Becoming America - An Exploration of American Literature from Precolonial to Post-Revolution, 2018a

BECOMING AMERICA
SEVENTEENTH CENTURY ENGLISH COLONIAL LITERATURE
XXXIX
‘Twas meet that ye should judged be,
that so the world may ‘spy
No cause of grudge, when as I judge
and deal impartially,
Know therefore all both great and small,
the ground and reason why
These men do stand at my right hand,
and look so chearfully.
XL
These men be those my Father chose
before the world’s foundation,
And to me gave that I should save
from death and condemnation.
For whose dear sake I esh did take,
was of a woman born,
And did inure my self t’endure
unjust reproach and scorn.
XLI
For them it was that I did pass
through sorrows many a one:
That I drank up that bitter Cup,
which made me sigh and groan.
The Cross his pain I did sustain;
yea more, my Fathers ire
I under-went, my bloud I spent
to save them from Hell re.
XLII
Thus I esteem’d, thus I redeem’d
all these from every Nation,
that they might be (as now you see)
a chosen Generation.
What if ere-while they were as vile
and bad as any be,
[. . .] nd yet from all their guilt and thrall
at once I set them free?
XLIII
My grace to one is wrong to none:
none can Election claim.
Page | 194