There's a divinity that shapes our ends,
Rough-hew them how we will.

36-v. 2.

Angels are bright still, though the brightest fell; Though all things foul would wear the brows of grace Yet grace must still look so.

718

In an ungracious mouth, is but profane.

15-iv. 3.

The same.

That word-grace,

17-ii. 3.

When men are unprepared, and look not for it.

19-ii. 2.

Death.

721

The same.

Men must endure

24-iii. 2.

Their going hence, even as their coming hither:
Ripeness is all.

34-v. 2.

Ah, what a sign it is of evil life,

When death's approach is seen so terrible!

Hast thou that holy feeling in thy soul,

To counsel me to make my peace with God,
And art thou yet to thy own soul so blind,
That thou wilt war with God?*

22-iii. 3.

724

24-i. 4.

The brevity of life.

725

Supplication.

Whereto serves mercy,
But to confront the visage of offence?
And what's in prayer, but this two-fold force,-
To be forestalled, ere we come to fall,
Or pardon’d, being down?

36-iii. 3. 726

God the cause of all causes.
He that of greatest works is finisher,
Oft does them by the weakest minister:
So holy writ in babes hath judgment shown,
When judges have been babes.* Great floods have

Hown
From simple sources ;t and great seas have dried,
When miracles have by the greatest been denied. I
Oft expectation fails, and most oft there
Where most it promises; and oft it hits,
Where hope is coldest, and despair most sits.
It is not so with Him that all things knows,
As 'tis with us that square our guess by shows:
But most it is presumption in us, when
The help of Heaven we count the act of men.

11-ii. 1. 727

Fall of man and redemption.
All the souls that were, were forfeit once ;
And He, that might the vantage best have took,
Found out the remedy?|| How would you be,
If He, which is the top of judgment, should
But judge you as you are ?T O, think on that,
And mercy then will breathe within your lips,
Like man new made.**

5-ii. 2.

728

Mercy.
The quality of mercy is not strain’d:
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven

Upon the place beneath :* it is twice bless'd;
It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes:
"Tis mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown:
His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty,
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;
But mercy is above the scepter'd sway,
It is enthroned in the hearts of kings;
It is an attribute to God himself;t
And earthly power doth then show likest God's,
When mercy seasons justice.

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 The deeds of mercy. I

9-iv. 1. 729

God's mercies to be remembered.
Let never day nor night unhallow'd pass,
But still remember what the Lord hath done.

22-ii. 1. 730

The same.
Heaven set ope thy everlasting gates,
To entertain my vows of thanks and praise !

22-iv. 9. 731

Provocation against Heaven.
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. 733

Condemnation. Forbear to judge, for we are sinners all. 22-iii. 3. 734

The terrors of guilt in death.
O thou eternal Mover of the heavens,
Look with a gentle eye upon this wretch !

O, beat away the busy meddling fiend,
That lays strong siege unto this wretch's soul,
And from this bosom purge this black despair!

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,

That thou shalt do no murder.

To hurl upon their heads that break his law.

24-i. 4.

737

The same.

Blood, like sacrificing Abel's, cries,

Even from the tongueless caverns of the earth.*

738

Submission to God's will.

Put we our quarrel to the will of Heaven,
Who, when he sees the hours ripe on earth,
Will rain hot vengeance on offenders' heads.

God will be avenged for the deed;

Take not the quarrel from his powerful arm;
He needs no indirect nor lawless course,
To cut off those that have offended him.

740

17-i. 1.

17-i. 2.

24-i. 4.

Trust in Providence.

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,f as we love it,
But as we stand in fear.

5-ii. 3.

743

The same
Try what repentance can:I What can it not?
Yet what can it, when one can not repent?
O wretched state! O bosom, black as death!
O limed soul, that, struggling to be free,
Art more engaged !

36-iii. 3.

744

False repentance.
When I would pray and think, I think and pray
To several subjects: Heaven in my mouth,
As if I did but only chew His name;
And in my heart, the strong and swelling evil
Of my conception.

5-ii. 4. 745

The same.

Pray, can I not,
Though inclination be as sharp as will;
My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent;
And, like a man to double business bound,
I stand in pause where I shall first begin,
And both neglect.

36-iii. 3. 746

The same.
May one be pardon'd, and retain the offence ?
In the corrupted currents of this world,
Offence's gilded hand may shove by justice;
And oft tis seen, the wicked prize, itself
Buys out the law : But 'tis not so above :
There is no shuffling, there the action lies
In his true nature; and we ourselves compellid