VERA EFFIGIES JOHANNIS COLLINGS S.T.P. ANNO DOM: 1678. AETATIS. 55.  
Man's but a shadow and a Picture is  
That shadow's shadow yet don●t judge amiss.  
Though here you only on the shadow look What follows read.  
The Substance is i'th' book.    

An ELEGY On his much Honoured and now Lamented Friend, JOHN COLLINGS, D. D. Who Departed this Life the 18th. of January, 1690. in the 67th. Year of his Age.  

IS famous Collings dead? if that I durst,  
(Than cried my Muse) I fain would be the first  
That brings her Mite, to Offer at the Shrine  
Of so renowned a Prophet and Divine.   

Stay forward Muse (quoth I) whither so fast?  
Learn thou to know, thy Place is to come last.  
What is the Reason others are so slow?  
But that too great a Task it is they know  
To Parentate upon so great a Man,  
Unless he had bequeathed them his own Pen,  
Thy worthless Scribble then must not be shown  
In any place, save where he was not known.   

My Muse rejoined, all this I own and more,  
But my Respect turns Reason out of door;  
A Dwarf-like Statue therefore though I raise,  
I'll Consecrate it to this Giant's Praise;  
Stores of Materials, those too of the best,  
I may be furnished with from his own Breast,  
In which a Congress of all Gifts were found,  
Where Learning, Grace and Prudence did abound,  
And who indeed, hath always more than He,  
Been celebrated by us for all Three?   

A Pyle of Volumes too, of choicest kind,  
(Those sacred Relics which he left behind)  
Do constitute a Pillar all alone,  
Of greater firmness than of Brass or Stone,  
Where he stands Portrayed (by himself) to th' Life,  
While Nature, Art and Grace, do seem at strife,  
Which of the Three should claim the greatest share,  
In such a Composition, truly Rare.   

Here than we may Consult Him when we will,  
And please ourselves with his sweet Converse still;  
But him must leave (Blessed Soul) unto that Traffic,  
That purely is Cherubick and Seraphic,  
Who served God in his Generation here,  
And now the Promise doth inherit there;  
Where Saints and Angels Day and Night improve,  
Their glorious time in mutual Joy and Love.  
But when thou wentest to Heaven, O wilt thou tell,  
(If thou didst drop thy Mantle) where it fell?  
Happy those younger Prophets sure must be  
That happen on it for their Legacy.   

But here my Sorrow suffocates my Pen,  
And would do me too, but I think again,  
This Burning Light that in a Cloud is set,  
Most gloriously in due time out will get,  
When those shall shine in Heaven like the Sun,  
Who many Souls to Righteousness do turn.   

Sic, O sic, Juvat Vivere, sic Perire.  
If I might have my longing wish, than I  
Should choose both thus to Live and thus to Die.    

LONDON, Printed for Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and three Crowns, at the lower end of Cheapside. 1601. 186.