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The Impertinence of Earthly Things.

I

What are Possessions, Fame and Pow'r?
What all the Splendor of the Great?
What Gold, which dazled Eyes adore,
And seek with endless Care and Sweat?
464

II

Express their Charms, declare their Use,
That I their Merit may descry;
Tell me what Good they can produce,
Or what important Want supply.

III

If wounded with the Sense of Sin
To them for Pardon I should pray,
Will they restore my Peace within,
And wash my guilty Stains away?

IV

Can they Celestial Life inspire,
Nature with Pow'r Divine renew,
With pure and sacred Passions fire
My Breast, and loose Desire subdue?

V

When Age and Sickness Life invade,
Should I opprest to them complain,
May I depend upon their Aid
To sooth my Grief, and ease my Pain?
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VI

When with the Pangs of Death I strive,
And yield all Comforts here for lost,
Will they support me, will they give
Kind Succour, when I need it most?

VII

When at th' Almighty's awful Bar
To hear my Doom I trembling stand,
Can they incline the Judge to spare,
Or wrest his Vengeance from his Hand?

VIII

Can they protect me from Despair,
From the sad Seats of Death and Hell,
Crown me with Bliss, and place me where
The Just in Joys immortal dwell?

IX

Sinner, thy Idols I despise,
If these Demands they cannot grant,
Why these Delusions should I prize,
That can't relieve my only Want?
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