Psalm 22 / 1 Peter 1:10-20 / John 13:36-38

The Agonie

    Philosophers have measur'd mountains,
Fathom'd the depths of seas, of states, of kings,
Walk'd with a staffe to heav'n, and traced fountains:
    But there are two vast, spacious things,
The which to measure it doth more behove:
Yet few there are that sound them; Sinne and Love.

    Who would know Sinne, let him repair
Unto mount Olivet; there shall he see
A man so wrung with pains, that all his hair,
    His skinne, his garments bloudie be.
Sinne is that presse and vice*, which forceth pain
To hunt his cruell food through ev'ry vein.

    Who knows not Love, let him assay
And taste that juice, which on the crosse a pike
Did set again abroach;** then let him say
    If ever he did taste the like.
Love is that liquour sweet and most divine,
Which my God feels as bloud; but I, as wine.

— George Herbert (1593-1633)

*vice: vise, the tool.
**abroach: to pierce (a cask, etc.) so as to let a liquor flow out