Superliminare
The Threshold Invitation
The poet invites those prepared by the church-porch precepts to approach the mystical feast, but warns that only the holy and pure, or those earnestly seeking purity, may enter.
You whom the earlier precepts have sprinkled and taught how to conduct yourself in church: approach, and taste the church's mystical feast.1 Avoid profaneness; don't come in here. Nothing but what is holy, pure, and clear— or what groans to become so— may go any further, and at its own peril.
Read the original English
THou, whom the former precepts have Sprinkled and taught, how to behave Thy self in church; approach, and taste The churches mysticall repast.
AVoid profanenesse; come not here: Nothing but holy, pure, and cleare, Or that which groneth to be so, May at his perill further go.
Notes
- 1 ↩"Sprinkled" keeps Herbert's aspersory/baptismal overtone (prep by prior precepts before entering the church); "mystical feast" renders "mysticall repast" with Eucharistic force without flattening it to a generic meal.
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