A godly Exhortation, necessary for this present time.  

LEt not the dull and sluggish sleep  
close up thy waking eye,  
Until aright with judgement deep,  
thy daily deeds thou try.   

He which one sin in conscience keeps,  
when he to quiet goes,  
More venturous is, than he that sleeps  
with twenty mortal foes.   

Therefore at night call unto mind,  
how thou the day hast spent:  
Praise God, if nought amiss thou find;  
if aught, betime repent.   

And sinc●●hy bed a pattern is  
of death and fatal hearse,  
Toward bed it shall not be amiss,  
Thus to record in verse:   

My bed is like the grave so cold;  
and sleep, which shuts mine eye,  
Resembles death: clothes, which me fold,  
declare the mould so dry.   

The biting Fleas resemble well  
the wrinkling worms to be,  
Which with me in the grave shall dwell,  
where I no light shall see.   

The nightly bell, which I hear toll,  
as I am laid in bed,  
Declares, the bell shall for me knowle  
and ring, when I am dead.   

The rising in the morn likewise,  
when sleepy night is past,  
Puts me in mind, how I shall rise  
to judgement at the last.   

I go to bed as to my grave:  
God knows when I shall wake:  
But (Lord) I trust, thou wilt me save,  
and me to mercy take.   
FINIS.   

Imprinted at London by Simon Stafford, dwelling in Hosier lane, near Smithfield. 1603.