26 — ¶ A Description of Life and Riches
Chap. 24
1
Who liuing but daily discerne it he may,
how life as a shadow doth vanish away;
And nothing to count on so suer to trust
as suer of death and to turne into dust.E135
2
The lands and the riches that here we possesse
be none of our owne, if a God we professe,
But lent vs of him, as his talent of gold,
which being demanded, who can it withhold?
Atrop, or death.
3
God maketh no writing that iustly doth say
how long we shall haue it, a yeere or a day;
But leaue it we must (how soeuer we leeue)
when AtropE136 shall pluck vs from hence by the sleeue.
4
To death we must stoupe, be we high, be we lowe,
but how and how sodenly, few be that knowe:
What carie we then, but a sheete to the graue,
to couer this carkas, of all that we haue?