Certaine Serious Thoughts which at severall times & upon sundry Occasions have stollen themselves into Verse and now into the Publike View from the Author: Together w[i]th a Chronologicall table denoeting the names of such Princes as ruled the neighbor States and were con-temporary to our English Kings, observeing throughout ye number of yeares w[hi]ch every one of them reigned [by Christopher Wyvill] |
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Vpon Psalm. 7. 12. 13, 14.
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 | Certaine Serious Thoughts |  |
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Vpon Psalm. 7. 12. 13, 14.
God is a righteous Iudge, strong and patient: and God is provoked every day.
If a man will not turne, he will whet his sword: he hath bent his bow, and made it ready.
He hath prepared for him the instruments of death: hee ordaineth his Arrowes against the Persecutors.
Hast thou not heard O man, or canst forget
This terrible Alarme, God will whet
His sword, prepare his Arrows, and his bow;
Doth not experience daily bid thee know
That, when he will revoke thy borrowed breath
A Fly or Gnat's an Instrument of death,
Canst thou shake off those thoughts wch whisper to thee,
This minut's sin for ever may undoe thee?
Will not thy head-strong Will be curbed by
The thought of fathomless Eternity?
Or doth thy weak conceipt befoole thee so
As once to think that God, though he be slow
To punish, see's not when thou goest astray,
That thus thou dars't provoke him every day?
This terrible Alarme, God will whet
His sword, prepare his Arrows, and his bow;
Doth not experience daily bid thee know
That, when he will revoke thy borrowed breath
A Fly or Gnat's an Instrument of death,
Canst thou shake off those thoughts wch whisper to thee,
This minut's sin for ever may undoe thee?
Will not thy head-strong Will be curbed by
The thought of fathomless Eternity?
Or doth thy weak conceipt befoole thee so
As once to think that God, though he be slow
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That thus thou dars't provoke him every day?
If man return not dost thou say? is then
The pow'r of turning in the choyse of men?
My soul Lord know's it is not, yet I see
By thy command, what I should beg of thee;
Nor can I beg till thou my God prepare,
My un-prepared heart and voyce to prayer.
From my wast-field if any good proceed,
Thou must be Author both of Will and Deed:
Stub-up the thornes, un-pave the soyle and make
The well-injected seed deep rooting take,
Afford me fruitfull seasons that I may
Bring some sheafs with me on my judgment day.
The pow'r of turning in the choyse of men?
My soul Lord know's it is not, yet I see
By thy command, what I should beg of thee;
Nor can I beg till thou my God prepare,
My un-prepared heart and voyce to prayer.
From my wast-field if any good proceed,
Thou must be Author both of Will and Deed:
Stub-up the thornes, un-pave the soyle and make
The well-injected seed deep rooting take,
Afford me fruitfull seasons that I may
Bring some sheafs with me on my judgment day.
| Certaine Serious Thoughts | |