AN ELEGY On the Death of the Reverend and Pious Mr. Thomas Wadsworth, Sometime Preacher of the Gospel in Newington-Butts, and late of London, who departed this Life the 29th of October, 1676.
READER, prepare thine eye, for here's a sight
Can nothing less than floods of Tears invite;
Deep Waters come the stillest; and the grief
That's greatest, court the Eyes to give relief.
Come here you Stoicks, let your Marble-eyes
Swell big with grief, and pay their due excise:
For here's a Theam would make him shed good store
Of Tears, that never knew to weep before.
The Reverend Wadsworth lately dead! What Eye
But mourns the loss of so much Piety!
A loss indeed which ought for to produce,
A general grief in Men of any use;
And such a loss, for which who will not spend
A Tear, 's not Learning, nor Religions Friend.
Come all his Reverend Brethren, mourn and weep,
Your Brother Wadsworth now is fallen asleep.
His serious Exhortation to a holy Life, Written not long after his entrance on the ministry.
And you his serious Hearers, now lament,
That Preachers Death, whose life for you was spent.
Esteem it as a priviledg you have,
T' attend his precious Dust unto the Grave!
Then study well (let that be all your strife)
His Exhortation to a holy Life.
Grief must Command your silence; but impart
In silent Tears, the Language of your Heart:
By many Storms and Tempests now at last.
Our Wadsworth on a blessed shore is cast.
His Book Intituled, the Immortality of the Soul.
He's blest indeed unto Eternity,That preacht and liv'd souls Immortality.
And having reach'd that Harbor of delight,
It argues that he steer'd his course aright:
Now no afflicting pains can him come near,
Nor needs he
Of which he had sore Fits.
Stone or Collick for to fear;His heavenly Father who knows times best,
Call'd up his Soul on his own
He dyed on the Lords day.
Day of rest.Lament, O Dead-mans-Place, thy wretched case!
Thy Candlestick's remov'd out of its place:
Heaven has thought fit to give him a remove:
Thy shining light's a fixed Star above.
Thus ere we dry our big-swell'd Eyes for One,
Tidings surprises that anothers gone:
So Reverend Wells, and Pledger's snatcht away;
They followed Janeway, and Vennings day:
Carmichel succeeds them, but not long
Ere that blest Soul was called up among
The uncloath'd Saints to sing the heavenly Song.
And though he had an Elogy, I'le say,
He was a light that burned in his Day.
Methinks I hear them all o're-joyed to see,
Dear Wadsworth added to their Company:
Their company is sweet, Heaven thinks it best
To call such Saints to everlasting rest.
And you Star-gazing Tribe, should you be blest
To find a Star that's brighter than the rest,
'Tis pious Wadsworth's Soul, for all conclude,
He is a Star of the first Magnitude.
EPITAPH.
REader, stand off, and thy due distance keep,
For in this bed a Friend of Christ doth sleep!
His body here's interred, being Dead;
But his blest Soul to Abraham's bosom's fled!
Heaven hath the Jewel, Earth doth keep in trust
For a short time the Reverend Wadsworth's Dust,
Ʋntil the Resurrection of the Just.
‘Secula vix referent quem tulit una dies.’
London, Printed for Dorman Newman at the Kings Arms in the Poultrey, MDCLXXVI.