1584.
Therefore to them I leaue you,
Which gladly wil receiue you:
You must go choose some other mate,
According to your own estate.
For I do meane to liue in rest,
Go seek you, and leek you an other guest,
And choose him, and vse him, as you like best.
The ioy of Virginitie: to, The Gods of loue
Iudge and finde, how God doth minde,
to furnish, to furnish
his heauenly throne aboue,
With virgins pure, this am I sure,
without misse, without misse:
with other Saints he doth loue:
It is allowed as you may reade,
And eke auowed by Paul indeede,
Virginitie is accepted,
a thing high in Gods sight:
Though marriage is selected,
a thing to be most right:
yet must I praise Virginitie,
For I would faine a Virgin be.
¶You Virgins pure, your selues assure,
and credite, and credite:
great ioy you shall possesse,
Which I (God knows) cannot disclose,
nor spreade it, nor spreade it,
ne yet by pen expresse.
Nor halfe the ioies that you shall finde,
I can not iudge for you assignde:
When hence your ghost shall yeelded be,
into the throne of blisse:
In chaste and pure Virginitie,
for thought or deed ywisse:
Wher you shal raign, with God on hie
For euermore eternally.
