Classic Poem

Wo ldst thou be spurr'd to run the way of truth?
then, see how time doth run with thee away:
Youth comes on Childhood: Man-hood comes on Youth:
on Man-hood, Age ; and Age at Death doth stay:

So, Time ascends and descends with such haste
vpon the Seale of Lifes-gradation ,
That liu'd we but to mend our misses past,
yet death would cease our work ere halfe were done

Time-past , is gone: in it we cannot mend;
Time-future , is vncertaine; then, therein
We are vnsure our ill bents to vnbend;
the Present-time is ours, to cease to sinne:
Yet that Time ceaseth while we thinke thereon;
Then, if we mend not now now, Time is gone