Thy bright example to thy doctrine join,
And by their morals prove their faith divine.
Nor only to thy church confine thy ray,
O'er the glad world thy healing light display;
Fair fun of righteousness! in beauty rise,
And clear the mifts that cloud the heathen skies!
To Judah's remnant, now a scatter'd train,
Thou great Meffiah! fhow thy promis'd reign;
O'er earth as wide, thy faving warmth diffuse,
As fpreads the ambient air, or falling dews,
And hafte the time when, vanquish'd by thy power,
Death fhall expire, and fin defile no more!
Hence diftant far, ye fons of earth profane,
The loose, ambitious, covetous, or vain;
Ye worms of power! ye minion'd flaves of ftate,
The giddy vulgar, and the fordid great!
But come ye purer fouls from dross refin'd,
The blameless heart and uncorrupted mind!
Let your chafte hands the holy altars raise,
Fresh incenfe bring, and light the glowing blaze;
Your grateful voices aid the muse to fing,
The spotlefs juftice of th' almighty king!
As only rectitude divine he knows,
As truth and fanctity his thought compofe;
So these the dictates which th' eternal mind,
To reasonable beings has affign'd;
Thefe has his care on every mind impress'd;
The confcious feals the hand of heaven atteft!
When man perverse, for wrong forsakes the right,
He still attentive keeps the fault in fight;
Demands that strict atonement should be made,
And claims the forfeit on th' offender's head!
But doubt demands" why man difpos'd this way?
"Why left the dangerous choice to go aftray?
"If heaven that made him did the fault foresee,,
"Thence follows, heaven is more to blame than he,"
No:-had to good the heart alone inclin❜d,
What toil, what prize had virtue been affign'd?
From obftacles her nobleft triumphs flow,
Her fpirits languifh, when he finds no foe!
Man might perhaps have been so happy still,
Happy, without the privilege of will,
And just because his hands were tied from ill!
O wonderous scheme to mend th' almighty plan,
By finking all the dignity of man!
Yet turn thine eyes, vain sceptic, own thy pride,
And view thy happiness and choice allied;
See virtue from herself her blifs derive,
A blifs, beyond the power of thrones to give;
See vice of empire and of wealth poffefs'd,
Pine at the heart, and feel herself unblefs'd.
And fay, were yet no farther marks affign'd,
Is man ungrateful? or is heaven unkind?
"Yes, all the woes from heaven permiffive fall,
"The wretch adopts-the wretch improves them all."
From his wild luft, or his oppreffive deed,
Rapes, battles, murders, facrilege proceed;
•His wild ambition thins the peopled earth,
Or from his avarice famine takes her birth;
Had nature given the hero wings to fly,
His pride would lead him to attempt the sky!
To angels make the pigmy's folly known,
And draw ev'n pity from th' eternal throne.
Yet while on earth triumphant vice prevails,
Celestial justice balances her scales;
With eye unbiass'd all the scene surveys,
With hand impartial every crime fhe weighs;
Oft, clofe purfuing at his trembling heels,
The man of blood her awful presence feels;
Oft, from her arm, amidst the blaze of state,
The regal tyrant, with success elate,
Is forc'd to leap the precipice of fate!
Or, if the villain pass unpunish'd here,
'Tis but to make the future ftroke fevere;
For foon or late, eternal juftice pays
Mankind the juft defert of all their ways.
'Tis in that awful all-difclofing day,
When high omniscience shall her books display;
When juftice fhall present her ftrict account,
While conscience shall attest the due amount;
That all who feel, condemn'd, the dreadful rod,
Shall own, that righteous are the ways of God!
Oh then, while penitence can fate disarm,
While lingering juftice yet with-holds its arm,
While heavenly patience grants the precious time,
Let the loft finner recollect his crime !
Immediate to the feat of mercy fly,
Nor wait to-morrow-left to-night he die!
But tremble, all ye fons of blackest birth,
Ye giants that deform the face of earth;
Tremble, ye fons of aggravated guilt,
And, ere too late, let forrow learn to melt;
Remorseless Murder! drop thy hand severe,
And bathe thy bloody weapon with a tear;
Go, Luft impure! converse with friendly light,
And quit the mansions of defiling night;
Drop, dark Hypocrify, thy thin disguise,
Nor think to cheat the notice of the skies!
Unfocial Avarice, thy grasp forego,
And bid the useful treasure learn to flow;
Reftore, Injustice, the defrauded gain!
Oppreffion, bend to ease the captive's chain,
Ere awful juftice ftrike the fatal blow,
And drive you to the realms of night below!
But Doubt refumes, "If justice has decreed
"The punishment proportion'd to the deed;
"Eternal mifery feems too fevere,
"Too dread a weight for wretched man to bear!
"Too harsh!-that endless torments fhould repay
"The crimes of life-the errors of a day!"
In vain our reafon would prefumptuous pry;
God's counfels are beyond conception high:
In vain would thought his meafur'd justice scan;
His ways! how different from the ways of man!
C
Too deep for thee his fecrets are to know,
Enquire not, but more wifely fhun the woe;
Warn'd by his threatenings, to his laws attend,
And learn to make omnipotence thy friend!
Our weaker laws, to gain the purpos'd ends,
Oft pass the bounds the lawgiver intends:
Oft partial power, to serve its own defign,
Warps from the text, exceeding reason's line;
Strikes, biafs'd, at the perfon, not the deed,
And fees the guiltless unprotected bleed!
But God alone, with unimpaffion'd fight,
Surveys the nice barrier of wrong and right;
And while, fubfervient, as his will ordains,
Obedient nature yields the present means;
While neither force nor paffions guide his views,
Ev'n evil works the purpose he pursues !
That bitter fpring, the fource of human pain,
Heal'd by his touch does mineral health contain ;
And dark affliction quits its fearsome shroud
At his command, and brightens into good.
Thus human juftice-(far as man can go)
For private safety strikes the dubious blow;
But rectitude divine, with nobler foul,
Confults each individual in the whole !
Directs the iffues of the mortal ftrife,
And fees creation struggle into life!
And you, ye happier fouls! who in his ways
Obfervant walk, and fing his daily praife!
Ye righteous few! whofe calm unruffled breasts
No fears can darken, and no guilt infefts;
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