272        [from Divine Fancies]

                                On the contingencie of Actions

I saw him dead; I saw his Body fall

Before Deaths Dart; whom tears must not recall:

Yet is he not so dead, but that his Day

Might have been lengthen’d, had th’untrodden way

5       To life beene found: He might have rose agin,

If something had, or somthing had not bin:

What mine sees past, Heav’ns eye foresaw to come;

He saw, how that contingent Act should summe

The totall of his Dayes: His knowing Eye

10     (As mine doth see him dead) saw he should die

That very fatall howre; yet saw his death,

Not so so necessary, but his Breath

Might beene enlarg’d unto a longer date,

Had he neglected This, or taken That:

15     All times to Heav’n are now, both first and last;

He sees things present, as we see them past.