He was very concerned with the private personal life of the pastor, who was to serve as "all to his parish," as father, lawyer, doctor, counselor, and deputy of Christ. In it he outlines "the form and character of a true pastor, that I may have a mark to aim at: which also I will set as high as I can, since he shoots higher that threatens the moon, than he that aims at a tree." The key to being a good pastor, Herbert argues, is to be a good person. Herbert is also famous for his prose work, A Priest to the Temple, or the Country Parson, published posthumously in 1652. Which else shows waterish, bleak, and thin.ĭoctrine and life, colors and light, in oneĪ strong regard and awe, but speech alone The holy preachers, then the light and glory Lord, how can man preach thy eternal word?īut when thou dost anneal in glass thy story, Herbert described his poetry as "a picture of the many spiritual conflicts that have passed between God and my soul, before I could subject mine to the will of Jesus, my Master, in whose service I have now found perfect freedom." Among his poems is "The Windows": Several poems contained in the book are now used as hymns, such as "The God of Love my Shepherd Is," "Teach Me, My God and King," and "Let All the World in Every Corner Sing." The book, published later that year with the title The Temple: Sacred Poems and Private Ejaculations, contains some of the most memorable poetry in the English language. "If he can think it may turn to the advantage of any dejected poor soul," he wrote in his instructions, "let it be made public if not, let him burn it, for I and it are the least of God's mercies." On his deathbed, Herbert sent a "little book of poems" to his friend Nicholas Ferrar, founder of a religious community nearby. Herbert." He served for only three years, however, dying of tuberculosis in 1633. He rebuilt the church with his own money, visited the poor, consoled the sick and dying, reconciled neighbors. Herbert moved to the rural countryside and became rector at Bremerton near Salisbury. And though the iniquity of the late times have made clergymen meanly valued … I will labor to make it honorable, by consecrating all my learning, and all my poor abilities, to advance the glory of that God that gave them." "It hath been formerly judged that the domestic servants of the King of Heaven should be the noblest families on earth. When his friends expressed shock at his taking a job so "beneath" him, Herbert brushed them off: Herbert's career continued to climb, as did his prestige-Sir Francis Bacon dedicated his Translation of Certain Psalmes to him, and he was elected to Parliament-but then came a series of tragedies: King James died, as did many of Herbert's sponsors Bacon died his mother died (Donne delivered the funeral sermon) the plague broke out.Īfter getting married in 1629 (to his stepfather's cousin, Jane Danvers), he gave up his secular ambitions and prepared to enter holy orders. From there he attended Trinity College in Cambridge, and in 1620, he became the university's "public orator," a position he described as "the finest place in the university." Since one of the main duties of the office was to express the sentiments of the university, it was considered a launching point to high office. She homeschooled George's siblings and then enrolled George in Westminister School, where he studied Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. His mother was left to raise ten children. Herbert's was a distinguished, noble Welsh family (his brother, Edward, became the father of English deism), but his father died when George was only 3 years old. Teresa of Avila writes The Way of Perfection It foreshadowed the aesthetic and vocational bent of a man who was to become one of England's finest metaphysical poets. Instead, George wrote that the love of God is a fitter subject for verse than the love of woman. They referred not to his mother's kindness, her beauty, or any other characteristic, nor did they mention the occasion for the sonnet, New Year's Day. They were far more akin to the work of John Donne, who had dedicated his Holy Sonnets to Magdalen, his patron. These were quite unlike those of William Shakespeare, who had published his Sonnets the year earlier. It was the New Year's celebration, and Magdalen Newport Herbert had received two sonnets from her son, George. "A verse may find him who a sermon flies."
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