But, grave dissemblers! could not understand
That sin let loose speaks punishment at hand.
Ask now of history's authentic page,
And call up evidence from every age;
Display with busy and laborious hand
The blessings of the most indebted land;
What nation will you find whose annals prove
So rich an interest in Almighty love?
Where dwell they now, where dwelt in ancient
day

A people planted, water'd. blest as they?
Let Egypt's plagues and Canaan's woes proclaim
The favors pour'd upon the Jewish name;
Their freedom purchased for them at the cost
Of all their hard oppressors valued most:
Their title to a country not their own
Made sure by prodigies till then unknown;
For them the states they left made waste and void;
For them the states to which they went destroy'd;
A cloud to measure out their march by day,
By night a fire to cheer the gloomy way;
That moving signal summoning, when best,
Their host to move, and, when it stay'd, to rest.
For them the rocks dissolved into a flood,
The dews condensed into angelic food,
Their very garments sacred, old yet new,
And Time forbid to touch them as he flew ;
Streams, swell'd above the bank, enjoin'd to stand
While they pass'd through to their appointed
land;

Their leader arm'd with meekness, zeal, and love,
And graced with clear credentials from above;
Themselves secured beneath the Almighty wing;
Their God their captain,* lawgiver, and king;
Crown'd with a thousand victories, and at last
Lords of the conquer'd soil, there rooted fast,
In peace possessing what they won by war,
Their name far publish'd, and revered as far;
Where will you find a race like theirs, endow'd
With all that man e'er wish'd, or Heaven be-
stow'd?

They, and they only, amongst all mankind, Received the transcript of the Eternal Mind: Were trusted with his own engraven laws, And constituted guardians of his cause; Theirs were the prophets. theirs the priestly call, And theirs by birth the Saviour of us all. In vain the nations that had seen them rise With fierce and envious. yet admiring eyes, Had sought to crush them guarded as they were By power divine and skill that could not err. Had they maintain'd allegiance firm and sure, And kept the faith immaculate and pure, Then the proud eagles of all-conquering Rome Had found one city not to be o'ercome; And the twelve standards of the tribes unfurl'd Had bid defiance to the warring world. But grace abused brings forth the foulest deeds, As richest soil the most luxuriant weeds. Cured of the golden calves, their fathers' sin, They set up self, that idol god within; View'd a Deliverer with disdain and hate, Who left them still a tributary state; Seized fast his hand, held out to set them free From a worse yoke, and nail'd it to the tree: There was the consummation and the crown, The flower of Israel's infamy full blown; Thence date their sad declension, and their fall, Their woes, not yet repeal'd thence date them Thus fell the best instructed in her day. [all. And the most favor'd land, look where we may.

* Vide Josh. v. 14.

Philosophy indeed on Grecian eyes [skies
Had pour'd the day, and clear'd the Roman
In other climes perhaps creative art,

With power surpassing theirs. perform'd her part;
Might give more life to marble, or might fill
The glowing tablets with a juster skill,
Might shine in fable, and grace idle themes
With all the embroidery of poetic dreams;
"Twas theirs alone to dive into the plan
That truth and mercy had reveal'd to man;
And, while the world beside, that plan unknown
Deified useless wood or senseless stone,
They breathed in faith their well-directed prayers,
And the true God. the God of truth, was theirs.

Their glory faded, and their race dispersed, The last of nations now. though once the first, They warn and teach the proudest, would they learn

Keep wisdom, or meet vengeance in your turn:
If we escaped not, if Heaven spared not us,
Peel'd, scatter'd and exterminated thus;
If vice received her retribution due,
When we were visited, what hope for you?
When God arises with an awful frown,
To punish lust, or pluck presumption down,
When gifts perverted or not duly prized,
Pleasure o'ervalued, and his grace despised,
Provoke the vengeance of his righteous hand,
To pour down wrath upon a thankless land
He will be found impartially severe,
Too just to wink. or speak the guilty clear.

Oh Israel, of all nations most undone !
Thy diadem displaced, thy sceptre gone;
Thy temple, once thy glory, fallen and rased,
And thou a worshipper e'en where thou mayst:
Thy services once holy without spot,
Mere shadows now, their ancient pomp forgot
Thy Levites, once a consecrated host,
No longer Levites, and their lineage lost,
And thou thyself o'er every country sown,
With none on earth that thou canst call thine
Cry aloud, thou that sittest in the dust, [own;
Cry to the proud, the cruel, and unjust;
Knock at the gates of nations rouse their fears;
Say wrath is coming. and the storm appears;
But raise the shrillest cry in British ears.

What ails thee, restless as the waves that roar, And fling their foam against thy chalky shore? Mistress, at least while Providence shall please, And trident-bearing queen of the wide seas— Why, having kept good faith, and often shown Friendship and truth to others, find'st thou none Thou that hast set the persecuted free, None interposes now to succor thee. Countries indebted to thy power, that shine With light derived from thee. would smother thine Thy very children watch for thy disgrace, A lawless brood, and curse thee to thy face. Thy rulers load thy credit year by year, With sums Peruvian mines could never clear; As if, like arches built with skilful hand The more 'twere press'd. the firmer it would stand. The cry in all thy ships is still the same, Speed us away to battle and to fame. Thy mariners explore the wild expanse, Impatient to descry the flags of France: But though they fight. as thinc have ever fought Return ashamed without the wreaths they sought Thy senate is a scene of civil jar, Chaos of contrarieties at war; Where sharp and solid. phlegmatic and light Discordant atoms meet, ferment and fight;

Where obstinacy takes his sturdy stand,
To disconcert what policy has plann'd;
Where policy is busied all night long
In setting right what faction has set wrong;
Where flails of oratory thresh the floor, [more.
That yields them chaff and dust, and nothing
Thy rack'd inhabitants repine, complain.
Tax'd till the brow of labor sweats in vain;
War lays a burden on the reeling state,
And peace does nothing to relieve the weight;
Successive loads succeeding broils impose,
And sighing millions prophesy the close.

Is adverse Providence, when ponder'd well,
So dimly writ, or difficult to spell,
Thou canst not read with readiness and ease
Providence adverse in events like these?
Know then that heavenly wisdom on this ball
Creates, gives birth to. guides, consummates all;
That, while laborious and quick-thoughted man
Snuffs up the praise of what he seems to plan,
He first conceives, then perfects his design,
As a mere instrument in hands divine:
Blind to the working of that secret power,
That balances the wings of every hour,
The busy trifler dreams himself alone,
Frames many a purpose, and God works his own.
States thrive or wither, as moons wax and wane.
E'en as his will and his decrees ordain;
While honor, virtue, piety bear sway,
They flourish; and, as these decline, decay:
In just resentment of his injured laws,
He pours contempt on them and on their cause;
Strikes the rough thread of error right athwart
The web of every scheme they have at heart;
Bids rottenness invade and bring to dust
The pillars of support in which they trust,
And do his errand of disgrace and shame
On the chief strength and glory of the frame.
None ever yet impeded what he wrought,
None bars him out from his most secret thought;
Darkness itself before his eye is light,
And hell's close mischief naked in his sight.
Stand now and judge thyself-Hast thou in-
curr'd

His anger who can waste thee with a word,
Who poises and proportions sea and land,
Weighing them in the hollow of his hand,
And in whose awful sight all nations seem
As grasshoppers, as dust, a drop, a dream?
Hast thou (a sacrilege his soul abhors)
Claim'd all the glory of thy prosperous wars?
Proud of thy fleets and armies, stolen the gem
Of his just praise to lavish it on them?
Hast thou not learn'd. what thou art often told,
A truth still sacred, and believed of old,
That no success attends on spears and swords
Unblest, and that the battle is the Lord's?
That courage is his creature; and dismay
The post, that at his bidding speeds away,
Ghastly in feature, and his stammering tongue
With doleful rumor and sad presage hung,
To quell the valor of the stoutest heart,
And teach the combatant a woman's part?
That he bids thousands fly when none pursue,
Save: as he will by many or by few,
And claims forever, as his royal right.
The event and sure decision of the fight?

Hast thou, though suckled at fair freedom's breast,

Exported slavery to the conquer'd East?
Pull'd down the tyrants India served with dread,
And raised thyself a greater, in their stead?

Gone thither, arm'd and hungry, return'd full,
Fed from the richest veins of the Mogul,
A despot big with power, obtain'd by wealth,
And that obtain'd by rapine and by stealth?
With Asiatic vices stored thy mind,

But left their virtues and thine own behind? [fee,
And, having truck'd thy soul, brought home the
To tempt the poor to sell himself to thee?

Hast thou by statute shoved from its design, The Saviour's feast, his own blest bread and wine, And made the symbols of atoning grace An office-key, a picklock to a place, That infidels may prove their title good By an oath dipp'd in sacramental blood? A blot that will be still a blot, in spite Of all that grave apologists may write; And though a bishop toil to cleanse the stain, He wipes and scours the silver cup in vain. And hast thou sworn on every slight pretence, Till perjuries are common as bad pence, While thousands, careless of the damning sin, Kiss the book's outside, who ne'er look within? Hast thou, when Heaven has clothed thee with disgrace,

And, long-provoked, repaid thee to thy face,
(For thou hast known eclipses, and endured
Dimness and anguish, all thy beams obscured.
When sin has shed dishonor on thy brow;
And never of a sabler hue than now,) [sear'd.
Hast thou, with heart perverse and conscience
Despising all rebuke, still persevered,
And having chosen evil, scorn'd the voice
That cried, Repent!-and gloried in thy choice?
Thy fastings, when calamity at last
Suggests the expedient of a yearly fast, [power
What mean they? Canst thou dream there is a
In lighter diet at a later hour,

To charm to sleep the threatening of the skies,
And hide past folly from all-seeing eyes?
The fast that wins deliverance, and suspends
The stroke that a vindictive God intends,
Is to renounce hypocrisy; to draw
Thy life upon the pattern of the law;
To war with pleasure, idolized before;
To vanquish lust, and wear its yoke no more.
All fasting else, whate'er be the pretence,
Is wooing mercy by renew'd offence.

Hast thou within thee sin, that in old time Brought fire from heaven, the sex-abusing crime, Whose horrid perpetration stamps disgrace, Baboons are free from, upon human race? Think on the fruitful and well-water'd spot That fed the flocks and herds of wealthy Lot, Where Paradise seem'd still vouchsafed on earth, Burning and scorch'd into perpetual dearth, Or, in his words who damn'd the base desire, Suffering the vengeance of eternal fire: Then nature, injured, scandalized, defiled, Unveil'd her blushing cheek, looked on, and

smiled;

Beheld with joy the lovely scene defac'd, [waste. And praised the wrath that laid her beauties

Far be the thought from any verse of mine, And farther still the form'd and fix'd design, To thrust the charge of deeds that I detest Against an innocent. unconscious breast; The man that dares traduce, because he can With safety to himself, is not a man: An individual is a sacred mark,

Not to be pierced in play, or in the dark; But public censure speaks a public foe, Unless a zeal for virtue guide the blow

The priestly brotherhood, devout sincere, From mean self-interest, and ambition clear, Their hope in heaven. servility their scorn, Prompt to persuade, expostulate, and warn, Their wisdom pure, and given them from above, Their usefulness ensured by zeal and love. As meek as the man Moses, and withal As bold as in Agrippa's presence Paul, Should fly the world's contaminating touch, Holy and unpolluted :-are thine such? Except a few with Eli's spirit blest, Hophni and Phineas may describe the rest. Where shall a teacher look, in days like these, For ears and hearts that he can hope to please? Look to the poor, the simple and the plain Will hear perhaps thy salutary strain: Humility is gentle, apt to learn, Speak but the word. will listen and return. Alas, not so! the poorest of the flock Are proud, and set their faces as a rock; Denied that earthly opulence they choose, God's better gift they scoff at and refuse. The rich, the produce of a nobler stem, Are more intelligent, at least-try them. Oh vain inquiry! they without remorse Are altogether gone a devious course; Where beckoning pleasure leads them, wildly Have burst the bands, and cast the yoke away.

[stray;

Now borne upon the wings of truth sublime,
Review thy dim original and prime.
This island, spot of unreclaim'd rude earth,
The cradle that received thee at thy birth.
Was rock'd by many a rough Norwegian blast,
And Danish howlings scared thee as they pass'd;
For thou wast born amid the din of arms,
And suck'd a breast that panted with alarms.
While yet thou wast a grovelling, puling chit,
Thy bones not fashion'd, and thy joints not knit,
The Roman taught thy stubborn knee to bow,
Though twice a Cæsar could not bend thee now.
His victory was that of orient light,
When the sun's shafts disperse the gloom of night.
Thy language at this distant moment shows
How much the country to the conqueror owes;
Expressive, energetic, and refined,

It sparkles with the gems he left behind;
He brought thy land a blessing when he came,
He found thee savage, and he left thee tame;
Taught thee to clothe thy pink'd and painted hide,
And grac'd thy figure with a soldier's pride;
He sow'd the seeds of order where he went,
Improv'd thee far beyond his own intent,
And, while he ruled thee by his sword alone,
Made thee at last a warrior like his own.
Rehgion, if in heavenly truths attired,
Needs only to be seen to be admired;
But thine, as dark as witcheries of the night,
Was form'd to harden hearts and shock the sight;
Thy druids struck the well-hung harps they bore
With fingers deeply dyed in human gore;
And while the victim slowly bled to death,
Upon the rolling chords rung out his dying breath.
Who brought the lamp that with awaking
beams
Dispell'd thy gloom and broke away thy dreams,
Tradition. now decrepit and worn out,
Babbler of ancient fables leaves a doubt:
But still light reach'd thee; and those gods of
thine.

Woden and Thor each tottering in his shrine,
Fell broken and defaced at their own door,
As Dagon in Philistia long before.

But Rome with sorceries and magic wand
Soon raised a cloud that darken'd every lana;
And thine was smother'd in the stench and fog
Of Tiber's marshes and the papal bog. [crowns
Then priests with bulls and briefs. and shaver
And griping fists, and unrelenting frowns,
Legates and delegates with powers from hell.
Though heavenly in pretension fleeced thee well;
And to this hour to keep it fresh in mind,
Some twigs of that old scourge are left behind.*
Thy soldiery, the pope's well managed pack.
Were train'd beneath his lash, and knew the
smack,

And, when he laid them on the scent of blood,
Would hunt a Saracen through fire and flood.
Lavish of life, to win an empty tomb,
That proved a mint of wealth, a mine to Rome,
They left their bones beneath unfriendly skies,
His worthless absolution all the prize.
Thou wast the veriest slave in days of yore
That ever dragg'd a chain or tugg'd an oar;
Thy inonarchs arbitrary fierce unjust.
Themselves the slaves of bigotry or lust,
Disdain'd thy counsels, only in distress
Found thee a goodly spunge for power to press
Thy chiefs. the lords of many a petty fee.
Provoked and harass'd, in return plagued thee;
Call'd thee away from peaceable employ,
Domestic happiness and rural joy,
To waste thy life in arms or lay it down
In causeless feuds and bickerings of their own.
Thy parliaments adored on bended knees
The sovereignty they were convened to please;
Whate'er was ask'd too timid to resist
Complied with and were graciously dismiss'd;
And if some Spartan soul a doubt express'd,
And blushing at the tameness of the rest,
Dared to suppose the subject had a choice,
He was a traitor by the general voice.
Oh slave! with powers thou didst not dare exert
Verse cannot stoop so low as thy desert;
It shakes the sides of splenetic disdain,
Thou self-entitled ruler of the main,

To trace thee to the date when yon fair sea, That clips thy shores, had no such charms for

thee;

When other nations flew from coast to coast,
And thou hadst neither fleet nor flag to boast.
Kneel now and lay thy forehead in the dust;
Blush if thou canst; not petrified thou must;
Act but an honest and a faithful part; [art;
Compare what then thou wast with what thou
And God's disposing providence confess'd,
Obduracy itself must yield the rest.—
Then thou art bound to serve him, and to prove,
Hour after hour thy gratitude and love.

Has he not hid thee and thy favor'd land,
For ages, safe beneath his sheltering hand,
Given thee his blessing on the clearest proof.
Bid nations leagued against thee stand aloof,
And charged hostility and hate to roar
Where else they would, but not upon thy shore?
His power secured thee, when presumptuous

Spain Baptized her fleet invincible in vain; Her gloomy monarch. doubtful and resign'd To every pang that racks an anxious mind, Ask'd of the waves that broke upon his coast. What tidings? and the surge replied-All lost! And when the Stuart. leaning on the Scot. Then too much fear'd, and now too much forgot * Which may be found at Doctors' Commons.

What nation amongst all my foes is free
From crimes as base as any charged on me?
Their measure fill'd, they too shall pay the debt,
Which God, though long forborne, will not for-
get.

But know that wrath divine, when most severe,
Makes justice still the guide of his career,
And will not punish, in one mingled crowd,
Them without light, and thee without a cloud.

Muse, hang this harp upon yon aged beech, Still murmuring with the solemn truths I teach; And, while at intervals a cold blast sings Through the dry leaves, and pants upon the strings,

My soul shall sigh in secret, and lament
A nation scourged. yet tardy to repent.
I know the warning song is sung in vain;
That few will hear, and fewer heed the strain;
But if a sweeter voice, and one design'd
A blessing to my country and mankind,
Reclaim the wandering thousands, and bring
home

THE ARGUMENT.

Human Life-The charms of Nature remain the same

though they appear different in youth and age-Frivolity of fashionable life-Value of life-The works of

the Creator evidences of his attributes-Nature the handmaid to the purposes of grace-Character of Hope-Man naturally stubborn and intractable-His conduct in different stations-Death's honors-Each man's belief right in his own eyes-Simile of Ethelred's hospitality-Mankind quarrel with the Giver of eternal life, on account of the terms on which it is of fered-Opinions on this subject-Spread of the Gospel-The Greenland Missions-Contrast of the unconverted and converted heathen-Character of Leuconomus-The man of pleasure the blindest of bigots-Any hope preferred to that required by the Scripture-Human nature opposed to Truth-Apostrophe to Truth Picture of one conscience-smitten-The pardoned sin

ner-Conclusion.

A flock so scatter'd and so wont to roam,
Then place it once again between my knees;
The sound of truth will then be sure to please,
And truth alone, where'er my life be cast,
In scenes of plenty, or the pining waste,
Shall be my chosen theme, my glory to the last.

Ask what is human life-the sage replies,
With disappointment lowering in his eyes,
A painful passage o'er a restless flood,"
A vain pursuit of fugitive false good,
A scene of fancied bliss and heartfelt care,
Closing at last in darkness and despair.
The poor, inured to drudgery and distress,
Act without aim, think little, and feel less,
And nowhere, but in feign'd Arcadian scenes,
Taste happiness, or know what pleasure means.
Riches are pass'd away from hand to hand,
As fortune, vice, or folly may command;
As in a dance the pair that take the lead
Turn downward, and the lowest pair succeed,
So shifting and so various is the plan
By which Heaven rules the mix'd affairs of man;
Vicissitude wheels round the motley crowd,
The rich grow poor, the poor become purse-
proud;

Business is labor, and man's weakness such,
Pleasure is labor too, and tires as much;
The very sense of it foregoes its use,
By repetition pall'd, by age obtuse.
Youth lost in dissipation, we deplore, [store;
Through life's sad remnant, what no sighs re-
Our years, a fruitless race without a prize,
Too many, yet to few to make us wise.

VIRG. Æn. 6.

Dangling his cane about, and taking snuff, Lothario cries, What philosophic stuffO querulous and weak!-whose useless brain Once thought of nothing, and now thinks in vain;

Whose eye reverted weeps o'er all the past, Whose prospect shows thee a disheartening waste;

Would age in thee resign his wint'ry reign,
And youth invigorate that frame again,
Renew'd desire would grace with other speech
Joys always prized, when placed within our reach,

For lift thy palsied head, shake off the gloom
That overhangs the borders of thy tomb,
See nature gay, as when she first began
With smiles alluring her admirer man;
She spreads the morning over eastern hills,
Earth glitters with the drops the night distils;
The sun, obedient, at her call appears
To fling his glories o'er the robe she wears;
Banks clothed with flowers, groves fill'd with
sprightly sounds,
[grounds,
The yellow tilth, green meads, rocks, rising
Streams, edged with osiers, fattening every field
Where'er they flow, now seen and now conceal'd;
From the blue rim, where skies and mountains
Down to the very turf beneath thy feet [neet,
Ten thousand charms, that only fools despise,
Or pride can look at with indifferent eyes,
All speak one language, all with one sweet voice
Cry to her universal realm, Rejoice!
Man feels the spur of passions and desires,
And she gives largely more than he requires;
Not that, his hours devoted all to care,
Hollow-eyed abstinence, and lean despair, [sight
The wretch may pine, while to his smell, taste
She holds a paradise of rich delight;

But gently to rebuke his awkward fear,

To prove that what she gives she gives sincere,
To banish hesitation, and proclaim
His happiness her dear, her only, aim.

'Tis grave philosophy's absurdest dream, [seem That Heaven's intentions are not what they