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10.

Divine superintendence.

Our indiscretion sometimes serves us well,

When our deep plots do palle ; and that should teach us, There's a Divinity that shapes our ends,

Rough-hew them how we will.

36-v. 2.

11.

Divine protection.

If angels fight,

Weak men must fall; for heaven still guards the right.

12.

Submission to the Divine will.

17-iii. 2.

I shall be well content with any choice,
Tends to God's glory, and my country's weal.

13.

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.

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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.

21-v. 1.

17-i. 2.

24-i. 4.

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Look, what thy soul holds dear, imagine it
To lie that way thou go'st, not whence thou com'st.

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But I do find it cowardly and vile,

For fear of what might fall, so to prevent

17—i. 3.

The time of life :-(arming myself with patience)
To stay the providence of some high powers,
That govern us below.

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29-v. 1.

My blood, my want of strength, my sick heart, shews That I must yield my body to the earth,

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And, by my fall, the conquest to my foe.
Thus yields the cedar to the axe's edge,
Whose arms gave shelter to the princely eagle,
Under whose shade the ramping lion slept;
Whose top-branch overpeer'd Jove's spreading tree,
And kept low shrubs from winter's powerful wind.

18.

Resignation to the will of God.

23-v. 2.

Heaven me such usage send,

Not to pick bad from bad; but, by bad, mend!

37-iv. 3.

19. Resignation to the will of God enjoined.

Do not, for ever, with thy vailed lids

Seek for thy noble father in the dust:

Thou know'st, 't is common; all, that live, must die, Passing through nature to eternity.

20.

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,

36-i. 2.

When judges have been babes. Great floods have flown

From simple sources; and great seas have dried,
When miracles have by the greatest been denied h.
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 't is 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.

21.

God's procedure.

11—ii. 1.

You snatch some hence for little faults; that's love, To have them fall no more: you some permit

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

i. e. When Moses smote the rock in Horeb.-Exod. xvii. 5, 6, &c.

Referring to the children of Israel passing the Red Sea, when miracles had been denied by Pharaoh.

To second ills with ills, each elder worse;
And make them dread it to the doers' thrift.

22.

God's care over his creatures.

He that doth the ravens feed,

Yea, providently caters for the sparrowi,
Be comfort to my age!

23.

God the Christian's hope.

God shall be my hope,

31-v. 1.

10-ii. 3.

22-ii. 3.

My stay, my guide, and lantern to my feet k.

24.

God the widow's friend.

Heaven, the widow's champion and defence1.

25.

Pleading with God.

Withhold thine indignation, mighty Heaven,
And tempt us not to bear above our power m!

26.

God's mercies to be remembered.

17-i. 2.

16-v. 6.

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

22-ii. 1.

"Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?"-Matt. vi. 26.

"But the salvation of the righteous is of the Lord: he is their strength in the time of trouble."-Ps. xxxvii. 39. " God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble."Ps. xlvi. 1. "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path."-Ps. cxix. 105.

"Ye shall not afflict any widow, or fatherless child. If thou afflict them in any wise, and they cry at all unto me, I will surely hear their cry."-Exod. xxii. 22, 23. "A father of the fatherless, and a judge of the widows, is God in his holy habitation."-Ps. lxviii. 5.

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"There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it."-1 Cor. x. 13.

27.

God's mercies to be remembered. Heaven set ope thy everlasting gates, To entertain my vows of thanks and praise!

28. 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.

29.

God's vengeance on the wicked.

22-iv. 9.

24-ii. 1.

There is no king, be his cause never so spotless, if it come to the arbitrement of swords, can try it out with all unspotted soldiers. Some, peradventure, have on them the guilt of premeditated and contrived murder; some of beguiling virgins with the broken seal of perjury; some, making the wars their bulwark, that have before gored the gentle bosom of peace with pillage and robbery. Now, if these men have defeated the law, and outrun native punishment, though they can outstrip men, they have no wings to fly from God": war is his beadle, war is his vengeance; so that here men are punished, for beforebreach of the king's laws, in now the king's quarrel: where they feared the death, they have borne life away; and, where they would be safe, they perish o. Then, if they die unprovided, no more is the king guilty of their damnation, than he was before guilty of those impieties for the which they are now visited. Every subject's duty is the king's; but every subject's soul is his own. 20-iv. 1.

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

22-iii. 2.

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"He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it."-Matt. x. 39.

"For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it."-Matt. xvi. 25.

32.

Human nature.

Strange is it, that our bloods,

Of colour, weight, and heat, pour'd all together,
Would quite confound distinction, yet stand off
In differences so mighty.

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11-ii. 3.

Cowards father cowards, and base things sire base : Nature hath meal, and bran; contempt, and grace.

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The first time that we smell the air,

We wawl and cry:

31-iv. 2.

When we are born, we cry, that we are come
To this great stage of fools.

35.

Human nature alike in all.

34-iv. 6.

Hath not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a Christian is? if you prick us, do we not bleed? if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison us, do we not die? 9-iii. 1.

36.

Equality of human life.

Your worm is your only emperor for diet: we fat all creatures else, to fat us; and we fat ourselves for maggots: Your fat king, and your lean beggar, is but variable service; two dishes, but to one table; that's the end. 36-iv. 3.

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Reason thus with life:

A breath thou art,

(Servile to all the skiey influences,)

That dost this habitation, where thou keep'st,
Hourly afflict: merely, thou art Death's fool;
For him thou labour'st by thy flight to shun,
And yet runn'st toward him still: Thou art not noble;
For all the accommodations that thou bear'st

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