“Here in the presence of my God While yet He spares me from His rod, Of perfect memory and mind And wholly to His will resigned, Not knowing how my lot shall be, Or if my soul may suddenly The summons hear to haste away Unto the realms of deathless day, Ere mortal flesh and spirit faint Or sickness all the senses taint, Before I lose the good intent, I make my will and testament. And first my soul to God I give, In whom all souls and spirits live, That He would set it in the place Prepared of His eternal grace, Though stained with many a spot it be, Nor fit for saints’ society, Until my Saviour wash it white And worthy of its Maker’s sight: Sweet Jesu, may this faith prevail, Nor at the last Thy Presence fail. My body to the fire or earth I give, without remorse or mirth, That without pomp or any pride The trammels may be laid aside That hemmed the soul in, but with meet Solemnity in church and street, Due reverence that moves the heart Of him who sees the dead depart, And tells the living he must come At last himself unto the tomb. And since there have been granted me Some goods of this world’s currency, (An earnest as I hope and trust Of goods that perish not in dust,) And since of higher weight and worth, The first felicity of earth, There has been granted me a wife With ecstasy to crown my life, To calm my spirit in distress And put a term to loneliness, I give, devise, bequeath, dispone, All that I have or call my own, (Though only for the meanwhile lent,) My goods, my stock, my tenement, Unto her use that she may crave No substance when I reach the grave: Though would that it were thrice the more To bless her with an ampler store. Item. The essays of my pen, All thoughts or poems, all that then May perfect or imperfect be, The records and remains of me, I give her to destroy or keep, The chaff to burn, the grain to reap, I give her all sweet thoughts that passed Betwixt us from first days to last, All words of soft and tender guise, All tears and smiles of heart or eyes, To brood on and to dream upon When I the unknown way am gone. Item. I give, all else above, My fervent and unchanging love To have and hold without restraint To her own use, not far and faint, But near and burning, not removed With the dear presence that she loved. Therefore her spirit I entrust To God’s tuition, till the dust And scales of earth fall from her eyes, And she awake in Paradise. Lastly, revoking every will, Without a wish or thought of ill, Praying for pardon from the great, Nor less from those of less estate, For word or deed, that I may be