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

BECOMING AMERICA
SEVENTEENTH CENTURY ENGLISH COLONIAL LITERATURE
but you have broke my Laws.
It is but vain your wits to strain
the E [. . .] d and Me [. . .] ns to sever:
Men fondly seek to dart or break
what God hath link’d together.
CXLVIII
Whom God will save, such he will have
the means of life to use:
Whom he’l pass by, shall chuse to di [. . .],
and ways of life refuse.
He that fore-sees and fore-decrees,
in wisdom order’d has,
That man’s free-will electing ill
shall bring his Will to pass.
CXLIX
High God’s Decree, as it is free,
so doth it none compel
Against their will to good or ill;
i [. . .] forceth none to Hell.
They have their wish whose Souls perish
with torments in Hell-re:
Who rather chose their souls to lose,
then leave a loose desire.
CL
God did ordain sinners to pain;
and I to hell send none,
But such as swe [. . .] v’d, and have deserv’d
destruction as their own.
His pleasure is, that none fr [. . .] ss
and endless happiness
Be barr’d, but such as wrong [. . .] much
by wilful wickedness.
CLI
You (sinful crew!) no other knew
but you might be elect:
Why did you then your selves condemn?
why did you me reject?
Where was your strife to gain that life
which lasteth evermore?
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