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ON

DEATH,

A

RESURRECTION FROM THE DEAD,

A FUTURE JUDGMENT,

AND AN ETERNAL WORLD TO COME.

THE following verses, having been originally printed with the first of the following Sermons, ought not now to be separated from it. When the goodnatured reader is acquainted that they are a collection of the tears of a few young gentlemen, who were fellow students of the deceased, the author knows that he may depend on that candour in favour of them, which he can only hope for, in favour of himself.

The truly promising youth, who is the subject of them, died at Philadelphia, August 28th, 1754, being a student in the senior Philosophy Class of the College there. He was the second son of the Hon. JOSIAH MARTIN, Esq. of Antigua, and cousin to SAMUEL MARTIN, Esq. member of Parliament for Camelford, Treasurer to the Princess Dowager of Wales, and Secretary of the Treasury, to whom the Sermon was most respectfully and gratefully inscribed.

TO THE AUTHOR,

ON HEARING HIS SERMON, UPON THE DEATH OF HIS HOPEFUL PUPIL, OUR DEAR FELLOW STUDENT, MR. WILLIAM THOMAS MARTIN.

I CALL no aid, no muses to inspire,
Or teach my breast to feel a poet's fire;
Your soft expression of a grief sincere,
Brings from my soul a sympathetic tear.
Taught by your voice, my artless sorrows flow
I sigh in verse, am eloquent in woe,
And loftier thoughts within my bosom glow.

VOL I.

}

2

For when, in all the charms of language drest,
A manly grief flows, genuine, from the breast,
What gen'rous nature can escape the wounds,
Or steel itself against the force of melting sounds?
O! could I boast to move with equal art
The human soul, or melt the stony heart;

My long-lov'd friend should through my numbers shine,
Some virtue lost be wept in every line;

For virtues he had many....'Twas confest

That native sense and sweetness fill'd his breast.

But cooler reason checks the bold intent,
And, to the task refusing her consent,
This only truth permits me to disclose,
That in your own, you represent my woes;

And sweeter than my song, is your harmonious prose!

College of Philadelphia, September 5, 1754.

}

F. HOPKINSON.

ON THE SAME, BY A FELLOW STUDENT.

AND is your MARTIN gone? Is he no more,
That living truth, that virtue seen before?
Has endless night already hid the ray,
The early promise of his glorious day?
That grief, great Mourner! in such strains exprest,
Shews he was deep implanted in your breast.

Yet hark! soft-whispering reason seems to say,
Cease from your sorrows, wipe these tears away.
He's gone, he's past the gloomy shades of night,
Safe landed in th' eternal realms of light.
Happy exchange! to part with all below,
For worlds of bliss, where joys unfading flow,
And sainted souls with love and rapture glow.

College of Philadelphia, September 6, 1754.

S. MAGAW.

ON THE SAME, BY A FELLOW STUDENT.

WHILE for a pupil lost, your sorrow flows,
In all the harmony of finish'd prose;
While melting crouds the pious accents hear,
Sigh to your sighs, and give you tear for tear;

3

We too, in humble verse, would treat the theme,
And join our griefs to swell the general stream.
For we remember well his matchless power,
To steal upon the heart, and cheer the social hour.
Ah! much lov'd friend! too soon thy beauties fade!
Too soon we count thee with the silent dead!
Thou, late the fairest plant in virtue's plain,
The brightest youth in wisdom's rising train;
By genius great, by liberal arts adorn'd,

By strangers seen and lov'd, by strangers mourn'd;
Blest in a tender brother's friendly breast;
And in paternal fondness doubly blest!

Art thou now sunk in death's tremendous gloom,
Wrapt in the awful horrors of a tomb?

Ah me! how vain all sublunary joy!

Woes following woes, our warmest hopes destroy!

But hark!....some voice celestial strikes mine ear, And bids the muse her plaintive strains forbear. "Weep not, fond youths,....it cries, or seems to cry.... "He lives, your MARTIN lives, and treads the sky; "From care, from toil, from sickness snatch'd away, "He shines amid the blaze of heaven's eternal day.

J. DUCHE.

College of Philadelphia, September 7, 1754.

ON THE SAME.

CHECK, mournful preacher! check thy streaming woe, Pierce not our souls with grief too great to know;

He joys above whom we lament below.

Snatch'd from our follies here, he wing'd his way,
To sing HOSANNAS in the realms of day.
With him, the fight of life and death is o'er,
And agonizing throes shall pain no more;
No more shall fell disease, with wasteful rage,
Blast the fair blossoms of his tender age;
Transplanted now, he blooms a heav'nly flow'r,
Where spring eternal decks yon Amaranthine bower.
Thy pious sorrows, SMITH, to future days,
Shall bear his image, and transmit his praise.
Still, still I feel what thy Discourse imprest,
When pity throb'd, congenial, in each breast:
When deep distress came thrilling from thy tongue,
And sympathizing crouds attentive hung.

To mourn for thy lov'd Pupil all approv'd;
On such a theme 'twas virtue to be mov'd.
Whoe'er these tender pages shall explore,
Must learn those griefs the Pulpit taught before.

College of Philadelphia, September 7, 1754.

T. BARTON.

ON THE SAME.

O DEATH! could manly courage quell thy power,
Or rosy health protract the fatal hour;

Could tears prevail, or healing arts withstand
Th' unsparing ravage of thy wasteful hand;
Then MARTIN still had liv'd a father's boast,
Nor had a mother's fondest hopes been lost;
Then, SMITH, thy darling youth, thy justest pride,
With virtue's first examples long had vy'd.

But he is blest where joys immortal flow;
Cease tears to stream, be dumb the voice of woe.
Releas'd from vice, in early bloom set free
From the dire rocks of this tempestuous sea,
The youthful saint, in heav'n's ambrosial vales,
With glory crown'd, etherial life inhales.
No more let grief repine, or wish his stay,
In this dark gloom, this twilight of our day.
Rather we'll hail him fled from night's domain,
Array'd in light to tread the azure plain.
There science dwells;....before the mental eye
Nature's stupendous works unfolded lie;
There wisdom, goodness, power diffusive shine,
And fire the glowing breast with love divine.

College of Philadelphia, September 7, 1754.

P. JACKSON.

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