ADOPTED in God's family and so <br />Our old coat lost, unto new arms I go. <br />The Cross—my seal at baptism—spread below <br />Does, by that form, into an Anchor grow. <br />Crosses grow Anchors ; bear, as thou shouldest do <br />Thy Cross, and that Cross grows an Anchor too. <br />But He that makes our Crosses Anchors thus, <br />Is Christ, who there is crucified for us. <br />Yet may I, with this, my first serpents hold ; <br />God gives new blessings, and yet leaves the old. <br />The serpent may, as wise, my pattern be ; <br />My poison, as he feeds on dust, that's me. <br />And, as he rounds the earth to murder sure, <br />My death he is, but on the Cross, my cure. <br />Crucify nature then, and then implore <br />All grace from Him, crucified there before ; <br />Then all is Cross, and that Cross Anchor grown ; <br />This seal's a catechism, not a seal alone. <br />Under that little seal great gifts I send, <br />Works, and prayers, pawns, and fruits of a friend. <br />And may that saint which rides in our great seal, <br />To you who bear his name,* great bounties deal !<br /><br />John Donne<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-sheaf-of-snakes-used-heretofore-to-be-my-seal-the-crest-of-our-poor-family/
