There and there only, (though the deist rave,
And atheist, if Earth bear so base a slave;)
There and there only is the pow'r to save.
There no delusive hope invites despair;

No mock'ry meets you, no deception there.
The spells and charms, that blinded you before,
All vanish there, and fascinate no more.

I am no preacher, let this hint suffice

The cross once seen is death to ev'ry vice:
Else he that hung there suffer'd all his pain,

620

Bled, groan'd, and agoniz'd, and died, in vain. 624

TRUTH.

Pensantur trutiná.- -HOR. Lib. II, Epist. 1.

MAN, on the dubious waves of errour toss'd,
His ship half founder'd, and his compass lost,
Sees, far as human optics may command,
A sleeping fog, and fancies it dry land:
Spreads all his canvass, ev'ry sinew plies;
Pants for❜t, aims at it, enters it, and dies!
Then farewell all self-satisfying schemes,
His well-built systems, philosophic dreains;
Deceitful views of future bliss farewell!
He reads his sentence at the flames of Hell.
Hard lot of man-to toil for the reward

Of virtue, and yet lose it! Wherefore hard?

10

He that would win the race must guide his horse Obedient to the customs of the course;

Else, though unequall'd to the goal he flies,
A meaner than himself shall gain the prize.
Grace leads the right way: if you choose the wrong,
Take it and perish; but restrain your tongue;
Charge not, with light sufficient, and left free,
Your wilful suicide on God's decree.

O how unlike the complex works of man,
Heav'n's easy, artless, unincumber'd plan!
No meretricious graces to beguile,
No clust'ring ornaments to clog the pile;
From ostentation as from weakness free,
It stands like the cerulean arch we see,
Majestic in it's own simplicity.
Inscrib'd above the portal, from afar
Conspicuous as the brightness of a star,

Legible only by the light they give,

20

30

Stand the soul-quick'ning words-BELIEVE AND

LIVE.

Too many, shock'd at what should charm them most, Despise the plain direction, and are lost.

Heav'n on such terms! (they cry with proud disdain)

Incredible, impossible, and vain!

Rebel, because 'tis easy to obey;

And scorn, for it's own sake, the gracious way.
These are the sober, in whose cooler brains

Some thought of immortality remains;

The rest too busy or too gay to wait

On the sad theme, their everlasting state,

Sport for a day, and perish in a night,
The foam upon the waters not so light.

Who judg'd the pharisee? What odious cause
Expos'd him to the vengeance of the laws?
Had he seduc'd a virgin, wrong'd a friend,
Or stabb'd a man to serve some private end?
Was blasphemy his sin? Or did he stray
From the strict duties of the sacred day?

Sit long and late at the carousing board?

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50

(Such were the sins with which he charg'd his Lord) No-the man's morals were exact, what then?

"Twas his ambition to be seen of men;