Retirement and meditation.

My God, permit me not to be

A stranger to myself and thee;

Amidst a thousand thoughts I rove,

Forgetful of my highest love.

Why should my passions mix with earth,

And thus debase my heav'nly birth?

Why should I cleave to things below,

And let my God, my Savior, go?

Call me away from flesh and sense,

One sovereign word can draw me thence;

I would obey the voice divine,

And all inferior joys resign.

Be earth with all her scenes withdrawn,

Let noise and vanity begone;

In secret silence of the mind

My heav'n, and there my God, I find.