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Chapter 12HerbTemple.2.12

H. Baptisme (I)

H. Baptisme (I)

Just as someone who sees a dark, shady grove doesn't stop there but looks beyond it to the sky, so when I look at my sins, my eyes pull back even further and fly to that water.✦ which is above the heavens, whose spring and opening is in my dear Redeemer's pierced side.✦1 O blessed streams! either you prevent and stop our sins from growing thick and wide,2 Or else give tears to drown them as they grow. In you, Redemption measures all my time and spreads the plaster equal to the crime.3 You taught the book of life my name, so that✦4 Whatever future sins might misname me, Your first acquaintance could discredit them all.5

Read the original English

AS he that sees a dark and shadie grove, Stayes not, but looks beyond it on the skie; So when I view my sinnes, mine eyes remove More backward still, and to that water flie,

Which is above the heav'ns, whose spring and rent Is in my deare Redeemers pierced side. O blessed streams! either ye do prevent And stop our sinnes from growing thick and wide,

Or else give tears to drown them, as they grow. In you Redemption measures all my time, And spreads the plaister equall to the crime. You taught the book of life my name, that so

What ever future sinnes should me miscall, Your first acquaintance might discredit all.

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩John.19.34 — But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out.
  2. ↩John.19.34 — But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out.
  3. ↩Rev.3.5;Phil.4.3;Exod.32.32-Exod.32.33 — The one who conquers will thus be clothed in white garments, and I will not erase his name from the book of life. I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels. Phil.4.3 — Yes, I ask you also, true companion, help these women, for they labored with me in the gospel together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life. Exod.32.32 — But now, if you will forgive their sin—and if not, please blot me out of your book that you have written. Exod.32.33 — And the LORD said to Moses, "Whoever has sinned against me, I will blot out of my book."

Notes

  1. 1 ↩Source 'rent' means the tear or opening (Christ's wounded side as the water's source), not financial rent; rendered 'opening' for clarity.
  2. 2 ↩Early modern 'prevent' primarily means forestall or check in advance; kept as 'prevent' because the modern sense still fits the either/or with the next section's 'Or else give tears…'.
  3. 3 ↩Source 'plaister' is the early modern spelling of plaster: a medicinal bandage or salve spread over a wound. Kept as 'plaster' to preserve Herbert's healing metaphor rather than paraphrasing as 'remedy' or 'covering'.
  4. 4 ↩Sentence ends mid-clause by design (enjambment into the next section). Source 'that so' modernized as 'so that' without completing the result clause, which belongs to HerbTemple.2.12.4.
  5. 5 ↩Herbert's 'miscall' means to call by a wrong name / revile. Rendered as 'misname' to keep the sense that later sins would try to re-label the speaker against the claim of first baptismal acquaintance.

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