SUN-FLOWER, &c. 151 



By an inferior eye, or did contemn 



To wait upon a meaner light than him : 



When this I meditate, methinks the flowers 



Have spirits far more generous than ours, 



And give us fair examples, to despise 



The servile fawnings and idolatries 



Wherewith we count these earthly things below. 



Which merit not the service we bestow ; 



But, O my God 1 though grovelling I appear 



Upon the ground, and have a rooting here 



Which hales me downward, yet in my desire 



To that which is above me I aspire: 



And all my best affections I profess 



To him that is the Sun of Righteousness. 



Oh ! keep the morning of his incarnation, 



The burning noontide of his bitter passion, 



The night of his descending, and the height 



Of his ascension, ever in my sight ; 



That, imitating him in what I may, 



I never follow an inferior way. > 



W 



