May be indiff'rent to her house of clay,

And flight the hovel as beneath her care;
But how a body so fantastic, trim,

And queint in its deportment and attire,
Can lodge an heav'nly mind-demands a doubt.
He that negotiates between God and man,
As God's ambaffador, the grand concerns
Of judgment and of mercy, fhould beware
Of lightness in his speech, 'Tis pitiful
To court a grin, when you fhould woo a foul;
To break a jest, when pity would inspire
Pathetic exhortation; and t' addrefs

The skittish fancy with facetious tales,

When fent with God's commiffion to the heart.
So did not Paul. Direct me to a quip
Or merry turn in all he ever wrote,

And I confent you take it for your text,
Your only one, till fides and benches fail.
No he was serious in a serious cause,

And understood too well the weighty terms
That he had ta'en in charge. He would not stoop
To conquer thofe by jocular exploits,

Whom truth and soberness affail'd in vain.

Oh, popular applause! what heart of man Is proof against thy fweet feducing charms?

The wifeft and the best feel urgent need
Of all their caution in thy gentlest gales;

But fwell'd into a guft-who then, alas!
With all his canvass fet, and inexpert,

And therefore heedlefs, can withstand thy power?
Praise from the rivel'd lips of toothless, bald
Decrepitude; and in the looks of lean
And craving poverty; and in the bow
Respectful of the fmutch'd artificer,

Is oft too welcome, and may much disturb
The bias of the purpofe. How much more
Pour'd forth by beauty splendid and polite,
In language foft as adoration breathes?
Ah fpare your idol! think him human still.
Charms he may have, but he has frailties too,
Doat not too much, nor fpoil what ye admire.

All truth is from the fempiternal source

Of light divine. But Egypt, Greece, and Rome,
Drew from the ftream below. More favor'd, we
Drink, when we chufe it, at the fountain head.
To them it flow'd much mingled and defil'd
With hurtful error, prejudice, and dreams
Hlufive of philofophy, fo call'd,

But falfely. Sages after fages ftrove,
In vain, to filter off a chrystal draught

Pure

Pure from the lees, which often more enhanc'd

The thirst than flak'd it, and not seldom bred
Intoxication and delirium wild.

In vain they push'd enquiry to the birth

And spring-time of the world; afk'd, whence is man?

Why form'd at all? And wherefore as he is?
Where must he find his Maker? With what rites
Adore him? Will he hear, accept, and blefs?

Or does he fit regardless of his works?
Has man within him an immortal feed?

Or does the tomb take all? If he furvive

His afhes, where? and in what weal or woe?
Knots worthy of folution, which alone

A Deity could folve. Their answers vague,
And all at random, fabulous and dark,

Left them as dark themselves. Their rules of life

Defective and unfan&tion'd, prov'd too weak
To bind the roving appetite, and lead
Blind nature to a God not yet reveal'd.
'Tis Revelation fatisfies all doubts,
Explains all mysteries, except her own,
And fo illuminates the path of life,
That fools difcover it, and stray no more:

Now

Now tell me, dignified and fapient fir,
My man of morals, nurtur'd in the shades
Of Academus, is this falfe or true?

Is Chrift the abler teacher, or the fchools?
If Chrift, then why refort at ev'ry turn
To Athens or to Rome, for wisdom short
Of man's occafions, when in him refide
Grace, knowledge, comfort, an unfathom'd store?
How oft, when Paul has ferv'd us with a text,
Has Epictetus, Plato, Tully preach'd!

Men that, if now alive, would fit content
And humble learners of a Saviour's worth,
Preach it who might. Such was their love of truth,
Their thirst of knowledge, and their candour too.

And thus it is. The paftor, either vain
By nature, or by flatt'ry made fo, taught
To gaze at his own fplendor, and t'exalt
Abfurdly, not his office, but himself;
Or unenlighten'd, and too proud to learn,
Or vicious, and not therefore apt to teach,
Perverting often by the ftrefs of lewd
And loofe example, whom he should inftru&t,
Expofes and holds up to broad difgrace
The nobleft function, and difcredits much
The brightest truths that man has ever seen.

For

For ghoftly counsel, if it either fall

Below the exigence, or be not back'd

With fhow of love, at least with hopeful proof
Of fome fincerity on the giver's part ;
Or be dishonor'd in th' exterior form
And mode of its conveyance, by fuch tricks
As move derifion, or by foppish airs
And hiftrionic mumm'ry, that let down
The pulpit to the level of the stage,
Drops from the lips a difregarded thing.

The weak perhaps are moved, but are not taught,
While prejudice in men of stronger minds
Takes deeper root, confirm'd by what they fee..
A relaxation of religion's hold

Upon the roving and untutor❜d heart

Soon follows, and the curb of conscience snapt,
The laity run wild.-But do they now?
Note their extravagance, and be convinc❜d.
As nations, ignorant of God, contrive
A wooden one, so we, no longer taught
By monitors that mother church fupplies,
Now make our own. Pofterity will ask
(If e'er pofterity fee verse of mine)
Some fifty or an hundred luftrums hence,
What was a monitor in George's days?

My