ch 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 God's ear_.

159. CHRIST'S SADNESS.

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

160. GOD HEARS US.

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

161. GOD.

God, 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. GOD.

In God there's nothing, but 'tis known to be
Even God Himself, in perfect entity.

166. HIS POWER.

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

167. CHRIST'S WORDS ON THE CROSS: MY GOD, MY GOD.

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 God's sweet majesty.

_Dereliction_, abandonment.

168. JEHOVAH.

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

169. CONFUSION OF FACE.

God then confounds man's face when He not bears
The vows of those who are petitioners.

170. ANOTHER.

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

171. BEGGARS.

Jacob God'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 repetition of the name made known
No other than Christ's full affection.

175. YOUTH AND AGE.

God on our youth bestows but little ease;
But on our age most sweet indulgences.

176. GOD'S POWER.

God is so potent, as His power can
Draw out of bad a sovereign good to man.

177. PARADISE.

Paradise is, as from the learn'd I gat