Classic Poem

Never was leper's body halfe so foule
As is the sinner's soule;
Each power and facultie
Polluted is, not the least part being free;
No fuller's soap nor nitre can
Make clean this soiled soul of man,

But lo! an holy Well is opened wide,
Which runs from God's own side,
Whose vertue is so rare,
That it will make the blackest Ethiop faire;
In this clear fountain sinners may
Wash all their spots and stains away.

Open it is to all, to all that be
Of David's familie,
And of Jerusalem;
The fountane only opened is to them
That of the faithful seed are sprung:
To them of right it doth belong.

They that are strangers to the Covenant
And saving faith do want,
This holy Well disdain,
As if it no more vertue did contain
Then Abana and Pharpar, which
Can hardly cure a scab or itch;

Much lesse the spreading leprosie of sin
Which sticks so close within
That nought can cleanse the same
But th' Aqua Vitae which from Christ's side came:
Go then, my soul, and drink thy fil,
See! from His heart it doth distil.

What though thou very poor and wretched art,
In it thou may'st have a part,
For 'tis the beggar's bath
As much as 'tis the kings, and he that hath
A mind for to be cleans'd indeed,
May use the same as he hath need.