And ruftic coarfenefs would. An heav'nly mind

May be indiff'rent to her house of clay,

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

And queint in its deportment and attire,
Can lodge an heavenly mind-demands a doubt.

He that negotiates between God and man, As God's ambaffador, the grand concerns Of judgment and of mercy, should beware Of lightnefs in his fpeech. 'Tis pitiful To court a grin, when you should woo a foul; To break a jeft, when pity would infpire Pathetic exhortation; and t' addrefs

The fkittish 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 ferious in a ferious cause,

And understood too well the weighty terms

That he had ta'en in charge. He would not stoop To conquer those by jocular exploits,

Whom truth and fobernefs affail'd in vain.

Oh, popular applaufe! 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 swell'd into a gust—who then, alas!
With all his canvass fet, and inexpert

And therefore heedless, 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
Refpectful of the fmutch'd artificer

Is oft too welcome, and may much disturb
The bias of the purpose. How much more
Pour'd forth by beauty fplendid and polite,

In language foft as adoration breathes?
Ah spare your idol! think him human still,
Charms he may have, but he has frailties too,
ye
Doat not too much, nor spoil what 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 defiled
With hurtful error, prejudice, and dreams
Illufive of philofophy, fo call'd,

But falfely. Sages after fages ftrove

In vain, to filter off a chrystal draught

`Pure from the lees, which often more enhanced The thirft than flaked it, and not feldom bred Intoxication and delirium wild.

In vain they push'd enquiry to the birth

And fpring-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 bless?

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 unfanction'd, proved 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 myfteries, except her own,
And fo illuminates the path of life,
That fools difcover it, and ftray no more,
Now tell me, dignified and fapient fir,
My man of morals, nurtur'd in the fhades

of

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 ftore?
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 flattery 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