Afflictions they most profitable are To the beholder and the sufferer: Bettering them both, but by a double strain, The first by patience, and the last by pain.
God strikes His Church, but 'tis to this intent, To make, not mar her, by this punishment; So where He gives the bitter pills, be sure 'Tis not to poison, but to make thee pure.
Here I myself might likewise die, And utterly forgotten lie, But that eternal poetry Repullulation gives me here Unto the thirtieth thousand year, When all now dead shall reappear.