XI. Henry Lok

Who feares not God shall not escape,
His daies as shadows pas;
Though wicked men triumph sometimes,
And iust men waile, alas!

WHEN as contrariwise the wicked one

Shall be dismounted from his seat of trust,

Dismayd and desolate, forlorne, alone,

Pursued by heauen and earth, by iudgment iust,

Of God and man forsaken and contemnd,

As be the innocent before condemnd:

The pompe and glory of his passed pride

Like to a flower shall vanish and decay;

His life like ruines downe shall headlong slide,

His fame like to a shadow vade away.

Because he feared not the God of might,

In iustice shall these woes vpon him light.

And yet in truth it is a wondrous case

To see the iust so many woes sustaine:

Not that I thinke that pitie can haue place

With wicked ones to make them wrong refraine;

But that the God of iustice doth permit

His seruants to be subiect vnto it.

For you shall lightly see the better man

The more afflicted in his worldly state;

The vilest person, worst, that find you can,

Most wealthy and loued most, though worthy hate:

But it is vaine to search God’s mind herein—

Thereof to descant I will not begin.