Becoming Human Part 5b - a little more about sin

The other day i was reading George Herbert, the great poet who wrote in the early part of the 17th century.  It is in writers like him, and some of the earlier writers on the topic of sin, that i find a language that captures the nuances of sin and of humanity.   

In a poem entitled The Pearl, Herbert meditates on how sin entices:

"I know the ways of Pleasure, the sweet strains, 

The lullings and the relishes of it;

The propositions of hot bloud and brains;

What mirth and musik mean; what love and wit;

Have done these twentie hundred years, and more:

I know the projects of unbridled store:

My stuff is flesh, not brasse; my senses live,          

And grumble oft, that they have more in me

Than he that curbs them, being one to five:

Yet i love thee."

The full poem is here.  Wow. "My stuff is flesh, not brasse; my senses live." That is some amazing verse about the human self. Herbert's poems are loaded with great metaphysical language. The kind of language that makes sense when one is willing to explore the deep contours of the heart.  

Other big hits from his poems:

Aaron

The Agonie

Redemption 

Prayer