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

BECOMING AMERICA
SEVENTEENTH CENTURY ENGLISH COLONIAL LITERATURE
LII
The glorious Judge will priviledge
nor Emperour nor King:
But every one that hath misdone
doth into judgement bring;
And every one that hath misdone,
the Judge impartially
Condemneth to eternal wo,
and endless misery.
LIII
Thus one and all, thus great and small,
the rich as well as poor,
And those of place, as the most base,
do stand their Judge before:
They are arraign’d, and there detain’d
before Christ’s judgement seat
With trembling fear their Doom to hear,
and feel his angers heat.
LIV
There Christ demands at all their hands
a strict and straight account
Of all things done under the Sun;
who [. . .] e numbers far surmount
Man’s wit and thought: yet all are brought
unto this solemn trial;
And each oence with evidence,
so that there’s no denial.
LV
There’s no excuses for their abuse [. . .]
since their own consciences
More proof give in of each man’s sin;
then thousand witnesses.
Though formerly this faculty
had grosly been abused,
(Men could it stie, or with it trie,
whenas it them accused.)
LVI
Now it comes in, and every si [. . .]
unto mans charge doth lay:
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