A Collection of Miscellanies Consisting of Poems, Essays, Discourses & Letters, Occasionally Written. By John Norris ... The Second Edition Corrected |
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The Meditation.
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 | A Collection of Miscellanies |  |
The Meditation.
I
It must be done (my Soul) but 'tis a strange,A dismal and Mysterious Change,
When thou shalt leave this Tenement of Clay,
And to an unknown somewhere wing away;
When Time shall be Eternity, and thou
Shalt be thou know'st not what, and live thou know'st not how.
II
Amazing State! no wonder that we dreadTo think of Death, or view the Dead.
Thou'rt all wrapt up in Clouds, as if to thee
Our very Knowledge had Antipathy.
Death could not a more Sad Retinue find,
Sickness and Pain before, and Darkness all behind.
III
Some Courteous Ghost, tell this great Secrecy,What 'tis you are, and we must be.
You warn us of approaching Death, and why
May we not know from you what 'tis to Dye?
But you, having shot the Gulph, delight to see
Succeeding Souls plunge in with like uncertainty.
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IV
When Life's close Knot by Writ from Destiny,Disease shall cut, or Age unty;
When after some Delays, some dying Strife,
The Soul stands shivering on the Ridge of Life;
With what a dreadful Curiosity
Does she launch out into the Sea of vast Eternity!
V
So when the Spacious Globe was delug'd o're,And lower holds could save no more,
On th' utmost Bough th' astonish'd Sinners stood,
And view'd th' advances of th' encroaching Flood.
O'retopp'd at length by th' Element's encrease,
With horrour they resign'd to the untry'd Abyss.
| A Collection of Miscellanies | |