He trod the very felf-fame ground you tread,
And victory refuted all he said.

B. And yet his judgment was not fram'd amifs; Its error, if it err'd, was merely this

He thought the dying hour already come,
And a complete recov'ry struck him dumb,
But that effeminacy, folly, luft,

Enervate and enfeeble, and needs muft,
And that a nation shamefully debas'd,
Will be defpis'd and trampled on at last,
Unless sweet penitence her pow'rs renew,
Is truth, if history itself be true.

There is a time, and justice marks the date,
For long-forbearing clemency to wait;
That hour elaps'd, th' incurable revolt

Is punish'd, and down comes the thunder-bolt,
If mercy then put by the threat'ning blow,
Must she perform the fame kind office now?
May fhe! and, if offended heav'n be ftill

Acceffible, and pray'r prevail, she will.

'Tis not, however, infolence and noise,
The tempeft of tumultuary joys,

Nor is it, yet, defpondence and difmay,
Will win her vifits or engage her stay;

Pray'r only, and the penitential tear,

Can call her smiling down, and fix her here.
But, when a country (one that I could name)
In prostitution finks the fense of shame;
When infamous venality, grown bold,
Writes on his bofom, to be let or fold;
When perjury, that heav'n defying vice,
Sells oaths by tale, and at the lowest price,
Stamps God's own name upon a lie just made,
To turn a penny in the way of trade;

When av'rice starves (and never hides his face)
Two or three millions of the human race,

And not a tongue inquires, how, where, or when,
Though confcience will have twinges now and then
When profanation of the facred cause

In all its parts, times, ministry, and laws,

Bespeaks a land, once chriftian, fall'n, and loft
In all that wars against that title most;.
What follows next let cities of great name,
And regions long fince defolate, proclaim.
Nineveh, Babylon, and antient Rome,

Speak to the present times, and times to come;
They cry aloud in ev'ry careless ear,

Stop, while ye may; fufpend your mad career;
O learn, from our example and our fate,
Learn wisdom and repentance ere too late.
Not only vice difpofes and prepares

The mind, that flumbers sweetly in her fnares,
To stoop to tyranny's ufurp'd command,

And bend her polish'd neck beneath his hand
{A dire effect, by one of nature's laws
Unchangeably connected with its cause) ;
But Providence himfelf will intervene

To throw his dark displeasure o'er the scene.
All are his inftruments; each form of war,

What burns at home, or threatens from afar,

Nature in arms, her elements at ftrife,
The storms that overfet the joys of life,
Are but his rods to fcourge a guilty land,
And waste it at the bidding of his hand.
He gives the word, and mutiny foon roars
In all her gates, and shakes her distant shores;
The standards of all nations are unfurl'd;

She has one foe, and that one foe the world.
And, if he doom that people with a frown,
And mark them with a feal of wrath prefs'd down,
Obduracy takes place; callous and tough,

The reprobated race grows judgment proof:

Earth fhakes beneath them and heav'n roars above;

But nothing scares them from the course they love:
To the lascivious pipe and wanton song,
That charm down fear, they frolic it along,
With mad rapidity and unconcern,

Down to the gulf from which is no return.
They trust in navies, and their navies fail-
God's curfe can caft away ten thousand fail!

They truft in armies, and their courage dies;
In wisdom, wealth, in fortune, and in lies;

But all they truft in withers, as it must,

When He commands, in whom they place no trust.
Vengeance at last pours down upon their coaft

A long defpis'd, but now victorious, host;
Tyranny fends the chain that must abridge
The noble sweep of all their privilege;
Gives liberty the last, the mortal shock;
Slips the flave's collar on, and fnaps the lock.

A. Such lofty strains embellish what you teach, Mean you to prophefy, or but to preach?

B. I know the mind that feels indeed the fire
The muse imparts, and can command the lyre,
Acts with a force, and kindles with a zeal,
Whate'er the theme, that others never feel.
If human woes her foft attention claim,

A tender fympathy pervades the frame,
She
pours a fenfibility divine

Along the nerve of ev'ry feeling line.