Grocott & Ward, comps. Grocott’s Familiar Quotations, 6th ed. 189-?.
Predestination
Predestination! oh how distant lies
Thy root from those who do not wholly view
The Primal Cause unfolded to their eyes!
And you, ye mortals, be your judgments slow,
For we, by whom the Godhead is descried,
Not yet the number of the elect do know:
And sweet it is in ignorance to be,
Because our bliss is doubly sanctified,
In that the will of God, and our’s agree.
Dante.—Paradise, Canto XX. Line 130. (Wright.)
We grant, ’tis true, that Heaven from human sense
Has hid the secret paths of Providence:
But boundless wisdom, boundless mercy may
Find even for those bewilder’d souls a way.
Dryden.—Religio Laici, Line 186.