Sin.

Sin leads the way, but as it goes, it feels
The following plague still treading on his heels.

Sin once reached up to God's eternal sphere,
And was committed, not remitted there.

Sin no existence; nature none it hath,
Or good at all, as learned Aquinas saith.

There is no evil that we do commit,
But hath th' extraction of some good from it:
As when we sin, God, the great Chemist, thence
Draws out th' elixir of true penitence.

After true sorrow for our sins, our strife
Must last with Satan to the end of life.

When once the sin has fully acted been,
Then is the horror of the trespass seen.