"With him [Chirst] I live, his word I hear, yet feel / No yielding to him in this heart of Steel."
— Slater, Samuel (c.1629-1704)
Author
Date
1679
Metaphor
"With him [Chirst] I live, his word I hear, yet feel / No yielding to him in this heart of Steel."
Metaphor in Context
SOUL.
With such as me! believ't who will; I can't,
Whoever enters Heaven, sure I shan't.
Nought that defiles shall thither come; that place
Is fill'd with Glory for Souls fill'd with Grace.
But mine is stuff'd with sin, numberless evils,
Ill thoughts, affections, Legions of Devils,
Haunt and inhabit here. Lord! what a pow'r
Of lusts are crawling in it every hour!
I never set my self to look within,
But I discover filthy heaps of sin.
Did others see what I do, they with shame
And scorn would shun me; I disgrace that name
Which graceth me, Christ's holy name I bear.
Him I profess, his Livery I wear,
With him I live, his word I hear, yet feel
No yielding to him in this heart of Steel.
Filthy I was, and so am still; How can
An holy Christ dwell in so foul a man?
Sure he his habitation sweepeth clean;
There are not in his Temple heaps of sin.
Sin dies in him that liveth; therefore I
Have no true life, not finding sin to dye.
With such as me! believ't who will; I can't,
Whoever enters Heaven, sure I shan't.
Nought that defiles shall thither come; that place
Is fill'd with Glory for Souls fill'd with Grace.
But mine is stuff'd with sin, numberless evils,
Ill thoughts, affections, Legions of Devils,
Haunt and inhabit here. Lord! what a pow'r
Of lusts are crawling in it every hour!
I never set my self to look within,
But I discover filthy heaps of sin.
Did others see what I do, they with shame
And scorn would shun me; I disgrace that name
Which graceth me, Christ's holy name I bear.
Him I profess, his Livery I wear,
With him I live, his word I hear, yet feel
No yielding to him in this heart of Steel.
Filthy I was, and so am still; How can
An holy Christ dwell in so foul a man?
Sure he his habitation sweepeth clean;
There are not in his Temple heaps of sin.
Sin dies in him that liveth; therefore I
Have no true life, not finding sin to dye.
Categories
Provenance
Searching "heart" and "steel" in HDIS (Poetry)
Theme
Dualism
Date of Entry
06/09/2005
