Michael Wigglesworth (1631—1705)

CXCVII.

One natural Brother beholds another
in his astonied fit.
Yet sorrows not thereat a jot,
nor pities him a whit.
The godly Wife conceives no grief
nor can she shed a tear
For the sad state of her dear Mate,
when she his doom doth hear.

CXCVIII.

He that was erst a Husband pierc’d
with sense of Wife’s distress.
Whose tender heart did bear a part
of all her grievances,
Shall mourn no more as heretofore,
because of her ill plight.
Although he see her now to be
a damn’d forsaken wight.

CXCIX.

The tender Mother will own no other
of all her num’rous brood,
But such as stand at Christ’s right hand,
acquitted through his Blood.
The pious Father had now much rather
his graceless Son should lie
In Hell with Devils, for all his evils,
burning eternally,

CC.

Than God most High should injury
by sparing him sustain;
And doth rejoice to hear Christ’s voice,
adjudging him to pain.
Thus having all, both great and small,
convinc’d and silencéd,
Christ did proceed their Doom to read,
and thus it utteréd:

The Judge pronounceth the sentence of condemnation.

CCI.

“Ye sinful wights and curséd sprights,
that work iniquity,
Depart together from me for ever
to endless Misery;
Your portion take in yonder Lake,
where Fire and Brimstone flameth;
Suffer the smart which your desert,
as its due wages claimeth.“