God's Determinations: Our Insufficiency to Praise God Suitably, for His Mercy An Electronic Edition Edward Taylor1642-1729 Header creation by Ralph Bauer Encoded by Ralph Bauer 5 kbtaylor_godsdeterinsufficiency.xmlMaryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities (MITH)
University of MarylandCollege Park
January 29, 2003

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 The poetical works of Edward Taylor. Edited with an introduction and notes by Thomas H. Johnson. New York, Rockland editions, 1939.

This poem was completed ca. 1685.However, it not published until 1939 in New York.

The text of the present edition was initially prepared from and proofed against The poetical works of Edward Taylor. Edited with an introduction and notes by Thomas H. Johnson (New York, Rockland editions, 1939). All preliminaries and notes have been omitted except those for which the author is responsible. All editorial notes have been omitted except those that indicate significant textual variations. Line and paragraph numbers contained in the source text have been retained. In cases where the source text displays no numbers, numbers are automatically generated. In the header, personal names have been regularized according to the Library of Congress authority files as "Last Name, First Name" for the REG attribute and "First Name Last Name" for the element value. Names have not been regularized in the body of the text.

English PoetryVerseLyrical 1650-1700New_EnglandPuritans Our Insufficiency to Praise God Suitably, for His Mercy Should all the World so wide to atoms fall Should th'Aire be shred to motes, should we Se[e] all the Earth hackt here so small That none Could smaller bee? Should Heaven, and Earth be Atomizd, we guess The Number of these Motes were numberless. But should we then a World each Atom deem, Where dwell as many pious men As all these Motes the world Could teem Were it shred into them? Each Atom would the World surmount wee guess Whose men in number would be numberless. But had each pious man, as many Tongues At singing all together then The Praise that to the Lord belongs As all these Atoms men? Each man would sing a World of Praise, we guess, Whose Tongues in number would be numberless. And had each Tongue, as many Songs of Praise To sing to the Almighty ALL As all these men have Tongues to raise To him their Holy Call? Each Tongue would tune a World of Praise, we guess Whose songs in number would be numberless. Nay, had each song as many Tunes most sweetOr one intwisting in't as many, As all these Tongues have songs most meet Unparallelld by any? Each song a world of Musick makes we guessWhose Tunes in number would be numberless. Now should all these Conspire in us that we Could breath such Praise to thee, Most High? Should we thy Sounding Organs be To ring such Melody? Our Musick would the World of Worlds out ring Yet be unfit within thine Eares to ting. Thou didst us mould, and us new mould when wee Were worse than mould we tread upon. Nay Nettles made by Sin wee bee. Yet hadst Compassion. Thou hast pluckt out our Stings; and by degrees Hast of us, lately Wasps, made Lady-Bees. Though e're our Tongues thy Praises due can fan A Weevle with the World may fly, Yea fly away: and with a span We may out mete the Sky. Though what we can is but a Lisp, We pray Accept thereof. We have no better pay.