Sinne (II)
The True Face of Sin
The speaker longs to see sin clearly, contrasts common depictions with sin's true nature as a privation of all good.
Oh, if only I could once see a sin! We paint the devil as foul, yet everyone agrees he has some good in him. Sin is the complete opposite of the Almighty, since it lacks the good of virtue and of being.1
Seen in Perspective
God mercifully hides sin's full horror, allowing us to glimpse it only indirectly, as through a dream or perspective.
But God has taken better care of us: if mere apparitions make us sad, the sight of sin itself would drive us mad. Yet just as in sleep we see foul death and still live, so devils are our sins seen only in perspective.2
Read the original English
O That I could a sinne once see! We paint the devil foul, yet he Hath some good in him, all agree. Sinne is flat opposite to th' Almighty, seeing It wants the good of vertue, and of being.
But God more care of us hath had: If apparitions make us sad, By sight of sinne we should grow mad. Yet as in sleep we see foul death, and live: So devils are our sinnes in perspective.
Notes
- 1 ↩Early modern 'wants' means 'lacks' (not 'desires'); Herbert's claim tracks the classical privation account of evil (sin as lacking the goods of virtue and of being).
- 2 ↩"In perspective" keeps Herbert's early modern optical sense: not face to face, but as a foreshortened or glass-distorted image. The point is that we meet sin only under a safer, partial aspect (as "devils"), not in its full reality.
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