The Holdfast


I THREATNED to observe the strict decree
        Of my deare God with all my power and might:
        But I was told by one, it could not be;
Yet I might trust in God to be my light.
 
Then will I trust, said I, in him alone.
        Nay, even to trust in him, was also his:
        We must confesse, that nothing is our own.
Then I confesse that he my succour is:
 
But to have nought is ours, not to confesse
        That we have nought. I stood amazed at this,
        Much troubled, till I heard a friend expresse,
That all things were more ours by being his.
        What Adam had, and forfeited for all,
Christ keepeth now, who cannot fail or fall.