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"To gratify the hunger of his wish;

"And doth he reprobate, and will he damn,
"The use of his own bounty? making first
“So frail a kind, and then enacting laws

"So strict, that less than perfect must despair?
"Falsehood! which whoso but suspects of truth
"Dishonours God, and makes a slave of man.
"Do they themselves, who undertake for hire
"The teacher's office, and dispense at large
"Their weekly dole of edifying strains,
"Attend to their own music? have they faith
"In what with such solemnity of tone

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"And gesture they propound to our belief? "Nay-conduct hath the loudest tongue. Thevoice

"Is but an instrument, on which the priest

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May play, what tune he pleases. In the deed, "The unequivocal, authentic deed,

"We find sound argument, we read the heart."

Such reas'nings (if that name must needs belong

T'excuses in which reason has no part)
Serve to compose a spirit well inclin'd

To live on terms of amity with vice,

And sin without disturbance. Often urg'd, (As often as, libidinous discourse

Exhausted, he resorts to solemn themes

Of theological and grave import)

They gain at last his unreserv'd assent;

Till harden'd his heart's temper in the forge

Of lust, and on the anvil of despair,

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Heslights the strokes of conscience. Nothing moves,

Or nothing much, his constancy in ill;

Vain tamp'ring has but foster'd his disease;

'Tis desp'rate, and he sleeps the sleep of death.

Haste now, philosopher, and set him free.

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Charm the deaf serpent wisely. Make him hear

Of rectitude and fitness, moral truth

How lovely, and the moral sense how sure,
Consulted and obey'd, to guide his steps

Directly to the FIRST AND ONLY FAIR.

Spare not in such a cause. Spend all the pow'rs

Of rant and rhapsody in virtue's praise:
Be most sublimely good, verbosely grand,

And with poetic trappings grace thy prose,
Till it outmantle all the pride of verse.

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Ah, tinkling cymbal, and high sounding brass,
Smitten in vain! such music cannot charm
The eclipse, that intercepts truth's heav'nly beam,
And chills and darkens a wide-wand'ring soul.
The STILL SMALL VOICE is wanted. He must speak,
Whose word leaps forth at once to it's effect;
Who calls for things that are not, and they come.

Grace makes the slave a freeman. 'Tis a change, That turns to ridicule the turgid speech

And stately tone of moralists, who boast,

As if, like him of fabulous renown,

They had indeed ability to smooth

The shag of savage nature, and were each

An Orpheus, and omnipotent in song:

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But transformation of apostate man

From fool to wise, from earthly to divine,

Is work for Him that made him. He alone,

And he by means in philosophic eyes
Trivial and worthy of disdain, achieves
The wonder; humanizing what is brute
In the lost kind, extracting from the lips
Of asps their venom, overpow'ring strength
By weakness, and hostility by love.

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Patriots have toil'd, and in their country's cause Bled nobly; and their deeds, as they deserve, Receive proud recompense. We give in charge Their names to the sweet lyre. Th' historic muse, Proud of the treasure, marches with it down To latest times; and Sculpture, in her turn, Gives bond in stone and ever-during brass To guard them, and immortalize her trust; But fairer wreaths are due, though never paid, To those, who, posted at the shrine of Truth,

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Have fall'n in her defence. A patriot's blood,

Well spent in such a strife, may earn indeed,

And for a time ensure, to his lov'd land

The sweets of liberty, and equal laws;

But martyrs struggle for a brighter prize,

And win it with more pain. Their blood is shed

In confirmation of the noblest claim,

Our claim to feed upon immortal truth,

To walk with God, to be divinely free,

To soar, and to anticipate the skies.

Yet few remember them. They liv'd unknown,

Till persecution dragg'd them into fame,

And chas'd them up to Heav'n.

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Their ashes flew

With their names

No bard embalms and sanctifies his

song:

And history, so warm on meaner themes,
Is cold on this. She execrates indeed
The tyranny, that doom'd them to the fire,
But gives the glorious suff'rers little praise".

* See Hume.

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