-
“Thou art indeed just, Lord, if I contend”
- Justus quidem tu es, Domine, si disputem tecum: verumtamen justa loquar ad te: Quare via impiorum prosperatur? &c.
- Thou art indeed just, Lord, if I contend
- With thee; but, sir, so what I plead is just.
- Why do sinners’ ways prosper? and why must
- Disappointment all I endeavour end?
- Wert thou my enemy, O thou my friend,
- How wouldst thou worse, I wonder, than thou dost
- Defeat, thwart me? Oh, the sots and thralls of lust
- Do in spare hours more thrive than I that spend,
- Sir, life upon thy cause. See, banks and brakes
- Now, leavèd how thick! lacèd they are again
- With fretty chervil, look, and fresh wind shakes
- Them; birds build—but not I build; no, but strain,
- Time’s eunuch, and not breed one work that wakes.
- Mine, O thou lord of life, send my roots rain.

(see “Thou art indeed just, lord,” lines 10-11)