Tixall Poetry/Life a Preparation for Eternity

by unknown author

Life a Preparation for Eternity.

 

---

 

Time slowly moves to them that be
Busy in infelicity;
Whose every sun dos still beget
An age of woes before it set,
And ere their noone of life is gone,
They thinke the world's Jong course they've run.
Grief is time's multiplying glas,
By which we judge we slowly pas
On to the grave, the place of rest
To the unhappy and opprest.
Here, by tempestuous winds overblown,
And there, by thunder stricken downe;
Here, clouds of rain doe overcast,
And there, the furious lightnings blast.
Now mountain seas do deluge joy,
And there a rock stands to destroy;
On every side there's nothing found
But numerous cares with triumph crown'd,
Which poor man's life doe still invade,
Least we forget for what were made,
And from the love of things possest
End our desires of being more blest.
Wise heaven, who knew our childish will
Did thus provide against the ill;
Ord'ring our course of life to be
A passing change of misery.
Where the strong pain of every sense
(Which various terrors doe commence,)
Our soûles and bodys make agree
To strive for heaven's felicity;
And our weake bark steer to that light
Which dissipates the world's long night,
Whose glorys we can never see
Whilest burden'd with mortality.
Contempt and want, the world's great care,
Are a rich freight to carry there,
If that our will submission bring
And patience in the suffering,
Whose great reward we shall receive
When we this earthly prison leave;
And every atome of our pain
Find an eternity of gain.