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 and shake in time of trial? May I not with my own do what I list? And use my creature as to me seems best? Am I not wise enough to use the rod? WTilt thou prefer thyself before thy God? Who ’s fittest to be ruler? thou or I? Whose wisdom ’s best? and whose fidelity? WThen 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 thyself and sin: it is not I.

The thing thou should’st complain of, is within:

Turn all thy charge against thyself 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 calPd thee from a life of sin, When thousands round about thee live therein? Kememfeer 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 worldling’s folly, And shew thee that it ’s better to be holy? Who saved tHee from the world’s deceit and lies, And wean’d 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 call’d 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 «ould say? Who made thee pray? and who thy prayer heard? And saved thee from the plagues thy conscience fear ‘d? Who made thy sinful heart long to be better? Art thou not for all this to one a debtor? That thou dost miss me, and my pleased face, - That thou dost mourn and groan, is from my grace. Freely I did forgive thee what was past, And all thy deadly sins behind me cast. And yet must I be taken for thy foe, And all these accusations undergo? After all this, canst thou my love suspect, And all my comfort* peevishly reject? E 2

Dar’st thou deny my love and grace, as none,

Because that all the work is not yet done? [be?

Who wrought that grace? whose should the honour

While thou condemn’st thyself, thou wrongest inc.

Watch and reform, and cheerfully obey:

For what thou wantest, wait, and strive, and pray.

Thy love and cheerful duty 1 require:

It’s not thy self-tormenting I desire.

Humbly look back: remember what thou wast:

Be not unthankful for the grace thou hast.

Deny it not, but wait at Mercy’s door:

Thankfulness is the way to get thee more.

If thou art weak, look up to Christ, thy strength;

He’ll perfect what he hath begun at length:

Is not his grace sufficient for thee still?

He’ll give thee rest, that freely gave thee wyll.

If thou stand still, or loiter in thy race;

And if my spur do bid thee mend thy pace;

Let not the smart make thee lie down and whine,

And at the needful quickening rod repine:

But, up; repent; cheerfully do thy best:

The day’s at hand, when thou shalt have the Rest.