Thomas Traherne

An Hymn upon St. Bartholomew's Day

What powerful Spirit lives within!  
 What active Angel doth inhabit here!  
 What heavenly light inspires my skin,  
Which doth so like a Deity appear!  
A living Temple of all ages, I      
     Within me see  
   A Temple of Eternity!  
     All Kingdoms I descry  
       In me.  
 
   An inward Omnipresence here
Mysteriously like His within me stands,  
 Whose knowledge is a Sacred Sphere  
That in itself at once includes all lands.  
There is some Angel that within me can  
     Both talk and move,
   And walk and fly and see and love,  
     A man on earth, a man  
       Above.  
 
   Dull walls of clay my Spirit leaves,  
And in a foreign Kingdom doth appear,  
 This great Apostle it receives,  
Admires His works and sees them, standing here,  
Within myself from East to West I move  
     As if I were  
   At once a Cherubim and Sphere,
     Or was at once above  
       And here.  
 
   The Soul’s a messenger whereby  
Within our inward Temple we may be  
 Even like the very Deity
In all the parts of His Eternity.  
O live within and leave unwieldy dross!  
     Flesh is but clay!  
   O fly my Soul and haste away  
     To Jesus’ Throne or Cross!
       Obey!