LET all the listening world attend, And wise instruction hear; Let high and low, and rich and poor With joint consent give ear.
People who all their hope and trust In wealth and riches place, And boast and triumph when they see Their treasure’s great increase . . .
Are yet unable from the grave Their dearest friends to free; Nor can their force of bribes reverse Almighty God’s decree.
Their best endeavours all are vain, Their pride is held too high; No sum can purchase such a grant, That one should never die.
Their fame is vanished soon away No matter once how great, Their memory, and they, with beasts, Shall share a common fate.
For every child of man here born, Unless, by God made wise, Lives as a beast upon the earth And as a beast then dies.
ahum Tate, 1652-1715