Upon the place beneath :* it is twice bless'd; Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings; And earthly power doth then show likest God's, Consider this, That in the course of justice, none of us Should see salvation: we do pray for mercy; And that same prayer doth teach us all to render 729 God's mercies to be remembered. Let never day nor night unhallow'd pass, But still remember what the Lord hath done. 9-iv. 1. 730 The same. 22-ii. 1. Heaven set ope thy everlasting gates, To entertain my vows of thanks and praise! 731 Provocation against Heaven. 22-iv. 9. The heavens do low'r upon you, for some ill; Move them no more, by crossing their high will.§ 35-iv. 5. 732 Divine judgment. If my suspect be false, forgive me, God; For judgment only doth belong to thee! 22-iii. 2. 22-iii. 3. Forbear to judge, for we are sinners all. 734 The terrors of guilt in death. O thou eternal Mover of the heavens, * Mercy is seasonable in the time of affliction, as clouds of rain in the time of drought.-Eccles. xxxv. 20. † Micah vii. 18. Matt. vi. 12, 14, 15. § Deut. ix. 8. Ps. cvi. 43. O, beat away the busy meddling fiend, 735 The danger of trifling before God. Take heed, you dally not before your king; Lest He, that is the supreme King of kings, Confound your hidden falsehood. 736 22-iii. 3. 24-ii. 1. Murder. The great King of kings Hath in the table of his law commanded, Take heed; for he holds vengeance in his hand, To hurl upon their heads that break his law. 737 The same. Blood, like sacrificing Abel's, cries, 24-i. 4. Even from the tongueless caverns of the earth.* 738 Submission to God's will. Put we our quarrel to the will of Heaven, God will be avenged for the deed; Take not the quarrel from his powerful arm; 740 17-i. 1. 17-i. 2. 24-i. 4. Trust in Providence. Confess yourself to heaven; Repent what's past: avoid what is to come : And do not spread the compost on the weeds, To make them ranker. *Gen. iv. 10. Matt. iii. 8. 36-iii. 4. † Prov. iii. 6. § Manure. 742 True repentance. Arraign your conscience, And try your penitence, if it be sound, Or hollowly put on. But lest you do repent, As that the sin hath brought you to this shame,*— Which sorrow is always toward ourselves, not heaven; Showing, we'd not spare heaven,† as we love it, But as we stand in fear. Try what repentance can: What can it not? 5-ii. 3. 36-iii. 3. When I would pray and think, I think and pray As if I did but only chew His name; And in my heart, the strong and swelling evil 745 The same. Pray, can I not, Though inclination be as sharp as will; 5-ii. 4. 36-iii. 3. May one be pardon'd, and retain the offence? * 2 Cor. vii. 10. † Spare to offend heaven. Rom. ii. 5. 36-iii. 3. Even to the teeth and forehead of our faults, My words fly up, my thoughts remain below: 748 God's care over his creatures. He that doth the ravens feed, Yea, providently caters for the sparrow,* 36-iii. 3. 10-ii. 3. 10-iv. 3. To tell you what I was, since my conversion 750 Submission to the Divine will. I shall be well content with any choice, 751 21-v. 1. God the Christian's hope. God shall be my hope, My stay, my guide, and lantern to my feet.† 752 Self-abasement. 22-ii. 3. Being free from vainness and self-glorious pride; Quite from himself, to God. Withhold thine indignation, mighty Heaven, 754 God the widow's friend. Heaven, the widow's champion and defence.§ 20-v. 1. 16-v. 6. 17-i. 2. *Matt. vi. 26. † Ps. xxxvii. 39.-xlvi. 1.-cxix. 105. § Exod. xxii. 22, 23. Ps. lxviii. 5. The words of heaven;-on whom it will, it will; Chosen from above, By inspiration of celestial grace. 21-v. 4. 758 Want of resignation. God is much displeased, That you take with unthankfulness his doing; 759 Authority given from God. 24-ii. 2. From whom hast thou this great commission? From that supernal Judge, that stirs good thoughts In any breast of strong authority, To look into the blots and stains of right. 760 Faith in supernatural power. What impossibility would slay In common sense, sense saves another way.‡ 761 The evil of feigned prayer. 16-ii. 1. 11-ii. 1. That high All-seer which I dallied with, To turn their own points on their master's bosoms. 24-v. 1. *Rom. ix. 15.-It shows that Shakspeare had a most correct idea of the nature of Divine sovereignty. † Job i. 21. Rom. iv. 18-21. |