The Hesperides & Noble Numbers Part 97

156. SIN SEVERELY PUNISHED.

G.o.d in His own day will be then severe To punish great sins, who small faults whipt here.

157. MONTES SCRIPTURARUM: THE MOUNTS OF THE SCRIPTURES.

The mountains of the Scriptures are, some say, Moses, and Jesus, called Joshua: The prophets, mountains of the Old are meant, Th' apostles, mounts of the New Testament.

158. PRAYER.

A prayer that is said alone Starves, having no companion.

Great things ask for when thou dost pray, And those great are which ne'er decay.

Pray not for silver, rust eats this; Ask not for gold, which metal is; Nor yet for houses, which are here But earth: _such vows ne'er reach G.o.d's ear_.

159. CHRIST'S SADNESS.

Christ was not sad, i' th' garden, for His own Pa.s.sion, but for His sheep's dispersion.

160. G.o.d HEARS US.

G.o.d, who's in heaven, will hear from thence; If not to th' sound, yet to the sense.

161. G.o.d.

G.o.d, as the learned Damascene doth write, A sea of substance is, indefinite.

_The learned Damascene_, _i.e._, St. John of Damascus.

162. CLOUDS.

He that ascended in a cloud, shall come In clouds descending to the public doom.

163. COMFORTS IN CONTENTIONS.

The same who crowns the conqueror, will be A coadjutor in the agony.

164. HEAVEN.

Heaven is most fair; but fairer He That made that fairest canopy.

165. G.o.d.

In G.o.d there's nothing, but 'tis known to be Even G.o.d Himself, in perfect ent.i.ty.

166. HIS POWER.

G.o.d can do all things, save but what are known For to imply a contradiction.

167. CHRIST'S WORDS ON THE CROSS: MY G.o.d, MY G.o.d.

Christ, when He hung the dreadful cross upon, Had, as it were, a dereliction In this regard, in those great terrors He Had no one beam from G.o.d's sweet majesty.

_Dereliction_, abandonment.

168. JEHOVAH.

Jehovah, as Boetius saith, No number of the plural hath.

169. CONFUSION OF FACE.

G.o.d then confounds man's face when He not bears The vows of those who are pet.i.tioners.

170. ANOTHER.

The shame of man's face is no more Than prayers repell'd, says Ca.s.siodore.

171. BEGGARS.

Jacob G.o.d's beggar was; and so we wait, Though ne'er so rich, all beggars at His gate.

172. GOOD AND BAD.

The bad among the good are here mix'd ever; The good without the bad are here plac'd never.

173. SIN.

_Sin no existence; nature none it hath, Or good at all_, as learned Aquinas saith.

174. MARTHA, MARTHA.

The repet.i.tion of the name made known No other than Christ's full affection.