Coram Deo
IW

What Vain Desires, and Passions Vain

Isaac Watts· Post-Reformation

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Verse 1

What vain desires, and passions vain,
Attend this mortal clay!
Oft have they pierc’d my soul with pain,
And drawn my heart astray.

Verse 2

How have I wander’d from my God,
And following sin and shame
In this vile world of flesh and blood
Defil’d my nobler frame!

Verse 3

For ever blessed be thy grace
That form’d my soul anew,
And made it of an heaven-born race,
Thy glory to pursue.

Verse 4

My spirit holds perpetual war,
And wrestles and complains;
But views the happy moment near
That shall dissolve its chains.

Verse 5

Cheerful in death I close my eyes,
To part with every lust;
And charge my flesh whene’er it rise
To leave them in the dust.

Verse 6

My purer spirit shall not fear
To put this body on:
Its tempting powers no more are there,
Its lusts and passions gone.

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