The poor man beloved, for virtue approved, right blessed is he,
Where covetous chuff, who never hath enough, accursed shall be.
Who goodness rejecteth, and evil affecteth, shall fall in the pit;
No plenty of pence shall free him from thence; no power nor wit.
Both unrepassable and unsatiable, that gulph will appear;
Embogged he shall be, where nought he shall see, but horror and fear.
Adam unstable, and Eve variable, the very first time,
By falling from God, deserved this rod, O horrible crime!
For had they adhered to God, and him feared, by keeping his reed,
Then death had not come on, the man or the woman, or any their seed.
But when as the man, from God's will began, basely to revolt,
For his grievous sin, death came rushing in, and on him laid holt.
This was the great crime which at the first time, by craft of the devil,
Did bring in the seed of sickness and need, and all other evil:
This was the sin which first did begin our parents to kill,
And heavenly food, prepared for our good, did utterly spill:
Unhappy the fate, which first such a state, such sorrow did bring.
To him that had lost, so much to our cost, our heavenly King,
The credulous Eve, 'twas she that did give the cause of such evil,
Hoping that honour, would come more upon her, deceived by the devil;
Believing of him, did make her to sin, to all our great loss;
For mankind e'er since, received from hence, an horrible cross;
For all the nations, through all generations which after have been,
With grief of their heart have tasted the smart of that primitive sin.