Classic Poem

If those ten Regions registred by Fame,
By theyr ten Sibils have the world controld,
Who prophecied of Christ or ere he came,
And of hys blessed birth before fore-told.

That man-god now of whom they dyd divine,
This earth of those sweet Prophets hath bereft,
And since the world to judgement doth declyne,
In steed of ten, one Sibil to us left.

Thys, pure Idea , vertues right Idea ,
Shee of whom Merlin long tyme did fore-tell,
Excelling her of Delphos or Cumaea ,
Whose lyfe doth save a thousand soules from hell:
That life (I meane) which doth Religion teach,
And by example, true repentance preach.