Poetical fragments heart-employment with God and it selfPoetical fragments heart-imployment with God and it self

The Answer.

Weak Child! why dost thou make all this ado? Dost thou remember whom thou speakest to? Dost thou consider what thy passion saith? Is this the language of a stable Faith? Is this thy Patience, and thy Self-denial? Wilt thou thus shrink & shake in time of trial? May I not with my own do what I list? And use my creature as to me seems best? ⟨p. 93⟩Am I not wise enough to use the Rod? Wilt thou prefer thy self before thy God? Who's fittest to be Ruler? thou or I? Whose Wisdom's best? and whose Fidelity? When proved I false unto thee? or unkind? When didst thou seek aright, and didst not find? Look homeward, Man; there dwells thine Enemy▪ It is thy Self and Sin: It is not l. The thing thou shouldest complain of, is within: Turn all thy charge against thy Self and Sin. Sin is so bad, that it can do no better. God cannot fail thee, and remain thy debtor. Such intimations should not pass thy tongue, As if the Righteous God could do thee wrong. Were Conscience but as tender as thy flesh, And Sin as grievous to thee as the lash; Hadst thou but lived as beseems a Saint, I might have spared my Rod, and thou thy Plaint. Canst thou suspect I am against thy good, When I have proved my Love by streams of blood? Have I not loved thee from Eternity? And caused my only Son for thee to die? Have I not called thee from a life of sin, When thousands round about thee live therein? Remember how I used thee at the first, When in thy blood I found thee at the worst: Who gave thee notice of thy sinful state, Wakening thy Soul before it was too late? Who did convince thee of the worldlings folly? And show thee that it's better to be holy? ⟨p. 94⟩Who saved thee from the world's deceits and lies? And weaned thee from thy former vanities? Who taught thee to bewail thy heavy load? And made thee long to know and love thy God? If thou art willing that I should be thine, It is because at first I called thee Mine. I offered Christ: I made thee to consent: And in the terms of grace to rest content. When thou wast ignorant, who did thee teach? And made thee long a higher state to reach? Who made thee love and choose the scorned way? And cleave to Christ, whatever flesh could say? Who made thee pray? and who thy prayer heard? And saved thee from the Plagues thy Conscience feared? Who made thy sinful heart long to be better? Art thou not for all this to me a debtor?