In juft refentment of his injur'd laws,
He pours contempt on them and on their cause,
Strikes the rough thread of error right athwart
The web of ev'ry scheme they have at heart,
Bids rottennefs invade and bring to dust
The pillars of fupport in which they truft,
And do his errand of disgrace and shame
On the chief ftrength and glory of the frame,,
None ever yet impeded what he wrought,
None bars him out from his moft fecret thought;
Darkness felf before his eye is light,
And Hell's clofe mifchief naked in his fight.
Stand now and judge thyself-haft thou incurr'd who can waste thee with a word,
Who poifes and proportions fea and land,
Weighing them in the hollow of his hand,
And in whofe awful fight all nations seem
As grafshoppers, as dust, a drop, a dream?
Haft thou (a facrilege his foul abhors)
Claim'd all the glory of thy profp'rous wars,
Proud of thy fleets and armies, ftol'n the gem
Of his just praise to lavish it on them?
Haft thou not learn'd what thou art often told,
A truth still sacred, and believ'd of old,
That no fuccefs 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,
Ghaftly in feature, and his ftamm'ring tongue
With doleful rumor and fad prefage 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,
Saves as he will by many or by few,
And claims for ever as his royal right
Th' event and fure decision of the fight.
Haft thou, though fuckl'd at fair freedom's breast,
Exported flav'ry to the conquer'd East,
Pull'd down the tyrants India ferv'd with dread,
And rais'd thyfelf, a greater, in their stead,
Gone thither arm'd and hungry, return'd full,
Fed from the richeft veins of the Mogul,
A defpot big with pow'r obtain'd by wealth,
And that obtain'd by rapine and by stealth?
With Abatic vices ftor'd thy mind,
But left their virtues and thine own behind,
And having truck'd thy soul, brought home the fee, the poor to fell himself to thee?
Haft thou by statute fhov'd from its defign
The Saviour's feaft, his own bleft bread and wine,
And made the symbols of atoning grace
An office key, a pick-lock to a place,
That infidels may prove their title good
By an oath dipp'd in facramental blood?
A blot that will be still a blot, in spite
Of all that grave apologifts may write,
And though a Bishop toil to cleanse the stain,
He wipes and scours the filver cup in vain.
And haft thou fworn on ev'ry flight pretence,
'Till perjuries are common as bad pence,
While thousands, careless of the damning fin,
Kifs the book's outside who ne'er look within ?
Haft thou, when heav'n has cloath'd thee with disgrace,
And long provok❜d, repaid thee to thy face,
(For thou haft known eclipfes, and endur'd
Dimness and anguish all thy beams obscur'd,
When fin has fhed difhonour on thy brow,
And never of a fabler hue than now)
Haft thou with heart perverse and conscience fear'd,
Despising all rebuke, still persever'd,
And having chofen evil, fcorn'd the voice
That cried repent-and gloried in thy choice?
Thy faftings, when calamity at laft
Suggests th' expedient of an yearly fast,
What mean they? Canft thou dream there is a pow'r
In lighter diet at a later hour,
To charm to fleep the threat'nings of the skies,
And hide past folly from all-feeing eyes?
The fast that wins deliv'rance, and suspends
The stroke that a vindictive God intends,
Is to renounce hypocrify, to draw
Thy life upon the pattern of the law,
To war with pleasures idolized before,
To vanquish luft, and wear its yoke no more.
All fafting elfe, whate'er be the pretence,
Is wooing mercy by renew'd offence.
Haft thou within thee fins that in old time
Brought fire from Heav'n, the fex-abusing crime,
Whose horrid perpetration ftamps disgrace
Baboons are free from, upon human race?
Think on the fruitful and well-watered spot
That fed the flocks and herds of wealthy Lot,
Where Paradife feem'd ftill,vouchfaf'd on earth,
Burning and scorch'd into perpetual dearth,
Or in his words who damn'd the base desire,
Suff'ring the vengeance of eternal fire:
Then nature injur’d, feandaliz’d, defil'd,
Unveil'd her blushing cheek, look'd on, and smil'd,
Beheld with joy the lovely scene defac'd,
And prais'd the wrath that laid her beauties waste.
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