"Conscience alone, my awful Judge within, / Does not acquit me of enormous Sin / But God and all his sacred Angels, bear / Witness to this, and will my Justice clear."
— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed from Awnsham and John Churchill
Date
1700
Metaphor
"Conscience alone, my awful Judge within, / Does not acquit me of enormous Sin / But God and all his sacred Angels, bear / Witness to this, and will my Justice clear."
Metaphor in Context
Yet no Injustice does in Job appear,
As you my Friends unkindly would infer,
Pure is my Prayer, my Heart within sincere.
If e'er a Man by my flagitious hand
Vext and Opprest, has perish'd from the Land,
Let not thy Womb, O Earth, his Blood conceal,
But to the Light my black Offence reveal;
That publique Shame and Pains may be my Fate,
Which on the heinous Malefactor wait.
Let God and Man their Bowels shut, when I
In deadly Torment for Compassion cry.
Conscience alone, my awful Judge within,
Does not acquit me of enormous Sin,
But God and all his sacred Angels, bear
Witness to this, and will my Justice clear.
From you my Friends, who my Distress deride,
I turn to Heav'n, let Heav'n my Cause decide.
If God his just Tribunal would ascend,
To hear how you accuse, and I defend;
If he, as Arbitrator, would preside,
And weigh the Reasons urg'd on either side;
From your Indictment he would me release,
And I, my Virtue clear'd, should dye in Peace.
And, O, that God would soon my Tryal hear,
And Judgment give before I disappear.
For when a few more fleeting days are past,
I in the Arms of Death shall lye embrac't.
As you my Friends unkindly would infer,
Pure is my Prayer, my Heart within sincere.
If e'er a Man by my flagitious hand
Vext and Opprest, has perish'd from the Land,
Let not thy Womb, O Earth, his Blood conceal,
But to the Light my black Offence reveal;
That publique Shame and Pains may be my Fate,
Which on the heinous Malefactor wait.
Let God and Man their Bowels shut, when I
In deadly Torment for Compassion cry.
Conscience alone, my awful Judge within,
Does not acquit me of enormous Sin,
But God and all his sacred Angels, bear
Witness to this, and will my Justice clear.
From you my Friends, who my Distress deride,
I turn to Heav'n, let Heav'n my Cause decide.
If God his just Tribunal would ascend,
To hear how you accuse, and I defend;
If he, as Arbitrator, would preside,
And weigh the Reasons urg'd on either side;
From your Indictment he would me release,
And I, my Virtue clear'd, should dye in Peace.
And, O, that God would soon my Tryal hear,
And Judgment give before I disappear.
For when a few more fleeting days are past,
I in the Arms of Death shall lye embrac't.
Categories
Provenance
Searching "judge within" in HDIS (Poetry)
Citation
2 entries in ESTC (1700, 1716).
A Paraphrase on the Book of Job: As Likewise on the Songs of Moses, Deborah, David: on Four Select Psalms: Some Chapters of Isaiah, and the Third Chapter of Habakkuk. By Sir Richard Blackmore (London: Printed from Awnsham and John Churchill, 1700).
A Paraphrase on the Book of Job: As Likewise on the Songs of Moses, Deborah, David: on Four Select Psalms: Some Chapters of Isaiah, and the Third Chapter of Habakkuk. By Sir Richard Blackmore (London: Printed from Awnsham and John Churchill, 1700).
Date of Entry
08/26/2004
Date of Review
02/05/2010
