Page:The works of Anne Bradstreet in prose and verse.djvu/154

 68 Anne Bradflfcefs Works.

wayes rather then to beg forgiuenes for their finnes : nature lookes more at a Compenfation then at a par- don; but he that will not Come for mercy without mon}^ and without price, but bring his filthy raggs to barter for it, fhall meet with miferable difapointment, going awa}' empty, beareing the reproch of his pride and folly.

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LL the works and doings of God are wonderfull, but none more awfull then his great worke of ele6tion and Reprobation ; when we confider how many good parents haue had bad children, and againe how many bad parents haue had pious children, it fhould make vs adore the Souerainty of God, who will not be tyed to time nor place, nor yet to perfons, but takes and chufes when and where and whom he

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pleafes: it fliould alfoe teach the children of godly parents to w^alk with feare and trembling, left they, through vnbeleif, fall fhort of a promife: it may alio be a fupport to fuch as haue or had wicked parents, that, if they abide not in vnbeleif, God is able to graffe them in: the vpfhot of all fhould makes vs, with the Apoftle, to admire the iuftice and mercy of God, and fay, how vnfearchable are his wayes, and his foot- lleps pall linding out.

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