If poisonous minerals, and if that
tree
Whose
fruit threw death on else immortal us,
If
lecherous goats, if serpents
envious
Cannot be damn'd, alas, why should I be?
Why should intent or reason, born in me,
Make sins, else equal, in me more
heinous?
And mercy being easy, and glorious
To God, in his
stern wrath why threatens he?
But who am I, that dare dispute with thee,
O God? Oh, of thine only worthy blood
And my tears, make a heavenly
Lethean flood,
And drown in it my sins'
black memory.
That thou remember them, some claim as
debt;
I think it mercy, if thou wilt forget.
- John Donne