Page images
PDF
EPUB

Or make the parrot's mimickry his choice,

That odious libel on an human voice?
No-nature unfophifticate by man,
Starts not aside from her Creator's plan,
The melody that was at firft defign'd
To cheer the rude forefathers of mankind,
Is note for note deliver'd in our ears,
In the last scene of her fix thousand years:
Yet Fashion, leader of a chatt'ring train,
Whom man for his own hurt permits to reign,
Who fhifts and changes all things but his shape,
And would degrade her yot'ry to an ape,
The fruitful parent of abuse and wrong,
Holds an ufurp'd dominion o'er his tongue :
There fits and prompts him with his own disgrace,
Prescribes the theme, the tone and the grimace,
And when accomplished in her wayward school,
Calls gentleman whom she has made a fool.

'Tis an unalterable fixt decree

That none could frame or ratify but she,

That

That heav'n and hell and righteousness and fin,
Snares in his path and foes that lurk within,

God and his attributes (a field of day
Where 'tis an angel's happinefs to ftray)
Fruits of his love and wonders of his might,
Be never named in ears efteemed polite.

That he who dares, when fhe forbids, be grave,
Shall ftand profcribed, a madman or a knave,
A close defigner not to be believed,

Or if excus'd that charge, at least deceived,
Oh folly worthy of the nurfe's lap,

Give it the breaft or ftop its mouth with !

Is it incredible, or can it seem

A dream to any except thofe that dream,

pap

That man should love his Maker, and that fire Warming his heart fhould at his lips tranfpire? Know then, and mcdeftly let fall your eyes, And vail 'your daring crest that braves the skies, That air of infolence affronts your God,

You need his pardon, and provoke his rod,

Now,

Now, in a pofture that becomes you more
Than that heroic ftrut affumed before,

Know, your arrears with ev'ry hour accrue,
For mercy fhown while wrath is juftly due.
The time is fhort, and there are fouls on earth,
Though future pain may serve for prefent mirth,
Acquainted with the woes that fear or shame
By fashion taught, forbade them once to name,
And having felt the pangs you deem a jest,
Have prov'd them truths too big to be exprefs'd:
Go feek on revelation's hallow'd ground,

Sure to fucceed, they remedy they found,

Touch'd by that pow'r that you have dar'd to mock,
That makes feas ftable and diffolves the rock,
Your heart fhall yield a life-renewing stream,
That fools, as you have done, fhall call a dream.
It happened on a folemn even-tide,

Soon after He that was our furety died,
Two bofom friends each penfively inclined,
The scene of all thofe forrows left behind,

Sought

Sought their own village, bufied as they went
In mufings worthy of the great event :
They spake of him they loved, of him whofe life
Though blameless, had incurred perpetual strife,
Whofe deeds had left, in fpite of hostile arts,
A deep memorial graven on their hearts;
The recollection like a vein of ore,

The farther traced enrich'd them ftill the more,
They thought him, and they justly thought him one
Sent to do more than he appear'd to have done,
T'exalt a people, and to place them high
Above all else, and wonder'd he fhould die.
E're yet they brought their journey to an end,
A stranger joined them, courteous as a friend,
And asked them with a kind engaging air,
What their affliction was, and begged a fhare.
Informed, he gather'd up the broken thread,
And truth and wifdom gracing all he faid,
Explained, illuftrated and fearched fo well
The tender theme on which they chose to dwell,

That

That reaching home, the night, they said, is near,
We must not now be parted, fojourn here-
The new acquaintance foon became a guest,
And made fo welcome at their fimple feast,
He bleffed the bread, but vanish'd at the word,
And left them both exclaiming, 'twas the Lord!
Did not our hearts feel all he deign'd to say,
Did they not burn within us by the way?

Now theirs was converfe fuch as it behoves

Man to maintain, and fuch as God approves ;
Their views indeed were indiftinct and dim,
But yet fuccessful being aimed at him.
Chrift and his character their only scope,
Their object and their subject and their hope,
They felt what it became them much to feel,
And wanting him to loose the facred seal,
Found him as prompt as their defire was true,
To spread the new-born glories in their view.
Well-what are ages and the lapse of time
Matched against truths as lafting as fublime?

Can

« PreviousContinue »