Their learning legendary, false, absurd,
And yet exalted above God's own word,
They drew a curse from an intended good,
Puff'd up with gifts they never understood.
He judg'd them with as terrible a frown,
As if, not love, but wrath had brought him down.
Yet he was gentle as foft fummer airs,
Had grace for others fins, but none for theirs.
Through all he spoke a noble plainness ran,
Rhet'ric is artifice, the work of man,
And tricks and turns that fancy may devife,
Are far too mean for him that rules the fkies.
Th' aftonifh'd vulgar trembl'd while he tore
The mask from faces never seen before;
He stripp'd th' impoftors in the noon-day fun,
Show'd that they follow'd all they feem'd to fhun,
Their pray'rs made public, their exceffes kept
As private as the chambers where they flept.
The temple and its holy rites profan'd
By mumm'ries he that dwelt in it difdain'd,
Uplifted hands that at convenient times
Could act extortion and the worst of crimes,
Wash'd with a neatness fcrupulously nice,
And free from ev'ry taint but that of vice.
Judgment, however tardy, mends her pace
When obftinacy once has conquer'd grace.
They faw diftemper heal'd, and life restor'd
In answer to the fiat of his word,
Confefs'd the wonder, and with daring tongue,
Blafphem'd th' authority from which it fprung.
They knew by fure prognostics seen on high,
The future tone and temper of the sky,
But grave diffemblers, could not understand
That fin let loofe fpeaks punishment at hand.
Afk now of hiftory's authentic page,
And call up evidence from ev'ry age,
Difplay with bufy and laborious hand
The bleffings of the most indebted land,
What nation will you find, whofe annals prove
So rich an int'reft in almighty love?
Where dwell they now, where dwelt in antient day
A people planted, water'd, blest as they?
Let Egypt's plagues, and Canaan's woes proclaim
The favours pour'd upon the Jewish name;
Their freedom purchas'd for them, at the coft
Of all their hard oppreffors valued moft,
Their title to a country not their own,
Made fure by prodigies 'till then unknown,
For them, the state they left made waste and void,
For them, the states to which they went, destroy'd;
A cloud to measure out their march by day,
By night a fire to cheer the gloomy way,
That moving fignal fummoning, when beft
Their hoft to move, and when it ftay'd, to rest.
For them the rocks diffolv'd into a flood,
The dews condens'd into angelic food.
Their very garments facred, old yet new,
And time forbid to touch them as he flew,
Streams fwell'd above the bank, enjoin'd to stand,
While they pafs'd through to their appointed land,
Their leader arm'd with meeknefs, zeal and love,
And grac'd with clear credentials from above,
Themselves fecur'd beneath th' Almighty wing,
Their God their captain, lawgiver, and king.
Crown'd with a thousand vict'ries, and at last
Lords of the conquer'd foil, there rooted faft,
In peace poffeffing what they won by war,
Their name far publish'd and rever'd as far;
Where will you find a race like theirs, endow'd
With all that man e'er wifh'd, or Heav'n bestow'd?
They and they only amongst all mankind
Receiv'd the transcript of th' eternal mind,
Were trufted with his own engraven laws,
And conftituted guardians of his cause,
Theirs were the prophets, theirs the priestly call,
And theirs by birth the Saviour of us all.
In vain the nations that had seen them rife,
With fierce and envious yet admiring eyes,
Had fought to crush them, guarded as they were
By power divine, and skill that could not err,
Had they maintain'd allegiance firm and fure,
And kept the faith immaculate and pure,
Then the proud eagles of all-conqu❜ring Rome
Had found one city not to be o'ercome,
And the twelve ftandards of the tribes unfurl'd
Had bid defiance to the warring world.
But grace abus'd brings forth the fouleft deeds,
As richeft foil the most luxuriant weeds;
Cur'd of the golden calves their fathers fin,
They fet up felf, that idol god within,
View'd a Deliv'rer with difdain and hate,
Who left them ftill a tributary state,
Seiz'd faft his hand, held out to fet them free
From a worfe yoke, and nail'd it to the tree;
There was the confummation and the crown,
The flow'r of Ifrael's infamy full blown;
Thence date their fad declenfion and their fall,
Their woes not yet repeal'd, thence date them all.
Thus fell the best inftructed in her day,
And the most favor'd land, look where we may.
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