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!