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

BECOMING AMERICA
SEVENTEENTH CENTURY ENGLISH COLONIAL LITERATURE
of wonted Clemency:
Mercy refus’d, and Grace misus’d,
call for severity.
CXXXIX
It’s now high time that every Crime
be brought to punishment:
VVrath long contain’d, and oft refrain’d,
at last must have a vent.
Justice [. . .] evere cannot fo [. . .] bear
to plague sin any longer;
But must inict with hand mo [. . .] t strict
mischief upon the wronger.
CXL
In vain do they for Mercy pray,
the season being past,
Who had no care to get a share
therein, while time did last.
The men whose ear refus’d to hear
the voice of Wisdom’s cry,
Earn’d this reward, that none regard
him in his misery.
CXLI
It doth agree with Equitee,
and with God’s holy Law,
That those should dy eternally,
that death upon them draw.
The Soul that sin’s damnation win’s;
for so the Law ordains:
Which Law is just [. . .] and therefore must
such suer endless pains.
CXLII
Etern [. . .] l smart is the desert
ev’n of the least oence;
Then wonder not if I allot
to you this Recompence:
But wonder more that, since so sore
and lasting plagues are due
To every sin, you liv’d therein,
who well the danger knew.
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