" I WITH my eyes a cov'nant made, that they
Should not my soul, nor she their lights betray
To the deceit of sin; why then should I
Behold a virgin with a burning eye?
What judgments are reserv'd, what vengeance due
To those, who their intemp'rate lusts pursue!
Destruction and eternal ruin shall,
From heav'n, like lightning, on the wicked fall.
Do not His searching eyes my ways behold,
Are not my steps by Him observ'd and told?
If tempting sin could ever yet entice
My feet to wander in the quest of vice,
Let that great Arbiter of wrong and right
Weigh in His scales, and cast me if too light.
If I from virtue's path have stept awry,
Or let my heart be govern'd by mine eye;
If I, O justice, have thy rites profan'd,
If bribes or guiltless blood my hands have stain'd,
Then let another reap what I have sown,
Nor let my race be to the living known.
If ever woman could to sin allure,
If I have waited at my neighbour's door,
Let my lascivious wife with others grind,
And by her lust repay my guilt in kind.
This were a heinous crime; so foul a fact
As would due vengeance from the Judge exact;
A wasting fire, which violently burns,
And all to poverty and ruin turns.
If I by pow'r my servants should oppress,
Nor would their crying grievances redress,
What should I do or say, when God shall come
To judge the world, that might divert His doom?
Both made He in the womb of equal worth,
Though to unequal destiny brought forth.
If from the poor I did their hopes detain,
Or made the widow's eyes expect in vain;
If I alone have at my table fed,
Or from the fatherless withheld my bread,
Nor foster'd from my youth, their wants supplied,
To him a father, and to her a guide;
If I have seen the naked starve for cold,
While avarice my charity controll'd;
If their cloth'd loins have not my bounty blest,
Warm with the fleeces which my flocks divest;
If I my arms have rais'd to crush the weak,
The judge prepar'd, the witness taught to speak;
Be all their ligaments at once unbound,
And their disjointed bones to powder ground.
Divine revenge my soul from sin deterr'd;
For I the anger of th' Almighty fear'd.
I never idolized gold embrac'd,
Nor said, " In thee my confidence is plac'd."
Nor on deceitful riches fix'd my heart,
Together scrap'd by no omitted art.
If when I saw the early sun ascend,
Or the new moon her silver horns extend,
I bowing kiss'd my hand, those lights ador'd
As deities, and their relief implor'd.
The sin had been flagitious, and had cried
To Him for vengeance Whom my deeds defied.
Have I with joy beheld my ruin'd foe,
Have I exulted in his overthrow?
Or in the tempest of my passion burst
Into offences, and his issue curs'd?
Though my domestics said: " O let us tear
His hated flesh, nor after death forbear."
Who made the stones their bed, or sigh'd for food,
If known? My house to strangers open stood.
Suppose I were corrupt and foul within,
Yet to what end should I disguise my sin?
Need I so much contempt or censure dread,
As not to speak my thoughts, or hide my head?
Where shall I meet with an indiff'rent ear?
O that the Sov'reign Judge my cause would hear,
Peruse the adversaries' evidence,
Try and determine my suppos'd offence!
I on my shoulders their complaints would bear,
And as a diadem their slanders wear.
More like a prince than a delinquent, would
Approach His presence, and my life unfold.
If the usurped fields against me cry,
Their ravish'd furrows weep; if ever I
Have forced from them their unpaid-for grain,
Their husbandmen and ancient owners slain;
For wheat, let thistles from their clods ascend;
For barley, cockle. " Job's complaints here end.