Thy senate is a scene of civil jar,

Chaos of contrarieties at war;

Where sharp and solid, phlegmatic and light,
Discordant atoms meet, ferment, and fight;
Where Obstinacy takes his sturdy stand,
To disconcert what Policy has plann'd;
Where Policy is busied all night long

In setting right what Faction has set wrong;
Where flails of oratory thresh the floor,

That yields them chaff and dust, and nothing more.
Thy rack'd inhabitants repine, complain,
Tax'd till the brow of Labour sweats in vain ;
War lays a burden on the reeling state,
And peace does nothing to relieve the weight;
Successive loads succeeding broils impose,
And sighing millions prophesy the close.

Is adverse Providence, when ponder'd well,
So dimly writ, or difficult to spell,

Thou canst not read with readiness and ease Providence adverse in events like these? Know then that heav'nly wisdom on this ball Creates, gives birth to, guides, consummates all; That, while laborious and quick-thoughted man Snuffs up the praise of what he seems to plan, He first conceives, then perfects his design, As a mere instrument in hands divine: Blind to the working of that secret pow'r, That balances the wings of ev'ry hour, a N“

1

The busy trifler dreams himself alone, wout 326H Frames many a purpose, and God works his own. States thrive or wither as moons wax and wanej Ev'n as his will and his decrees ordain; 100′′] While honour, virtue, piety bear sway, T They flourish; and as these decline, decayi In just resentment of his injur'd laws, we wo He pours contempt on them and on their cause; Strikes the rough thread of errour right athwart The web of ev'ry scheme they have at heart;A 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. T

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. A
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, A
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 prosp'rous wars ?T
Proud of thy fleets and armies, stol'n the gemi
Of his just praise, to lavish it on them or T

Hast thou not learn'd, what thou art often told,
A truth still sacred, and believ'd of old,
That no success 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,
Ghastly in feature, and his stammʼring tongue
With doleful humour 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 when 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?

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

But left their virtues and thine own behind?
And, having truck'd thy soul, brought home the fee,
To tempt the poor to sell himself to thee ?

Hast thou by statute show'd from it's design 19 The Saviour's feast, his own blest bread and wine,

And made the symbols of atoning graced Jest sɗT An office-key, a picklock to a place, son adT That infidels may prove their title good, ut al By an oath dipp'd in sacramental blood?

A blot that will be still a blot, in spite wow IT
Of all that grave apologists may write gam
And though a bishop toil to cleanse the stain,1 (A
He wipes and scours the silver cup in vain.
And hast thou sworn on ev'ry slight pretence,
Till perjuries are common as bad pence,

T

While thousands, careless of the damning singod fi Kiss the book's outside, who ne'er look'd within?“ Hast thou, when Heav'n has eloth'd thee with

disgrace,

And long provok'd, repaid thee to thy face, odW (For thou hast known eclipses, and endur'deurud Dimness and anguish, all thy beams obscur'd, 10 When sin has shed dishonour on thy brow; ne And never of a sabler hue than now); tor7, asn I Hast thou, with heart perverse and conscience sear'd, Despising all rebuke, still persever'd, bw the da And having chosen evil, scorn'd the voice PA That cried, Repent!-and gloried in thy choice? Thy fastings, when calamity at last

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?

T

The fast, that wins deliv'rance, 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;
To vanquish lust, and wear it's yoke no more.
All fasting else, whate'er be the pretence,
Is wooing mercy by renew'd offence.

Hast thou within the sin, that in old time
Brought fire from Heav'n, the sex-abusing crime,
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,
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;
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,
Against an innocent unconscious breast:
The man that dares traduce, because he can
With safety to himself, is not a man ;