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Chapter 1HerbTemple.3.1

The Church Militant

The Church's Divine Origin and Pilgrimage

The Church, born of divine love, travels westward from the East, transforming the old covenant and bringing the Gospel to the Gentiles.

Almighty Lord, who from your glorious throne see and rule all things as one: the smallest ant or atom knows your power, known also to each minute of an hour. Much more do commonwealths acknowledge you, and wrap their policies in your decree, complying with your counsels, doing nothing that does not meet with an eternal thought. But above all, your Church and Spouse proves not the decrees of power, but bonds of love.✦1 You rose early to plant this vine, which might make it all the more dear to be yours.2 Spices come from the East; so did your Spouse, fair as the light, sweet as the laden boughs of Noah's shady vine, chaste as the dove—prepared and fitted to receive your love.✦3 The course was westward, so that the sun might light our understanding as well as our sight. Where the Ark rested, there Abraham began to bring the other Ark from Canaan.4 Moses pursued this; but King Solomon finished and fixed the old religion. When it grew loose, the Jews hoped in vain, by nailing Christ, to fasten it again.5 But to the Gentiles he bore the cross and all, tearing open the dividing wall with earthquakes.✦✦ Only now, whereas the Ark once shone in glory, Religion—with the cross alone as with a staff—like a pilgrim, turned westward, knocking at every door as she went.6 Yet as the sun, though his flight is forward, still looks behind him and allows some light until all departs: so the Church went her way, letting one foot step while the other stayed among the eastern nations for a time, until both moved on to the western lands.7 To Egypt she came first, where they once knew wonders of anger, but now of love. There the Ten Commandments flourished more than the ten bitter plagues had done before.8 Holy Macarius and great Anthony made Pharaoh Moses, changing the history.9 Goshen was darkness, Egypt full of lights; the Nile, instead of monsters, brought forth Israelites.✦10 Such power has mighty Baptism, to produce from misshapen things things of the highest use.

The Church in Greece and Rome

The Church triumphs over Greek philosophy and Roman power, turning learning and empire into instruments for the Gospel.

How dear to me, God, your counsels are! Who can compare with you? Religion fled from there into Greece, where the arts gave her the highest place in everyone's hearts. Learning was confounded, Philosophy was checkmated, and the sophists were caught in a fisherman's net.11 Plato and Aristotle were at a loss, and turned around again to spell out Christ-Cross.12 Prayer chased the syllogisms into their den, and Ergo was transformed into Amen.13 Though Greece took to horse as soon as Egypt did, and Rome as soon as both, yet Egypt rode faster, and spent her appointed span and set time before the others. When Greece was past her prime, Religion went to Rome, subduing those who, in order to conquer, had made everyone their enemy. The warrior no longer boasts of his dear scars, but seems to concede that Christ has the greater wounds—wounds willingly endured to win bliss for the one who, by an ambush, lost his Paradise. The great heart stoops to pick up a sad repentance from the dust, rather than the spoils of lust; he lays down his spear so he won't pierce Him again in His members—the One who was slain for him.14 Here, the shepherd's crook grew into a scepter, giving new names and numbers to the year.15 But the Empire stayed in Greece, to comfort those who were cut short in Alexander's line. In both cases, prowess and the arts tamed and tuned men's hearts before the Gospel arrived—and the Gospel, using rather than fearing skill in the one or strength in the other, raised its throne. The Empire knew many a tear and struggle—as dying things tend to—until at last it flew to Germany, still bending westward, and there attended the Church's festival: so that as Empire and Arts had made the way before (for no lesser harbingers would serve than they), they might still do so, and point us to the place where the Church should first lift her downcast face. Strength levels the ground; Art makes a garden there; then Religion showers it and makes everything bear fruit. Spain shared the Empire with Germany, but England shared in the higher victory, giving the Church a crown to keep her standing so she wouldn't fall short of what she had recently accomplished.

Sin's Westward March and Idolatry

As the Church moves west, Sin follows from Babylon, corrupting Egypt, Greece, and Rome with idolatry and deceit.

Constantine's British line meant this long ago, and wrapped this mystery up and folded it within a sheet of paper that was torn from Time's great chronicle and sent here. So both the Church and the Sun ran together to the farthest old meridian. How dear to me, O God, your counsels are! Who can compare with you? At about the same time and place—both where and when the Church began her race—Sin set out from eastern Babylon and also traveled westward: as he journeyed on, he drove the Church away wherever he came, breaking her peace and tainting her good name. At first he reached Egypt and sowed gardens of gods, which every year grew fresh and fine deities. They paid a high price who clearly lost a salad for a god.16 Ah, what a thing is man devoid of grace, adoring garlic with a humble face, begging his food from what he could eat, starving while he worships his meat! How low is someone who makes a root his god, when God and man are infinitely far apart? What wretchedness can still make room for someone whose house is filthy while he worships his broom?17 No one will believe this now, though money is the same foolishness, transplanted into us. So Sin skulked in Egypt for a while; his highest was an ox or a crocodile, and other such poor game. From there he moves on to Greece, and being far craftier than goodness, he left garrisons of sins behind him to hold what he wins every day.18 Here Sin took heart, and for a garden bed he bought rich shrines and oracles. He became a fine gallant, and insisted on foretelling what would happen as well as what already had. Even worse, he became a poet, and would serve his poisonous pills in that sweet preserve.19 The world came with hands and purses full to this great lottery, and everyone wanted to draw.20 But it was all glorious cheating, fine deceit, where a few poor truths were shuffled in as bait to give him credit and to discredit those who would later disclose braver truths.21 From Greece he went to Rome: and as before he was a god, now he's an emperor. Nero and others housed him splendidly there, and put him in trust to rule the Roman sphere.22 Glory was his chief instrument of old; pleasure took over at once when that grew cold. It was soon blown into such a mighty flame that though our Savior destroyed the game—opening the oracles and stripping them of all their treasure, and setting affliction to confront pleasure—still a rogue, with hope of carnal joy, cheated even the most cunning nations.2324 Who was ever so fastidious, so refined, as Greece and Egypt?25 Yet their hearts are given over, because of their elaborate arts, to such Islamic stupidities as the old pagans would count as prodigies.2627 How dear to me, O God, your counsels are! Who can compare with you?

Sin's Ecclesiastical Disguise in Rome

Sin infiltrates the Western Church, especially in Rome, masking itself as religion and corrupting Christ's offices.

Only the West and Rome keep them free from this contagious unbelief. And this is all the Rock they boast of—as Rome will one day find, to her cost.28 Sin, unable to wipe out the churches here completely, boldly resolved one night to become a clergyman too and wear a mitre: the old debauched ruffian would become a writer. I saw him in his study, where he sat busy with controversies that had sprung up of late. A gown and pen suited him wonderfully well: his grave look had more of heaven than hell. Only there was a handsome picture nearby, to which he lent a corner of his eye.29 As Sin was a prophet in Greece before, and a mighty emperor in old Rome, so now, being a priest, he openly set out to mock Christ's three offices—all the more since his scattered jugglings were now united in one time and sphere.30 From Egypt he took petty deities, from Greece oracular infallibilities, and from old Rome the liberty of pleasure, through free dispensations of the Church's treasure.31 Then, in memory of his ancient throne, he named his palace Babylon. Yet to better win all nations and make that name good through their migrations, he took clever disguises from all these places, though at different times, to hide his crimes—from Egypt, anchoritism and withdrawal; learning from Greece; from old Rome, grandeur. And blending these, he drew everyone's attention, while Truth sat by counting his victories. In this way he grew quickly, and scorned to use the kind of force that had once captivated the Jews; instead he bewitched and skillfully maneuvered each nation into a voluntary migration.32 Everyone rushes to Rome: princes bow either to his public foot or to his private tricks.33 It didn't suit his dignity to move himself—nor his long journey, nor his gout and furs.34 Therefore he sent out able ministers—statesmen at court, and outside, cloistered men—who without spear or sword, or any drum except what was in their tongue, overcame; and having conquered, ruled in such a strange way that the whole world seemed nothing but the Pope's mule.35 As new and old Rome twisted together into one empire, so both together are one Antichrist—yet with two faces, like their god Janus, as seen in this old cracked mirror of theirs.36 How dear to me, O God, your counsels are!✦ Who can compare with you? Thus Sin triumphs in Western Babylon—yet not as Sin, but as Religion.

The Declining Church and the Coming Judgment

The Church's westward flight to America, the decline of faith, and the final hope in God's unsearchable counsels.

He made the later of his two thrones the better one, and so paid for his journey from the east. Old and new Babylon are to hell and night what the moon and sun are to heaven and light. When one set, the other took its place, confronting the law and grace equally. They are hell's landmarks, Satan's double crest: they are Sin's nipples, feeding the east and west.37 But as in vice the copy always outdoes the original—though not so in virtuous deeds—so though Sin made his later seat the better, the later Church is a debtor to the first. The second Temple could not match the first: and the late reformation never dared compare with ancient times and purer years; but among the Jews and among us, it deserves tears.✦ No—it will decrease and fade every year, until a darkness invades the world at Christ's last coming such as his first coming found. Yet these diminishments must be given the same proportions as those between the spacious world and Jewry.38 Religion stands on tiptoe in our land, ready to pass over to the American shore. When the height of malice, monstrous lusts, shameless sinning, witchcrafts, and distrusts (the marks of coming ruin) fill our cup to the brim and make our measure full; when the Seine swallows the Tiber, and the Thames, by letting both in, pollutes its streams; when Italy gets its way with us and completes its entire catalog of sins, so that we can predict what sins will dominate next year in both France and England: then Religion will flee to America. They have their seasons of the Gospel, just as we do.39 My God, you prepare a way for them by first taking their gold away from them: for gold and grace have never agreed. Religion always sides with poverty. We think we're robbing them, but we're wrong: we grow poorer, and they grow richer because of this. You will avenge their cause, making grace pay our debts, and leave our ancient place to go to them, while what their nation now only lends us will become our desolation.40 Yet as the Church flies westward there, so Sin will track and dog her at once. They too have their seasons and set times, both for their virtuous deeds and their crimes. And where in the past the Empire and the Arts always ushered the Gospel into people's hearts, Spain has done one; when the Arts perform the other, the Church will come, and Sin will smother the Church—so that when they have completed the circuit and meet again in the east their first and ancient sound, Judgment may meet them both and search them through.41 So both lights—in the Church as in the Sun—illuminate each other and run together. So also Sin and Darkness still pursue the Church and the Sun with all their power and skill. But just as the sun keeps going both west and east, so too the Church, by going west, still went eastward—because it drew nearer to the time and place where judgment will appear. How dear to me, O God, your counsels are! Who can compare with you?

Read the original English

ALmightie Lord, who from thy glorious throne Seest and rulest all things ev'n as one: The smallest ant or atome knows thy power, Known also to each minute of an houre Much more do Common-weals acknowledge thee, And wrap their policies in thy decree, Complying with thy counsels, doing nought Which doth not meet with an eternall thought. But above all, thy Church and Spouse doth prove Not the decrees of power, but bands of love. Early didst thou arise to plant this vine, Which might the more indeare it to be thine. Spices come from the East; so did thy Spouse, Trimme as the light, sweet as the laden boughs Of Noahs shadie vine, chaste as the dove; Prepar'd and fitted to receive thy love. The course was westward, that the sunne might light As well our understanding as our sight. Where th' Ark did rest, there Abraham began To bring the other Ark from Canaan. Moses pursu'd this: but King Solomon Finisht and fixt the old religion. When it grew loose, the Jews did hope in vain By nailing Christ to fasten it again.

But to the Gentiles he bore crosse and all, Rending with earthquakes the partition-wall. Onely whereas the Ark in glorie shone, Now with the crosse, as with a staffe, alone, Religion, like a pilgrime, westward bent, Knocking at all doores, ever as she went. Yet as the sunne, though forward be his flight, Listens behinde him, and allows some light, Till all depart: so went the Church her way; Letting, while one foot stept, the other stay Among the eastern nations for a time, Till both removed to the western clime. To Egypt first she came, where they did prove Wonders of anger once, but now of love. The ten Commandments there did flourish more Then the ten bitter plagues had done before. Holy Macarius and great Anthonie Made Pharaoh Moses, changing th' historie. Goshen was darknesse, Egypt full of lights, Nilus for monsters brought forth Israelites. Such power hath mightie Baptisme to produce For things misshapen, things of highest use.

How deare to me, O God, thy counsels are! Who may with thee compare? Religion thence fled into Greece, where arts Gave her the highest place in all mens hearts. Learning was pos'd, Philosophie was set, Sophisters taken in a fishers net. Plato and Aristotle were at a losse, And wheel'd about again to spell Christ-Crosse. Prayers chas'd syllogismes into their den, And Ergo was transform'd into Amen. Though Greece took horse as soon as Egypt did, And Rome as both; yet Egypt faster rid, And spent her period and prefixed time Before the other. Greece being past her prime, Religion went to Rome, subduing those, Who, that they might subdue, made all their foes.

The Warrier his deere skarres no more resounds, But seems to yeeld Christ hath the greater wounds; Wounds willingly endur'd to work his blisse, Who by an ambush lost his Paradise. The great heart stoops, and taketh from the dust A sad repentance, not the spoils of lust: Quitting his spear, lest it should pierce again Him in his members, who for him was slain. The Shepherds hook grew to a scepter here, Giving new names and numbers to the yeare. But th' Empire dwelt in Greece, to comfort them Who were cut short in Alexanders stemme. In both of these Prowesse and Arts did tame And tune mens hearts against the Gospel came: Which using, and not fearing skill in th' one, Or strength in th' other, did erect her throne. Many a rent and struggling th' Empire knew, (As dying things are wont) untill it flew At length to Germanie, still westward bending, And there the Churches festivall attending: That as before Empire and Arts made way, (For no lesse Harbingers would serve then they) So they might still, and point us out the place Where first the Church should raise her downcast face. Strength levels grounds, Art makes a garden there; Then showres Religion, and makes all to bear. Spain in the Empire shar'd with Germanie, But England in the higher victorie; Giving the Church a crown to keep her state, And not go lesse then she had done of late.

Constantines British line meant this of old, And did this mysterie wrap up and fold Within a sheet of paper, which was rent From times great Chronicle, and hither sent. Thus both the Church and Sunne together ran Unto the farthest old meridian. How deare to me, O God, thy counsels are! Who may with thee compare? Much about one and the same time and place, Both where and when the Church began her race, Sinne did set out of Eastern Babylon, And travell'd westward also: journeying on He chid the Church away, where e're he came, Breaking her peace, and tainting her good name. At first he got to Egypt, and did sow Gardens of gods, which ev'ry yeare did grow, Fresh and fine deities. They were at great cost, Who for a god clearely a sallet lost. Ah, what a thing is man devoid of grace, Adoring garlick with an humble face, Begging his food of that which he may eat, Starving the while he worshippeth his meat!

Who makes a root his god, how low is he, If God and man be sever'd infinitely! What wretchednesse can give him any room, Whose house is foul, while he adores his broom? None will beleeve this now, though money be In us the same transplanted foolerie. Thus Sinne in Egypt sneaked for a while; His highest was an ox or crocodile, And such poore game. Thence he to Greece doth passe, And being craftier much then goodnesse was, He left behinde him garrisons of sinnes, To make good that which ev'ry day he winnes. Here Sinne took heart, and for a garden-bed Rich shrines and oracles he purchased: He grew a gallant, and would needs foretell As well what should befall, as what befell. Nay, he became a poet, and would serve His pills of sublimate in that conserve. The world came both with hands and purses full To this great lotterie, and all would pull.

But all was glorious cheating, brave deceit, Where some poore truths were shuffled for a bait To credit him, and to discredit those Who after him should braver truths disclose. From Greece he went to Rome: and as before He was a God, now he's an Emperour. Nero and others lodg'd him bravely there, Put him in trust to rule the Romane sphere. Glorie was his chief instrument of old: Pleasure succeeded straight, when that grew cold: Which soon was blown to such a mighty flame, That though our Saviour did destroy the game, Disparking oracles, and all their treasure, Setting affliction to encounter pleasure; Yet did a rogue with hope of carnall joy Cheat the most subtill nations. Who so coy, So trimme, as Greece and Egypt? yet their hearts Are given over, for their curious arts, To such Mahometan stupidities, As the old heathen would deem prodigies. How deare to me, O God, thy counsels are! Who may with thee compare?

Onely the West and Rome do keep them free From this contagious infidelitie. And this is all the Rock, whereof they boast, As Rome will one day finde unto her cost. Sinne being not able to extirpate quite The Churches here, bravely resolv'd one night To be a Church-man too, and wear a Mitre: The old debauched ruffian would turn writer. I saw him in his studie, where he sate Busie in controversies sprung of late. A gown and pen became him wondrous well: His grave aspect had more of heav'n then hell: Onely there was a handsome picture by, To which he lent a corner of his eye. As Sinne in Greece a Prophet was before, And in old Rome a mightie Emperour; So now being Priest he plainly did professe To make a jest of Christs three offices: The rather since his scatter'd jugglings were United now in one both time and sphere. From Egypt he took pettie deities, From Greece oracular infallibities, And from old Rome the libertie of pleasure, By free dispensings of the Churches treasure. Then in memoriall of his ancient throne He did surname his palace, Babylon.

Yet that he might the better gain all nations, And make that name good by their transmigrations; From all these places, but at divers times, He took fine vizards to conceal his crimes: From Egypt Anchorisme and retirednesse, Learning from Greece, from old Rome statelinesse: And blending these he carri'd all mens eyes, While Truth sat by, counting his victories: Whereby he grew apace and scorn'd to use Such force as once did captivate the Jews; But did bewitch, and finely work each nation Into a voluntarie transmigration. All poste to Rome: Princes submit their necks Either t' his publick foot or private tricks. It did not fit his gravitie to stirre, Nor his long journey, nor his gout and furre. Therefore he sent out able ministers, Statesmen within, without doores cloisterers: Who without spear, or sword, or other drumme Then what was in their tongue, did overcome; And having conquer'd, did so strangely rule, That the whole world did seem but the Popes mule. As new and old Rome did one Empire twist; So both together are one Antichrist, Yet with two faces, as their Janus was; Being in this their old crackt looking-glasse. How deare to me, O God, thy counsels are! Who may with thee compare? Thus Sinne triumphs in Western Babylon; Yet not as Sinne, but as Religion.

Of his two thrones he made the latter best, And to defray his journey from the east. Old and new Babylon are to hell and night, As is the moon and sunne to heav'n and light. When th' one did set, the other did take place, Confronting equally the law and grace. They are hells land-marks, Satans double crest: They are Sinnes nipples, feeding th' east and west. But as in vice the copie still exceeds The pattern, but not so in vertuous deeds; So though Sinne made his latter seat the better, The latter Church is to the first a debter. The second Temple could not reach the first: And the late reformation never durst Compare with ancient times and purer yeares; But in the Jews and us deserveth tears. Nay, it shall ev'ry yeare decrease and fade; Till such a darknesse do the world invade At Christs last coming, as his first did finde: Yet must there such proportions be assign'd To these diminishings, as is between The spacious world and Jury to be seen. Religion stands on tip-toe in our land, Ready to passe to the American strand.

When height of malice, and prodigious lusts, Impudent sinning, witchcrafts, and distrusts (The marks of future bane) shall fill our cup Unto the brimme, and make our measure up: When Sein shall swallow Tiber, and the Thames By letting in them both, pollutes her streams: When Italie of us shall have her will, And all her calender of sinnes fulfill; Whereby one may fortell, what sinnes next yeare Shall both in France and England domineer: Then shall Religion to America flee: They have their times of Gospel, ev'n as we. My God, thou dost prepare for them a way By carrying first their gold from them away: For gold and grace did never yet agree: Religion alwaies sides with povertie. We think we rob them, but we think amisse: We are more poore, and they more rich by this. Thou wilt revenge their quarrell, making grace To pay our debts, and leave our ancient place To go to them, while that which now their nation But lends to us, shall be our desolation. Yet as the Church shall thither westward flie, So Sinne shall trace and dog her instantly: They have their period also and set times Both for their vertuous actions and their crimes. And where of old the Empire and the Arts Usher'd the Gospel ever in mens hearts, Spain hath done one; when Arts perform the other, The Church shall come, & Sin the Church shall smother: That when they have accomplished the round, And met in th' east their first and ancient sound, Judgement may meet them both & search them round. Thus do both lights, as well in Church as Sunne, Light one another, and together runne. Thus also Sinne and Darknesse follow still The Church and Sunne with all their power and skill.

But as the Sunne still goes both west and east; So also did the Church by going west Still eastward go; because it drew more neare To time and place, where judgement shall appeare. How deare to me, O God, thy counsels are! Who may with thee compare?

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩Hos.11.4 — I drew them with cords of a human being, with bands of love; and I was to them as those who lift the yoke from their jaws, and I bent down to them and fed them.
  2. ↩Gen.9.20 — And Noah, a man of the ground, began by planting a vineyard.
  3. ↩Eph.2.14 — For he himself is our peace, who made both one and broke down the dividing wall of hostility
  4. ↩Matt.27.51 — And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom, and the earth shook, and the rocks were split.
  5. ↩Exod.10.21-Exod.10.23 — Then the LORD said to Moses, 'Stretch out your hand over the heavens, and let there be darkness over the land of Egypt, and let the darkness be palpable.' Exod.10.22 — And Moses stretched out his hand toward the heavens, and there was thick darkness in all the land of Egypt for three days. Exod.10.23 — No one saw his brother, nor did anyone rise from his place for three days; but for all the children of Israel there was light in their dwellings.
  6. ↩Ps.139.17 — And how precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast the sum of them!
  7. ↩Hag.2.3 — Who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory? And how do you see it now? Is it not in your eyes as nothing?

Notes

  1. 1 ↩prove retains the sense of experience/demonstrate: the Church shows love-bonds rather than mere power-decrees.
  2. 2 ↩indeare = endear / make more precious; which-clause expresses purpose or result of early planting.
  3. 3 ↩Trimme rendered as fair (well-ordered, neat, beautiful); Early Modern 'trim' often means neat/handsome rather than merely decorated.
  4. 4 ↩First Ark = Noah's ark; other Ark = Ark of the Covenant (typological pairing in Herbert's church history).
  5. 5 ↩it = the old religion of s7; Herbert's barbed conceit: crucifixion as a failed attempt to re-secure a slackened covenant order.
  6. 6 ↩Source 'Onely' marks the shift from the Ark's former glory to the cross as Religion's lone pilgrim staff; rendered as 'Only now' to keep the contrast clear.
  7. 7 ↩Source 'Listens behinde him' is rendered as 'looks behind him' for the sun's residual eastward light while still traveling west; the image is of light left behind, not auditory listening.
  8. 8 ↩Source 'Then' is Early Modern for 'than' in the comparative; rendered as 'than'.
  9. 9 ↩Compressed conceit: the desert fathers (Macarius and Anthony of Egypt) reverse Egypt's story—land of Pharaoh becomes a land of Moses-like holy leaders.
  10. 10 ↩Deliberate inversion of the Exodus plague of darkness (light in Goshen, dark in Egypt) and of the Nile's monstrous plagues: Christian Egypt is the new Israel.
  11. 11 ↩'pos'd' = nonplussed/confounded; 'set' = hard-pressed or checkmated. Rendered for the paired sense of learned pride brought to a standstill.
  12. 12 ↩'Christ-Crosse' / Christ-cross-row was the alphabet headed by a cross that children first learned to spell. The line means the great philosophers had to go back to the beginning and learn the Cross as their ABCs.
  13. 13 ↩Ergo (the scholastic 'therefore' that closes a proof) becomes Amen (the prayerful 'so be it'). Logical inference yields to faith's assent.
  14. 14 ↩members: Christ's members—the Church as His body; wounding believers is wounding Christ again.
  15. 15 ↩Christian reordering of the calendar (Anno Domini reckoning and feast days) under pastoral authority become royal.
  16. 16 ↩Source 'sallet' is early modern for salad/raw greens; Herbert's point is the absurd cost of idolizing ordinary garden food as a deity.
  17. 17 ↩Herbert’s image: the idolater adores the cleaning tool while leaving the house foul—worship of means that never produce holiness.
  18. 18 ↩Source 'then' is early-modern spelling of 'than' (comparison), not temporal 'then'.
  19. 19 ↩'Sublimate' is mercuric chloride (a poison); 'conserve' is a sugared preserve. Sin coats deadly teaching in the sweetness of poetry.
  20. 20 ↩'Pull' is lottery idiom: to draw a lot or ticket.
  21. 21 ↩Early modern 'brave' here means fine/splendid/showy more than merely courageous; it pairs with 'glorious' as ironic praise of fraud.
  22. 22 ↩'bravely' modernized as 'splendidly' (fine/grand lodging), not as moral courage.
  23. 23 ↩'Disparking' = throwing open a private park/enclosure. Here: breaking open the oracles' privileged domain and emptying them of treasure.
  24. 24 ↩'straight' = immediately/right away, not geometric straightness.
  25. 25 ↩'coy' = reserved/aloof/hard to please; 'trimme' = neat, elegant, polished. Rendered as fastidious/refined rather than merely shy or well-dressed.
  26. 26 ↩Source 'Mahometan' is the early modern polemic term for Muslim/Islamic; modernized as 'Islamic' while keeping Herbert's harsh judgment ('stupidities').
  27. 27 ↩'curious arts' = refined/ingenious crafts and learning, not merely odd pastimes.
  28. 28 ↩Capitalized Rock keeps the Petrine claim Herbert is ironizing; it is not a generic stone.
  29. 29 ↩Early modern 'then' is comparative 'than'; 'handsome picture' implies a worldly or erotic distraction under a devout pose.
  30. 30 ↩Christ's three offices are the traditional prophetic, priestly, and kingly offices; Sin mocks them by claiming the priestly role after earlier guises.
  31. 31 ↩Source 'infallibities' is taken as 'infallibilities'; 'dispensings of the Church's treasure' points to indulgence-style release of church wealth/privilege.
  32. 32 ↩vizards = masks/visors; Anchorisme = hermit (anchorite) life; transmigrations = peoples' migrations that lend the name Babylon its force.
  33. 33 ↩publick foot likely glances at papal foot-kissing / public submission; private tricks = back-channel intrigue.
  34. 34 ↩furre = furred robes of luxury/status, not mere cold-weather clothing.
  35. 35 ↩without doores cloisterers = outward-facing religious/monastic agents; drumme = military drum/call to arms, reduced here to eloquence.
  36. 36 ↩Janus (two-faced Roman god) images the double face of imperial and papal Rome; crackt looking-glasse = broken mirror in which they still see themselves.
  37. 37 ↩Herbert's image of Sin's 'nipples' is retained: the two Babylons nurse sin on both sides of the world.
  38. 38 ↩Source 'Jury' is early-modern 'Jewry' (the Jewish land/people), not a legal jury; rendered as Jewry.
  39. 39 ↩Sein = the Seine (France); Tiber = Rome/Italy; Thames = England. The river-image figures successive corruption: Italian vice swallowed by French, both then polluting England.
  40. 40 ↩revenge their quarrell = take up/avenge their cause (not petty personal revenge). that which... their nation But lends to us = American gold, treated as a loan that will return as England's ruin.
  41. 41 ↩Spain hath done one = the Empire/political power already carried westward (New World conquest); when Arts perform the other = cultural/learning advance, then Church follows and Sin smothers her in turn. accomplished the round = full circuit of the globe back to the east.

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