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Ill-timed counsel.

Bid a sick man in sadness make his will;
Ah, word ill-urged to one that is so ill!

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Conceit and grief an eager combat fight;

35-i. 1.

What wit sets down, is blotted straight with will;
This is too curious-good, this blunt and ill:
Much like, a press of people at a door,
Throng her inventions, which shall go before.

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I told ye all,

Poems.

When we first put this dangerous stone a rolling, 'Twould fall upon ourselves.

703

Passion.

25-v. 2.

Take heed, lest by your heat you burn yourselves.

704

Reconciliation.

22-v. 1.

The broken rancour of your high-swoln hearts,
But lately splinted, knit, and join'd together,
Must gently be preserved, cherish'd, and kept.

705

Mercy.

24-ii. 2.

How shalt thou hope for mercy, rend'ring none?

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Farewell: The leisure and the fearful time
Cuts off the ceremonious vows of love,
And ample interchange of sweet discourse,

9-iv. 1.

Which so-long-sunder'd friends should dwell upon.

707

Benediction.

24-v. 3.

What heaven more will

d

That thee may furnish, and my prayers pluck down,

Fall on thy head!

708

The same.

Prosperity be thy page!

c Gen. xlii. 21, 22.

11-i. 1.

28-i. 5.

'Furnish,' that may help thee with more and better qualifi

cations.

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The best wishes, that can be forged in your thoughts, be servants to you!

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11-i. 1.

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The benediction of these covering heavens
Fall on your heads like dew!

31-v. 5.

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Now, God be praised! that to believing souls
Gives light in darkness, comfort in despair!

715

Providence.

22-ii. 1.

There is a special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, 'tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come: the readiness is all.

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Our indiscretion sometimes serves us well,

36-v. 2.

[us,

When our deep plots do pall; and that should teach

• John iv. 24. Phil. iii. 3.

1 Fail.

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

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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.

15-iv. 3.

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The immortal part needs a physician; though that be sick, it dies not.

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'Tis a vile thing to die,

19-ii. 2.

When men are unprepared, and look not for it.

721

24-iii. 2.

The same.

Men must endure

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

722

The same.

34-v. 2.

Ah, what a sign it is of evil life,

When death's approach is seen so terrible!

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Hast thou that holy feeling in thy soul,

22-iii. 3.

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?

24-i. 4.

724

The brevity of life.

The time of life is short;

To spend that shortness basely, were too long,

If life did ride upon a dial's point,

Still ending at the arrival of an hour.

8 Ps. lv. 21.

18-v. 2.

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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?

726

God the cause of all causes.

He that of greatest works is finisher,

Oft does them by the weakest minister:

36-iii. 3.

So holy writ in babes hath judgment shewn,
When judges have been babes.

flown

i

Great floods have

From simple sources; and great seas have dried,
When miracles have by the greatest been denied.*
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.

727

Fall of man and redemption.

11—ii. 1.

All the souls that were, were forfeit once;1 And He, that might the vantage best have took, Found out the remedy ?m How would you be, If He, which is the top of judgment, should But judge you as you are ? O, think on that, And mercy then will breathe within your lips,

Like man new made.°

5-ii. 2.

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The quality of mercy is not strain'd:

It droppeth, as the gentle rain from heaven

h An allusion to Daniel judging the two elders. See also Matt. xi. 25, and 1 Cor. i. 27.

ii.e. When Moses smote the rock in Horeb.---Exod. xvii. 5, 6, &c. k Referring to the children of Israel passing the Red Sea, when miracles had been denied by Pharaoh.

1 Rom. iii. 10---23.

m John iii. 16.

Eph. iv. 24---32.

n Ps. cxxx. 3.

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 shews the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty,

Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;
But mercy is above this scepter'd sway,

It is enthroned in the hearts of kings;

It is an attribute to God himself;"

And earthly power doth then shew 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.

729

God's mercies to be remembered.

Let never day nor night unhallow'd pass,
But still remember what the Lord hath done.

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9-iv. 1.

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.

732

If

Divine judgment.

my suspect be false, forgive me, God; For judgment only doth belong to thee!

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Forbear to judge, for we are sinners all.

731

The terrors of guilt in death.

O thou eternal Mover of the heavens,
Look with a gentle eye upon this wretch!

35-iv. 5.

22-iii. 2.

22-iii. 3.

P Mercy is seasonable in the time of affliction, as clouds of rain in

the time of drought.---Ecclus. xxxv. 20.

Matt. vi. 12, 14, 15.

9 Micah vii. 18.

s Deut. ix. 8.

Ps. cvi. 43.

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