Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, GOD'S DETERMINATIONS: DIFFICULTIES - UNCHARITABLE CARRIAGES CHRISTIANS, by EDWARD TAYLOR


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

GOD'S DETERMINATIONS: DIFFICULTIES - UNCHARITABLE CARRIAGES CHRISTIANS, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: When these assaults prove vain, the enemy
Last Line: When one is backward though a bidden guest.
Subject(s): Puritans In Literature


When these assaults proove vain, the Enemy
One Saint upon another oft doth set,
To make each fret like to Gum'd Taffity,
And fire out Grace thus by a Chafe or Fret.
Uncharitable Christians inj'rous are:
Two Freestons rubd together each do ware.

When Satan jogs the Elbow of the one
To Spleenish Passions which too oft doth rise,
For want of Charity, or hereupon
From some Uncharitable harsh Surmise,
Then the Poore Doubting Soul is oft oppresst,
By hard Reflections from an harder breast.

Th' Uncharitable Soul oft thus reflects,
After each Birth a second birth doth Come.
Your Second Birth no Second Birth ejects.
The Babe of Grace then's strangld in the Womb.
There's no new Birth born in thy Soul thou'lt find
If that the after Birth abide behinde.

The Babe of Grace, thinks he, 's not born its sure.
Sins Secundine is not as yet out Cast.
The Soul no Bracelet of Graces pure
Doth ware, while wrapt in nature's slough so fast.
And thus he doth for want of Charity,
The wounded wound Uncharitably.

And thus some Child of God, when led awry
By Satan, doth with Satan take a part,
Against some Child of God, whom frowardly
He by Reflections harsh wounds thus in heart.
Pough! Here's Religion! Strange indeed! Quoth hee.
Grace makes a Conscience of things here that bee.

Grace Conscious makes one how to spend ones time
How to perform the Duties of one's place
Not onely in the things which are Divine;
But in the things which ware a Sublime Face.
Do you do so? And order good persue?
Don't Earth and Heaven interfer in you?

Will God accept the service if the time
Is stolen from our Calling him to pay?
What will he yield that Sacrifice his shine,
That from anothers Altar's stole away?
God and our Callings Call: and th' Sacrifice
Stole from our Callings Altar he defies.

Yet if it falls on worldly things intense
Its soon scourgd then with whips of Worldliness:
It gives to many, nay to all, offence
And gathers to itselfe great penciveness.
Intense on God, or on the world, all's one.
The Harmless Soule is hardly thought upon.

Such Traps, and Wilds as these are, Satan sets,
For to intrap the Innocent therein:
These are his Wyers, Snares, and tangling Nets,
To hanck, and hopple harmless souls in Sin.
If in such briars thou enbrambled light
Call on the Mighty God with all thy might.

On God in Christ Call hard: For in him hee
Hath Bowells melting, and Expanded arms:
Hath sweet imbraces, Tender mercy free
Hath Might Almighty too to save from harms.
Into his Dove streakt Downy bosom fly,
In Spite of Spite, or Spiters Enmity.

These are Gods Way-Marks thus inscrib'd; this hand
Points you the way unto the Land Divine,
The Land of Promise, Good Immanuels Land.
To New Jerusalem above the line.
Ten thousand times thrice tribled blesst he is,
That walketh in the suburbs here of bliss.

His Wildred state will wane away, and hence
These Crooked Passages will soon appeare
The Curious needlework of Providence,
Embrodered with golden Spangles Cleare.
Judge not this Web while in the Loom, but stay
From judging it untill the judgment day.

For while its foiled up the best Can see
But little of it, and that little too
Shews weather beaten but when it shall bee
Hung open all at once, Oh beautious shew!
Though thrids run in, and out, Cross snarld and twinde
The Web will even be enwrought you'l finde.

If in the golden Meshes of this Net
(The Checkerwork of Providence) you're Caught
And Carride hence to Heaven, never fret:
Your Barke shall to an Happy Bay be brought.
You'l se both Good and Bad drawn up hereby,
These to Hells Horrour, those to Heavens Joy.

Fear not Presumption then, when God invites:
Invite not Fear, when that he doth thee Call:
Call not in Question whether he delights
In thee, but make him thy Delight, and all.
Presumption lies in Backward Bashfulness,
When one is backward though a bidden Guest.





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