80 BAXTER•s- POEMS. THE ANSvVER. \VEAK child ! why dost thou make all this ado? Dost thou remember whom thou speakest to ? Dost thou consider what thy passion saith ? ls 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 nie seems best ? Am I not wise enough to use the rod ? Wilt thou prefer thyself 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 home·ward, man; there dwells thine enemy: It is thyself and sin: it is not I. The thing thou should'st complain of, is within: Tum 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 causeJ my only son for thee to die ? /
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=