Robert Herrick

God, as He's potent, so He's likewise known
To give us more than hope can fix upon.

God's bounty, that ebbs less and less
As men do wane in thankfulness.

In God's commands ne'er ask the reason why;
Let thy obedience be the best reply.

God is then said for to descend, when He
Doth here on earth some thing of novity;
As when in human nature He works more
Than ever yet the like was done before.

God's said to dwell there, wheresoever He
Puts down some prints of His high Majesty;
As when to man He comes, and there doth place
His Holy Spirit, or doth plant His Grace.

God hears us when we pray, but yet defers
His gifts, to exercise petitioners;
And though a while He makes requesters stay,
With princely hand He'll recompense delay.

God's grace deserves here to be daily fed
That, thus increased, it might be perfected.

God's hands are round and smooth, that gifts may fall
Freely from them and hold none back at all.

God has four keys, which He reserves alone:
The first of rain; the key of hell next known;
With the third key He opes and shuts the womb;
And with the fourth key he unlocks the tomb.

God's boundless mercy is, to sinful man,
Like to the ever-wealthy ocean:
Which though it sends forth thousand streams, 'tis ne'er
Known, or else seen, to be the emptier;
And though it takes all in, 'tis yet no more
Full, and fill'd full, than when full fill'd before.

Where God is merry, there write down thy fears:
What He with laughter speaks, hear thou with tears.

When I shall sin, pardon my trespass here;
For once in hell, none knows remission there.

God still rewards us more than our desert;
But when He strikes, He quarter-acts His part.

Prayers and praises are those spotless two
Lambs, by the law, which God requires as due.

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

God's present everywhere, but most of all
Present by union hypostatical:
God, He is there, where's nothing else, schools say,
And nothing else is there where He's away.

God is all-present to whate'er we do,
And as all-present, so all-filling too.

God's evident, and may be said to be
Present with just men, to the verity;
But with the wicked if He doth comply,
'Tis, as St. Bernard saith, but seemingly.