?
33   Though these things, as I ride, be from mine eye,
34   They'are present yet unto my memory,
35   For that looks towards them; and thou look'st towards mee,
36   O Saviour, as thou hang'st upon the tree;
37   I turne my backe to thee, but to receive
38   Corrections, till thy mercies bid thee leave.
39   O thinke mee worth thine anger, punish mee,
40   Burne off my rusts, and my deformity,
41   Restore thine Image, so much, by thy grace,
42   That thou may'st know mee, and I'll turne my face.

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Composition Date:

1613.

Form:

couplets.

1.

Good Friday: the Friday before Easter Sunday, a moveable feast in the Christian church commemorating Christ's death on the cross.

Each planet or sphere was thought to hold an angelic intelligence by which it moved in a perfect motion, a circle, in worship of God, but because planetary orbits took an elliptical form, they failed to obey this "natural form." Astronomers tried to save appearances by proposing that the fixed stars (the planets) moved in complicated circular motions as they orbited. Apparent irregularities were explained as eccentric circles within circles.

8.

first mover: primum mobile, the tenth sphere beyond the nine planets that communicated the circular motion to them; also a term for God, the source of all perfection.

11.

a Sunne: Christ, son of God, died or "set" by rising on the cross.

14.

benighted: put into darkness; also perhaps quibbling on "be-knighted," that is, made a knight by the lifting and letting fall of a sword on the shoulders of a squire.

17.

God warned Moses that no man could see His face and live (Exodus 33.20).

20.

The earth, God's "footstoole," suffered an earthquake, and the sun endured an eclipse, at Christ's death on the cross.

22.

tune: the music of the spheres was thought to be "tuned" by God.

24.

Zenith: the point directly vertical to anyone standing on the earth.

Antipodes: the point directly below the zenith on the other side of the earth.

25-26.

that blood: when drinking the communion wine, Christians partake literally or figuratively of Christ's blood, which redeems them from the power of hell and so provides their souls a "seat" in heaven. God's blood serves no such purpose for himself.

36.

tree: cross.

38.

leave: leave off, stop (administering a whipping to the back).

41.

God made man in his image (Genesis 1.27).