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Divine Fancies

Digested into Epigrammes, Meditations, and Observations. By Fra: Quarles
  
  
  

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1. To Almighty God .

Lord , Thou requir'st the first of all our Time,
The first of all our Actions, and the prime
Of all our Thoughts; And, Lord, good reason, we,
When Thou giv'st all, should give the first to Thee:
But O, we often rob thee of thy due,
Like Elies Children, whom thy vengeance slue:

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Wee pinch thy Offring to enlarge our Fee;
We keepe the Fat, and carve the Leane to Thee:
We thrust our three-tooth'd Flesh-hook in thy Pot,
That only, what the Flesh-hook taketh not,
We share to thee: Lord, we are still deceiving;
We take the Prime, and feed thee with our leaving:
Our Sluttish Bowles are cream'd with soile & filth,
Our Wheat is full of Chaffe; of Tares, our Tilth:
Lord, what in Flesh and Blood can there be had,
That's worth the having, when the best is bad:
Here's nothing good, vnlesse thou please to make it;
O, then, if ought be worth the taking, take it.