Poem by Thomas Urquhart

Epigrams. The Third Booke. ¹ 33. Why our thoughts, all the while we are in this tran∣sitory world, from the houre of our nativity, to the laying downe of our bodies in the grave, should not at any time exspaciat themselves in the broad way of destruction

SEeing the strait lodging of your mothers wombe,
Brought you to life, from whence you must depart
To the darke entry of a little tombe:
Betwixt your birth, and Buriall let your heart
Tread vertues narrow path: till you contract
To so strict bounds the pleasures of this wide,
Page  54 And spacious world, as that you may draw backe
The reines of covetous desire, hate, lust, and pride;
For by so doing, you will make your death
A blessed passage to eternall breath.

1. Epigrams. The Second Booke. ¹ 42. The deserved mutability in the condition of too ambitious men
2. Epigrams. The Third Booke. ¹ 10. The best wits, once depraved, become the most impious
3. Epigrams. The Third Booke. ¹ 12. An vprightly zealous, and truly devout man is strong enough against all temptations
4. Epigrams. The Second Booke. ¹ 31. As it was a precept of antiquity, to leane more to vertue, then parentage: so is it a tenet of christianity, to repose more trust on the blood of christ, then our owne merits
5. Epigrams. The Third Booke. ¹ 32. That all our life, is but a continuall course, and vicissitude of sinning, and being sorry for sinne

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