Classic Poem

Another Dialogue or Combate between the Flesh and Spirit.

Flesh

1

Oh but I greatly fear,
My sufferings are not such
As Childrens Nurture use to be,
But that they differ much.
They are too great and long,
I fear, to stand with love:
Such everwhehning strokes, methinks,
Do rather hatred prove.

2

Were I a child of God
He would more gently deal:
Nor would he always use the Rod,
But sometimes help and heal
But I am day by day
Afflicted very sore:
My sufferings have been many years,
And still are growing more.

Spirit

3

God doth more gently deal
Then thou considerest well:
For had he us'd extremities
Thou hadst been now in Hell.
He is not so severe
As thou imaginest;
For some, that were to him most dear,
Have been much more distrest.

4

Jacob from Esau's rage
To Padan-Aram sent,
The toyl and pain of twenty years
Hard service underwent;
Oft being circumvented
By Laban's subtile feats:
But he was fain to be contented
For he knew no deceits.

5

Thou know'st what sorrows great
He after passed through,
One trouble hardly over-blown
Before he met a new.
Moses brought up a Prince,
From Egypt Banished,
Lived in Exile forty years,
And laboured for his bread.

6

Joseph an innocent,
Through Bretherens cruel hate,
Was sold to strangers, and so brought
Into a servile state.
No sooner gains he favour
I'th' eyes of Potiphar :
But is accused of that Crime,
Which he did most abhor.

7

His Master is incens'd,
The innocent is shut,
Into a Dungeon dark, his hands
And feet in fetters put
And though the Lord was pleas'd
This rigour to abate
After some time; yet dwelt he long
In this Imprisoned state.

8

The Church was sore opprest
In Egypt many a day,
And made like Slaves with rigour too,
To serve in brick and clay.
And though they cry'd to God
With groans and many tears:
Yet were they in this Bondage held
Above an hundred years.

9

What thinkest thou of Job
And his great Sufferings?
Do not thy griefs, compar'd with his,
Seem light and little things?
So dismal was his case,
So strange his sorrows all,
As Wise ones thought could unto none:
But wicked men befall

10

But God befools them for it,
And lets them understand
That Job was such an upright man,
As none was in the Land:
That notwithstanding all
That he had undergone
For a long time, yet was he still
His most beloved one.

11

David a man of God,
One after God's own Heart,
In his long lasting Banishment
Of sorrows had his part.
Deprived of God's House,
Hunted from place to place:
With restless feet and weary steps
Forc'd up and down to trace.

12

Flying to save his life,
In Caves and Forrests hiding,
Until at length in Ziklag -Town,
He found some safe abiding.
E're long his Town is burnt,
His Wives are Captive taken:
His Souldiers speak of stoning him,
He seems of all forsaken

13

Had David said God hates me,
In this his greatest need:
When as all other Comforts Fail'd
He had been poor indeed.
But in his deep distress,
And over-bearing grief,
He comforted himself in God,
And from him found relief.

14

Heman from youthful years,
Was ready for to die,
Distracted with amazing fears,
He cries continuallie.
Complaining that the Lord,
His face away did hide,
And made his wrath pass over him:
And cast his Soul aside.

15

Yet Heman was a Saint,
And calls the Lord his God:
God of his Health, 'midst all complaints:
And lashes of the Rod
Take courage then my Soul,
And put away thy fear:
Thy sufferings well may stand with love,
Although they greater were.

16

And as for length of Time,
Examples do thee show,
That divers Saints have Sufferers been:
A longer time then thou
So that it well appears,
That altereth not the case,
(Of mans short life the longest Time:
Is but a little space)

17

For what are twenty years,
Unto Eternity?
Eternal Rest will make amends
For all this Misery.
When Time shall pass away,
Like an untimely Birth,
These Transient Griefs shall be forgot:
Or though upon with mirth.