“Thou art indeed just, Lord, if I contend”

  • “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.
photograph of chervil
lacèd they are again With fretty chervil
(see “Thou art indeed just, lord,” lines 10-11)

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