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, ev'n 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 amaz'd 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.