To the Same (Mrs. S.), The Reasons

Is it because he died, or that his yeares
Not many were, that causeth all these teares?
If for the first, you should have alwayes wept,
Even in his life from first acquaintance kept
Sorrow awake, for that you know his Fate
Prefixed had a necessary date;
How unadvisedly do you lament
Because things mortall are not permanent?
Or is 't because he ere his aged Snow,
Or Autume came, was ravishd from the bough?
Ask but the sacred Oracle, you there
Shall find, untimely deaths no windfall are.
The grand example, Miracle of good,
(In vertue onely old) slain in the bud
Newly disclosing man. It were a shame
To wish then that of his, a longer flame.
Who would not dy before subdued by age?
That Conquest oft Fortune pursues with rage;
Or sin in that advantage wounds him worse:
To wish him long life then, had been a curse.