FIRST Worship God;-he that forgets to pray
Bids not himself good-morrow, nor good-day:
Let thy first labour be to purge thy sin,
And serve him first, whence all things did begin.
Honour thy parents to prolong thine end;
With them, though for a truth, do not contend;
Whoever makes his father's heart to bleed
Shall have a child that will avenge the deed.
Think that is just; 'tis not enough to do,
Unless thy very thoughts are upright too.
Defend the truth; for that, who will not die,
A coward is, and gives himself the lie.
Honour the king, as sons their parents do,
For he's thy father, and thy country's too.
Take well whate'er shall chance, though bad it be Take it for good, and 'twill be good to thee.
Swear not; an oath is like a dangerous dart Which, shot, rebounds to strike the shooter's heart.
Fly drunkenness, whose vile incontinence
Takes both away thy reason and thy sense,
Till with Circæan cups thy mind possest
Leaves to be man, and wholly turns to beast:
Think, while thou swallowest the capacious
Thou let' st in seas, to wreck and drown thy soul; That hell is open, to remembrance call,
And think how subject drunkards are to fall.
To doubtful matters do not headlong run,
What's well left off were better not begun.
First think; and if thy thoughts approve thy will, Then speak, and, after, that thou speak'st fulfil.
So live with men, as if God's curious eye
Did everywhere into thine actions pry;
For never yet was sin so void of sense,
So fully faced with brazen impudence,
As that it durst, before men's eyes, commit
Their brutal lusts, lest they should witness it;
How dare they then offend, when God shall see,
That must alone both judge and jury be?
Take thou no care how to defer thy death,
And give more respite to this mortal breath. Would'st thou live long? The only means are these,
'Bove Galen's diet or Hippocrates':
Strive to live well; tread in the upright ways,
And rather count thy actions than thy days;
Then thou hast liv'd enough amongst us here,
For every day well spent I count a year.
Live well, and then how soon soe'er thou die
Thou art of age to claim eternity.
But he that outlives Nestor, and appears
To have pass'd the date of gray Methusalem's years.
If he his life to sloth and sin doth give,
I say he only was, he did not live.
AN EPITAPH UPON MISTRESS I. T.
READER, if thou hast a tear,
Thou canst not choose but pay it here.
Here lies modesty, meekness, zeal,
Goodness, piety; and, to tell
Her worth at once, one that had shown
All virtues that her sex could own.
Nor dare my praise too lavish be,
Lest her dust blush, for so would she.
Hast thou beheld in the spring's bowers
Tender buds break to bring forth flowers?
So to keep virtue's stock, pale death
Took her to give her infant breath.
Thus her accounts were all made even,
She robb'd not earth to add to heaven.
WHEN age hath made me what I am not now,
And every wrinkle tells me where the plough
Of time hath furrowed; when an ice shall flow
Through every vein, and all my head be snow;
When death displays his coldness in my cheek,
And I myself in my own picture seek,
Not finding what I am, but what I was,
In doubt which to believe, this, or my glass:
Yet though I alter, this remains the same
As it was drawn, retains the primitive frame,
And first complexion; here will still be seen
Blood on the cheek, and down upon the chin;
Here the smooth brow will stay, the lively eye,
The ruddy lip, and hair of youthful dye.
Behold what frailty we in man may see,
Whose shadow is less given to change than he.
OCCASIONED BY TWO DOCTORS DISPUTING UPON
PREDESTINATION.
Ho, jolly Thirsis, whither in such haste?
Is't for a wager that you run so fast?
Or past your hour below yon hawthorn tree
Does longing Galatea look for thee?
No, Corydon, I heard young Daphnis say,
Alexis challeng'd Tityrus to-day,
Who best shall sing of shepherds' art and praise:
But, hark, I hear them: listen to their lays.
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