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النشر الإلكتروني

While honour, virtue, piety, bear sway,
They flourish; and as these decline, decay :
In just resentment of his injur'd laws,

He pours conteinpt on them, and on their cause :
Strikes the rough thread of errour right athwart
The web of ev'ry scheme they have at heart;
Bids rottenness invade and bring to dust
The pillars of support, in which they trust,
And do his errand of disgrace and shame
On the chief strength and glory of the frame.
None ever yet impeded what he wrought,
None bars him out from his most secret thought;
Darkness itself before his eye is light,
And Hell's close mischief naked in his sight.

Stand now and judge thyself-Hast thou incurr'd
His anger, who can waste thee with a word;
Who poises and proportions sea and land,
Weighing them in the hollow of his hand :
And in whose awful sight all nations seem
As grasshoppers, as dust, a drop, a dream?
Hast thou, (a sacrilege his soul abhors,)
Claim'd all the glory of thy prosperous wars?
Proud of thy fleets and armies, stol'n the gem
Of his just praise, to lavish it on them?
Hast thou not learn'd, what thou art often told,
A truth still sacred, and believ'd of old,
That no success depends 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,
Ghastly in feature, and his stamm'ring tongue
With doleful rumour and sad presage hung,
To quell the valour of the stoutest heart,
And teach the combatant a woman's part?
That he bids thousands fly where none pursue,
Saves as he will by many or by few,
And claims for ever as his royal right,
Th' event and sure decision of the fight?

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Hast thou, tho' suckled at fair Freedom's breast,
Exported Slav'ry to the conquered East?
Pull'd down the tyrants India serv'd with dread,
And rais'd thyself, a greater in their stead?
Gone thither arm'd and hungry, return'd full,
Fed from the richest veins of the Mogul,
A despot big with pow'r obtain'd by wealth,
And that obtain'd by rapine and by stealth?
With Asiatick vices stor'd thy mind,

But left their virtues and thine own behind?

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And having truck'd thy soul, brought home the fee,
To tempt the poor to sell himself to thee?
Hast thou by statute shov'd from its design

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The Saviour's feast, his own bless'd bread and wine, And made the symbols of atoning grace

An office-key, a picklock to a place,

That infidels may prove their title good
By an oath dipp'd in sacramental blood?
A blot, that will be still a blot, in spite
Of all that grave apologists may write ;

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And though a bishop toil to cleanse the stain,

He wipes and scours the silver cup in vain.

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And hast thou sworn on ev'ry slight pretence,

Till perjuries are common as bad pence,

While thousands, careless of the damning sin,

Kiss the book's outside, who ne'er look'd within ?

Hast thou, when Heav'n has cloth'd thee with dis

grace,

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And long provok'd, repaid thee to thy face,
(For thou hast known eclipses, and endur'd,
Dimness and anguish, all thy beams obscur'd,
When sin has shed dishonour on thy brow;
And never of a sabler hue than now,)

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Hast thou with heart perverse and conscience sear'd,

Despising all rebuke, still persever'd,

And having chosen evil, scorn'd the voice

That cried, Repent!-and gloried in thy choice?

Thy fastings, when calamity at last

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Suggests th' expedient of a yearly fast,

What mean they? Canst thou dream there is a pow'r

In lighter diet at a later hour,

To charm to sleep the threat'ning of the skies,

And hide past folly from all-seeing eyes?

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The fast that wins deliverance, and suspends

The stroke that a vindictive God intends,
Is to renounce hypocrisy; to draw
Thy life upon the pattern of the law;

To war with pleasure, idoliz'd before ;

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To vanquish lust, and wear its yoke no more.

All fasting else, whate'er be the pretence,

Is wooing mercy by renew'd offence.

Hast thou within thee sin, that in old time

Brought fire from Heav'n, the sex-abusing crime, 415
Whose horrid perpetration stamps disgrace,
Baboons are free from, upon human race?
Think on the fruitful and well-water'd spot

That fed the flocks and herds of wealthy Lot.

Where Paradise seem'd still vouchsaf'd on earth, 420
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, scandaliz'd, defil'd,

Unveil'd her blushing cheek, look'd on, and smil'd; 425
Beheld with joy the lovely scene defac'd,

And prais'd the wrath that laid her beauties waste.
Far be the thought from any verse of mine,

And farther still the form'd and fix'd design,

To thrust the charge of deeds, that I detest,

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Against an innocent unconscious breast;

The man that dares traduce, because he can
With safety to himself, is not a man:

An individual is a sacred mark
Not to be pierc'd in play, or in the dark;
But publick censure speaks a publick foe,
Unless a zeal for virtue guide the blow.

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The priestly brotherhood, devout, sincere,
From mean self-int'rest and ambition clear,
Their hope in Heav'n, servility their scorn,
Prompt to persuade, expostulate, and warn,
Their wisdom pure, and giv'n them from above,
Their usefulness ensur'd by zeal and love,
As meek as the man Moses, and withal

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As bold as, in Agrippa's presence, Paul,
Should fly the world's contaminating touch,
Holy and unpolluted ;-arc thine such?
Except a few with Eli's spirit bless'd,

Hophni and Phineas may describe the rest.

Where shall a teacher look, in days like these,

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For ears and hearts that he can hope to please?
Look to the poor-the simple and the plain
Will hear perhaps thy salutary strain;
Humility is gentle, apt to learn,

Speak but the word, will listen and return,
Alas, not so!-the poorest of the flock
Are proud, and set their faces as a rock ;
Denied that earthly opulence they choose,
God's better gift they scoff at and refuse.
The rich, the produce of a nobler stem,
Are more intelligent at least-try them.

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Oh, vain inquiry! they, without remorse,

Are altogether gone a devious course;

Where beck'ning Pleasure leads them, wildly stray,

Have burst the bands, and cast the yoke away.
Now borne upon the wings of truth sublime,

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Review thy dim original and prime.

This island, spot of unreclaim'd rude earth,
The cradle that receiv'd thee at thy birth,
Was rock'd by many a rough Norwegian blast,

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And Danish howlings scar'd thee as they pass'd;
For thou wast born amid the din of arms,
And suck'd a breast that panted with alarms.
While yet thou wast a grov'ling puling chit,

Thy bones not fashion'd, and thy joints not knit, 475

The Roman taught thy stubborn knee to bow,
Though twice a Caesar could not bend thee now:
His victory was of that orient light,

When the sun's shafts disperse the gloom of night.
Thy language at this distant moment shows
How much the country to the conqueror owes ;
Expressive, energetick, and refin'd,

It sparkles with the gems he left behind:

He brought thy land a blessing when he came;
He found thee savage, and he left thee tame;
Taught thee to clothe thy pink'd and painted hide,
And grace thy figure with a soldier's pride;
He sow'd the seeds of order where he went,
Improv'd thee far beyond his own intent,
And, while he rul'd thee by the sword alone,
Made thee at last a warriour like his own.
Religion, if in heavenly truths attir'd,
Needs only to be seen to be admir'd;

But thine, as dark as witch'ries of the night,

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Was form'd to harden hearts and shock the sight; 495
Thy Druids struck the well-hung harps they bore
With fingers deeply dyed in human gore;

And while the victim slowly bled to death,

Upon the rolling chords rung out his dying breath. Who brought the lamp, that with awaking beams Dispell'd thy gloom, and broke away thy dreams, 501 Tradition, now decrepit and worn out,

Babbler of ancient fables, leaves a doubt;

But still light reach'd thee; and those gods of thine,

Woden and Thor, each tottering in his shrine,

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Fell, broken and defac'd at his own door,

As Dagon in Philistia long before.

But Rome with sorceries and magick wand

Soon rais'd a cloud, that darken'd ev'ry land;

And thine was smother'd in the stench and fog
Of Tiber's marshes and the papal bog.

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Then priests with bulls, and briefs, and shaven crowns, And griping fists, and unrelenting frowns,

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