A Friends Advice. In an excellent Ditty, concering the variable changes in this World.

To a pleasant new Tune.
[figure]
WHat if a day or a moneth or a yeare,
crown thy delights,
With a thousand wisht contentings?
Cannot the chance of a night or an hour
crosse thy delights,
with as many sad tormentings?
Fortunes in their fairest birth,
are but blossoms dying,
Wanton pleasures doting mirth,
are but shadowes flying:
All our joyes are but toyes,
idle thoughts deceiving,
None hath power of an hour,
in our lives be reading.
What if a smile, or a beck, or a look,
Féed thy fond thoughts
with many a swéet conceiving?
May not that smile, or that beck, or that look
tell thée as wel
they are but vain deceiving?
Why should beauty be so proud,
in things of no surmounting?
All her wealth is but a shroud,
of a rich accounting:
Then in this repose no blisse,
which is so vain and idle:
Beauties flowers have their hours,
time doth hold the bridle.
What if the world with allures of her wealth
Raise thy degrée
to a place of high advancing?
May not the world by a check of that wealth,
put thée again
to a low despiced chancing?
Whilst the sunne of wealth doth shine,
thou shalt have friends plenty,
But come want, then they repine,
not one abides of twenty,
Wealth and Friends holds and ends,
all your fortunes rise and fall,
Vp and down rise and frown,
certain is no state at all.
What if a grief, or a strain, or a fit,
Pinch thée with pain,
or the feeling pangs of sicknesse?
Doth not that gripe or that strein or that fit,
Shew thee the form
of thy own true perfect likeness?
Health is but a glimpse of joy
subject to all changes,
Mirth is but a silly toy,
which mishap estranges,
Tel me then, silly man,
why art thou so weak of wit,
As to be in jeoperdy,
when thou maist in quiet sit?
Then if all this have declar'd thine amisse
take it from me
as a gentle friendly warning;
If thou refuse, and good councel abuse,
Thou maist hereafter
dearly buy thy learning:
All is hazard that we have,
there is nothing biding,
Dayes of pleasure are like streames,
through fair Meddowe [...] bliding
Wealth or woe, time doth go,
there is no returning▪
Secret fates guid our [...]tates,
both in mirth and m [...]urning.

The second Part, to the same Tune

[figure]
MAns but a blast, or a smoak, or a cloud,
That in a thought
or a moment is dispersed:
Lifes but a span, or a tale, or a word
that in a trice,
on sudden is rehearsed:
Hopes are chang'd▪ and thoughts are crost,
Will nor skill prevaileth
Though we laugh and live at ease,
change of thoughts assayleth,
Though a while fortune smile,
and her comforts frowneth,
Yet at length failes her strength,
and in fine she frowneth.
Thus are the joyes of a year in an hour,
and of a moneth,
in a moment quite expired,
But in the night with the word of a noise,
crost by the day,
of an ease our hearts desired:
Fairest blossoms soonest fade,
withered foul and rotten,
And through griefe our greatest joyes
quickly are forgotten:
Séeke not then (mortall men)
earthly fléeting pleasure,
But with pain strive to gaine
heavenly lasting treasure.
Earth to the world, as a man to the earth,
hath but a point,
and a point is so [...] defaced:
Flesh to the soul as a flower to the Sun,
that in a storme
or a tempest is disgraced:
Fortune may the body please,
which is onely carnall▪
But it wil the [...]oul disease,
that is still immortal,
Earthly joyes are but toyes,
to the soules election,
Worldly grace doth deface,
mans divine perfection.
Fleshly delight to the earth that is flesheth▪
may be the cause,
of a thousand swéet contentings;
But the defaults of a fleshly desire,
brings to the soul
many thousand sad tormentings:
Be not proud presumptuous man,
sith thou art a point so base,
Of the least and lowest Element:
which hath least and lowest place:
Marke thy fate and thy state,
which is onely earth and dust▪
And as grasse, which alas
shortly surely perish must.
Let not the hopes of an earthly desire,
bar thée the joyes
of an earnest contentation,
Nor let thy eye on the world be so sixt,
to hinder thy heart
from unfained recantation:
Be not backward in that course,
that may bring thy soul delight,
Though another way may seem
far more pleasant to thy sight;
Do not go, if he sayes no,
That knowes the secrets of thy mind,
Follow this thou shalt not misse
an endlesse happiness to find.
FINIS.

London printed by I. B. for Frrncis Coles.

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