Certaine Serious Thoughts which at severall times & upon sundry Occasions have stollen themselves into Verse and now into the Publike View from the Author: Together w[i]th a Chronologicall table denoeting the names of such Princes as ruled the neighbor States and were con-temporary to our English Kings, observeing throughout ye number of yeares w[hi]ch every one of them reigned [by Christopher Wyvill] |
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Mors Mea.
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 | Certaine Serious Thoughts |  |
Mors Mea.
My flitting Soule must leave her house of clay,The tim's not more uncertaine then the way
And manner, whether my consumptive breath
Shall leisurely-expiring creep to death,
Or some more furious, hasty sicknesse have
Commission to snatch me to my grave.
Water may cause or th'torrid element,
My dissolution by some accident.
Ten thousand means and more doe this discry,
That young, strong, healthfull, rich, and all may dye,
Though I scape chance, and sickness, yet I must
At length by age subdu'd crumble to dust.
I dare not wish, nor were it fit, to be
A carver for my selfe. my God, to thee
My willing soule resign's her fate, what s'ere
Thou layest on me, give me strength to beare.
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Not suddaine death, nor sence-bereaved end.
And if thou'st honor with white haires my dayes,
O teach me how to spend them to thy praise,
That when I shall forsake the sons of men,
My better part may flye to thee, Amen.
| Certaine Serious Thoughts | |