All to remind you of your Mortal State,
And that my Coming won'd be sure, tho' late.
When you perceiv'd your Eye-balls sink away,
Your Hearing fail, and ev'ry Sense decay;
When you discern'd your Teeth forsake their Place,
Your wrinkl'd Forehead, and your meagre Face;
Then you my Visage, in your own, might see,
Which every Day was representing Me.
When you observ'd your Blood begin to freeze,
Your bowing Body, and your bending Knees;
While scarce your feeble Legs your Weight cou'd bear,
Did not these Symptoms tell you I was near?
And can you yet pretend to be surpriz'd?
Then Die, your Folly shou'd be thus chastis'd.
If 'till to-morrow, I your Life reprieve,
You 'till to-morrow will deferr to Live:
As you have done, still you, from Day to Day,
Repentance and Amendment will delay."
"The Moral.
"Since we must Die, but where, is not declar'd,
We shou'd for Death's Approach be still prepar'd:
Our Life's uncertain: Time shou'd so be pass'd,
As if each Minute was to be our last:
Since on the Way in which our Lives we spend,
Our future Joys, or Miseries, depend;
They best for Heav'ns reserv'd Abodes prepare.
Who Living, keep their Conversation there.
They who in Endless Pleasures wou'd on High
For ever Live, to Sin must daily die.
If our Repentance we procrastinate,
Our good Desires at last, will be too late.
Virtue has got the Start in Life's swift Race,
And, to o'ertake her, we must mend our Pace;
Else, what we shou'd obtain, we ne'r shall find,
While she still keeps before, and we behind."
II.
"The Three Warnings.
"A Tale.
"The tree of deepest root is found
Least willing still to quit the ground;
