On Nineveh's Repentance

If God an Angel should from Heaven send,
To bid us fast and pray, can we pretend
To feast and dance, and not our God offend?
When we his Goodness and his Will withstand,
By slighting of so gentle a Command;
Instead of Fire and Sword, when Tyrants rage,
Slew Saints by thousands in the former age.
Much greater now will our Offences prove,
When we despise such favour and such love.
When Piety and Grace so fast decay,
That (as we ought) few neither fast nor pray,
But careless throw our precious time away;
As if the world were given us to defie
Our God, and shew we scorned to comply,
Till he appears in Glory, with such power,
As wiil both Heaven and Earth by fire devour.
Our wanton wealth and luxuries do look,
As if our stubborn Nation were forsook
By God, until our Nineveh repent
In sack-cloth and in ashes, to prevent
Our fatal Doom, and his just Punishment.
Unless our Princes do without delay,
Teach all the People how to fast and pray,
We may be all together swept away.
But this God's love and anger may divide,
So as to lay his flaming Sword aside;
And with his glorious Shield and Spear to rise,
And free us from our subtilest Foes surprize.
Thus we may convert God's severe Decree
To love (by our profound humility)
And find delicious Joy to fast and pray,
When servent, sacred Zeal bears all the sway.