Classic Poem

Afflections great are of the just,
In time the common fate:
While wicked men that lick the dust,
Enjoy a prosp'rous state.

Robbers and spoilers see their stock
Of worldly wealth endure:
And these who most do God provoke,
On earth live most secure.

Great gifts, on them he disregards,
With lavish hand he throws,
And on them multiply'd rewards,
Unmerited, bestows.

Ask now the beasts, and trial make,
How matters with them go;
Soon will they tell how they partake
The self-same kind of wo.

How bears, wolves, monsters of the wood,
That ravage and destroy,
Inur'd to rapine, spoil, and blood,
Yet peace and pow'r enjoy.

While harmless flocks, on hills that browse,
And useful herds each way,
To men their friends, or beasts their foes,
Are daily made a prey.

Ask of the fowls aloft that flee,
For answer they'll return,
That they, conform to their degree,
The same disaster mourn.

They will assert their vultures rude,
And tyrants live secure;
While doves and birds of mildest brood,
A thousand woes endure.

Then ask the fishes what's their state,
And question how they do:
They'll tell that this unequal fate
Attends the ocean too.

Great whales, sea-tyrants, drunk with blood,
That prosper to their wish,
Devour controlless, in the flood,
Whole shoals of harmless flesh.

This state of things fram'd he, whose pow'r
All beings did produce:
Whose wisdom too, in ord'ring sure,
Hath fixed their end and use.

God's creatures are his own, their lives
He may at pleasure take:
When he resumes but what he gives,
Who can objections make?