Thou, Hope! alone canft from the wounded heart
Caufe each tormenting paffion to depart,

Bid gayeft vifionary scenes arise,

Of much defired, dear, delightful joys:

Can fay to forrow--Care and trouble-cease-
And for defpair-Come, rapt'rous joy and peace.

Great Cato, Virtue's friend, the tyrant's rod,
Belov'd, admired, and feared as a God; 1
Great Kings oft bow'd with trembling at his word,
Or at his bidding drew the vengeful fword;
Whilft HOPE he followed; ghaftly, pale with fear
Victorious tyrants faw him shake the fpear:
They heard his awful voice, abash'd. they fled,
And facred Virtue rais'd her drooping head.
Thy banners, Freedom, on Rome's turrets hook,
When thou, O HOPE! the wondrous man forfook;
And e'en the Hero, loft to all but pride,

Fell, like a coward, on his fword, and dy’d.

Thee, HOPE, I love, thou bright tranfporting pow'r,
That on Imagination's wing canft tow'r

Up to those bleft abodes where Love refides,

Thou fee'ft the all-gracious God,

From his high abode,

Driving dull care and fear away;
Enrapt'ring joys thou doft display,

And plunge the foul within their facred tides.

See HOPE appears!- I hail thee mine,
Thy facred influence benign

Suppports my fainting heart :

Now

1

Now hence despair,

Hence folemn care,

Hence with all your wretched trains depart.
Bright profpects now my foul dilate,
Eafy I now can smile at fate.

Still deign thy influence to inftill,
Conftant do thou my spirit fill,

'Till each fear, each forrow cease,

And thou, O HOPE, art lost in certainty and peace.

TO PEACE.

An humble Imitation of the French of DRELINCOURt.

ETURN, fair Virgin! lovely Peace! return,

RE

And chear our land with beams from thy mild eyes; How long fhall wretched we thine absence mourn: Alas! too long depriv'd of all our joys.

Ah! turn and fee the havock War has made:
Our fields and vineyards now are barren grounds;
Our flocks decreas'd, our trading much decay'd,
And ruins feen where once stood faireft towns.

Oh! hear and pity our poor widows' cries,
And o'er our orphans fhed a kindly tear;

Nor difregard the ancient parents' fighs,

Reft by the fword of all they held most dear.

Think of our youth, but late our country's boast,
The thousands bury'd in their reeking gore;
And thousand who, or legs or arms have loft,
Now begging fcanty bread from door to door.

Return,

Return sweet Peace! and heal our cruel wounds,
And lead fair Plenty in thy fplendid train ;
Give wealth and credit to our num'rous towns,
And to our laws give energy again:

Protect our Temples from each hoftile foe;
Our Priests and Nobles give true love of thee;
Infpire with hope the hand that guides the plough,
And o'er our land shed full profperity. ·

But ah! our fins, our ardent pray'rs oppose,
And Heav'n permits a further clash of arms;
Our fields lie fallow, and our blood still flows,
And ev'ry breast is fill'd with dire alarms.

Mighty Redeemer! thou on Calvary's Cross,
Didft purchase Peace for wretched rebel Man;
Let not our fins for ever be our loss,

But give us Peace, and all thy wrath restrain.

ON THE PEACE OF GOD.

Paraphrafed from the French of Monf. DRELINCOURT

LET worlds unknown in hostile fury join

To rob my foul of future happiness;

Let earth and hell their dreadful pow'rs combine
To urge against me causeless, deep distress;

Let them, my foul! with rancour, hate, and spite,
Pursue with hideous, unremitting rage,
Invelope thee in darkest fhades of night,

Nor cease whilst thou art on this earthly stage;

Let

Let my frail body fuffer every ill

That malice can, or envious rage infpire;
Yet fhall my foul in forrów look up still,
Nor fear celeftial glory to acquire.

Yea let grim Death, the King of Terrors, come,
With his dread fcythe, and mow me from the earth,
All fhall not keep me from my heav'nly home,
The purchase of my dearest Saviour's death.

Tis true, my foul is ftruck with deepest awe,
When I remember all the crimes I've done,
Which are condemn'd by God's moft holy law,
And caus'd the death of his beloved Son.

Yet ftill my God, to diffipate my fear,
Affords my foul a true and lasting Peace;
In all my conflicts I am ftill his care,
Nor fhall his favour ever to me ceafe.

Yes, yes, on Calvary's facred Mount my Lord,
With his own blood, my peace and pardon feal'd;
And his bleft Spirit and his Holy Word

A full affurance to my foul reveal'd.

Why should I fear what Earth and Hell can do?
For Men and Devils are at his command;
And he's my Peace, and my Salvation too,

The Rock on which my foul fhall ever ftand.

he following objections to the doctrine of an

Univerfal Reftoration have come under my notice, which I will give you in my author's own words. 'Your argument is this: "In whatever manner fin be estimated, it must be finite, because it is the production or act of a creature; of finite principles, and paffions; and fecondly, that if our fins were deferving of infinite punishment, our vir, tues muft, by the very fame rule, be deferving of an infinite reward.”

I anfwer, That which is infinite cannot poffibly proceed from a finite being: but we must distinguish between the act of fin, and the demerit of that act. I grant with you, that all finful actions are finite, and must be fo; because they fpring from finite beings; yet there is an infinite evil and demerit in fin, because it is committed againft all poffible and infinite good. Its demerit arifes from the object against whom it is committed; and therefore as the Divine Object

VOL. I.

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