Flamma sine Fumo or, poems without fictions. Hereunto are annexed the Causes, Symptoms, or Signes of several Diseases with their Cures, and also the diversity of Urines, with their Causes in Poetical measure. By R. W. [i.e. Rowland Watkyns] |
Solomon's Memento |
Flamma sine Fumo | ||
47
Solomon's Memento
Remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth,
Eccles. 12. 1.
Eccles. 12. 1.
Do not mispend thy golden youth, and bring
The dross of thy old age to serve thy King.
Do not neglect the morning of thy days,
And think the evening fit thy God to praise:
God early must be sought; the longer we
Persist in sin, the stronger sin will be:
From vice to vertue turn, from bad to good;
The deeper still he sinks, who stands in mud.
A nail, the further it is driven in,
The harder is drawn out; and so is sin:
None can foretell how long the fatal glass
Shall run, or else how soon the sand will pass.
Delay no time; that man will shrink and sear,
Who lays the burden on old age to bear:
Because the foolish Virgins came too late,
They heaven lost, for Christ had shut the gate.
Should we be old, are we then sure to store
Our souls with grace, which we refus'd before?
Through mire and dirt, who travels all the day,
Will hardly go by night a cleaner way:
The Tenant which neglects th' appointed day,
Forfeit his lease, and fret his Landlord may.
Flamma sine Fumo | ||