A short Meditation of the breuitie of life; with an Incitation to make good vse of the present time

WOldst thou be spurr'd to run the way of truth?
then, see how time doth run with thee away:
Youth comes on Childhood; Man-hood comes on Youth:
on Man-hood, Ages; and Age at Death doth stay:

So, Time ascends and descends with such haste
vpon the Scale of Lifes-gradation,
That liu'd we but to mend our misses past,
yet death would cease our work ere halfe were done.
Time-past, is gone; in it we cannot mend;
Time-future, is vncertaine; then, therein
We are vnsure our ill bents to vnbend;
the Present-time is ours, to cease to sinne:
Yet that Time ceaseth while we thinke thereon;
Then, if we mend not now, now, Time is gone.