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TO SIR J.G., WISHING ME TO REGAIN FORTUNES BY COMPLIANCE .. PARLIAMENT by WILLIAM HAMMOND

First Line: THE RESIGNATION OF MYSELF AND MINE
Last Line: SO THESE MAKE PARADISE, AND NOT THE PLACE.

THE resignation of myself and mine
I prostrate at the footstep of his shrine,
Who, for the mighty love he bore to me,
Laid out himself in each capacity;
Unasked, pawns his deity, and shrouds
Almighty feebleness in human clouds;
And even that cottage did not death engage
For three days, to redeem our heritage;
For no less price than his humanity
Could ransom us, stamp'd with divinity.
The story of this noble surety, friend,
Should to such ecstasy our zeals extend,
That our estates or selves we ne'er should deem
So free, as when they mortgag'd are for him;
I therefore can, with a contented mind,
Shake hands with all the wealth of either Ind,
In a clear conscience finding riches more
Than there the sun bequeaths unto his ore;
Who drinks with sacred Druids at the brook,
Whose unjust sufferings are for guilt mistook,
And from their mouth, now the forbidden tree,
Alas, of knowledge, sucks divinity.
With angels on an honest bed of leaves
Redintegrated Paradise conceives;
For Heaven is only God's revealed face;
So these make Paradise, and not the place.



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