And emphasis in score, and gives to pray'r
Th'adagio and andante it demands.
He grinds divinity of other days
Down into modern use; transforms old print
To zig-zag manuscript, and cheats the eyes
Of gall’ry critics by a thousand arts.-
Are there who purchase of the Doctor's ware?
Oh name it not in Gath!--it cannot be,
That grave and learned Clerks should need such aid,
He doubtless is in sport, and does but droll,
Assuming thus a rank unknown before, ,
Grand caterer and dry-nurse of the church,
I venerate the man, whose heart is warm, Whose hands are pure, whose doctrine and whose life Coincident, exhibit lucid proof That he is honest in the facred cause. To such I render more than mere respect, Whose actions say that they respect themselves. But loose in morals, and in manners vain,
In conversation frivolous, in dress
Extreme, at once rapacious and profuse,
Frequent in park, with lady at his side,
Ambling and prattling scandal as he goes,
But rare at home, and never at his books
Or with his pen, save when he scrawls a card ;
Constant at routs, familiar with a round
Of ladyships, a stranger to the poor ;
Ambitious of preferment for its gold,
And well prepared by ignorance and Noth,
By.infidelity and love o' th’ world
To make God's work a finecure ; a Nave
To his own pleasures and his patron's pride.--
From such apostles, Oh
ye
mitred heads Preserve the church! and lay not careless hands On sculls that cannot teach, and will not learn.
Would I describe a preacher, such as Paul Were he on earth, would hear, approve, and own, Paul should himself direct me, I would trace
F
His master-strokes, and draw from his design.
I would express him simple, grave, sincere;
In doctrine uncorrupt; in language plain ;
And plain in manner. Decent, folemn, chaste,
And natural in gesture. Much impress’d
Himself, as conscious of his awful charge,
And anxious mainly that the flock he feeds
May feel it too. Affectionate in look,
And tender in address, as well becomes
A messenger of grace to guilty men.
Behold the picture !- Is it like!-Like whom?
The things that mount the rostrum with a skip
And then skip down again. Pronounce a text,
Cry, hem; and reading what they never wrote
Just fifteen minutes, huddle up their work,
And with a well-bred whisper close the scene,
In man or woman, but far most in man,
And most of all in man that ministers
And serves the altar, in my soul I loath
All affectation. 'Tis my perfect scorn ;
Object of my implacable disgust.
What !-will a man play tricks, will he indulge...
A filly fond conceit of his fair form
And just proportion, fashionable mien
And
pretty face in presence of his God?
Or will he feek to dazzle me with tropes,
As with the di'mond on his lily hand,
And play his brilliant parts before my eyes
When I am hungry for the bread of life?
He mocks his Maker, prostitutes and shames
His noble office, and instead of truth
Displaying his own beauty, ftarves his flock.
Therefore ayaunt ! all attitude and stare
And start theatric, practised at the glass.
I seek divine fimplicity in him
Who handles things divine ; and all beside,
Though learn’d with labor, and though much admir'd
By curious eyes and judgments ill-inform’d,
To me is odious as the nasal twang
At conventicle heard, where worthy men
Mised by custom, strain celestial themes
Through the prest nostril, spectacle-bestrid.
Some, decent in demeanor while they preach,
That task perform’d, relapse into themselves,
And having spoken wisely, at the close
Grow wanton, and give proof to ev'ry eye-
Whoe'er was, edified, themselves were not.
Forth comes the pocket mirror. First we stroke
An eye-brow; next, compose a straggling lock;
Then with an air, most gracefully perform’d,
Fall back into our feat; extend an arm
And lay it at its ease with gentle care,
With handkerchief in hand, depending low.
The better hand more busy, gives the nose
Its bergamot, or aids th' indebted eye
With op'ra glafs to watch the moving scene,
And recognize the flow-retiring fair.
Now this is fulsome ; and offends me more
Than in a churchman Novenly neglect
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