He pass'd the Moon and Planets, and did fright
All the Worlds there, which at this Meteor gaz'd,

And their Aftrologers amaz'd

With th' unexampled Sight.

But where he stopt will ne'er be known,

Till Phenix Nature, aged grown,

To'a better Being do afpire,

And mount her felf, like him, t' Eternity in Fire.

On Exodus III. 14. I AM THAT I AM.

An OD E.

By Mr. PRIOR.

MAN! Foolish Man!

Scarce know'st thou how thy self began; Scarce haft thou Thought enough to prove thou art; Yet, steel'd with study'd Boldness, thou dar'st try To fend thy doubting Reason's dazzled Eye Through the mysterious Gulph of vast Immensity. Much thou canst there difcern, much thence impart. Vain Wretch! suppress thy knowing Pride; Mortify thy learned Luft:

Vain are thy Thoughts, while thou thy self art Dust.

II.

Let Wit her Sails, her Oars let Wisdom lend;
The Helm let politick Experience guide:
Yet cease to hope thy short-liv'd Bark shall ride
Down spreading Fate's unnavigable Tide.

What, tho' till it farther tend ?
Still 'tis farther from its End;

And in the Bosom of that boundless Sea,
Still finds its Error lengthen with its Way.

U2

III. With

With daring Pride, and insolent Delight,
Your Doubts resolv'd you boaft, your Labours crown'd;

And, EYPHEKA your God, forsooth, is found

Incomprehenfible and Infinite.

But is he therefore found ? Vain Searcher! no:

Let your imperfect Definition show,

That nothing you, the weak Definer, know.

IV.

Say, why should the collected Main

It self within it felf contain ?

Why to its Caverns shou'd it sometimes creep,

And with delighted Silence sleeр

On the lov'd Bosom of its Parent Deep ?

Why shou'd its num'rous Waters stay

In comely Difcipline, and fair Array,

'Till Winds and Tides exert their high Command ?

Then,

and prompt a

to ready obey,

Why do the rifing Surges spread

Their op'ning Ranks o'er Earth's submissive Head,

Marching thro' diff'rent Paths to diff'rent Lands ?

:

V.

Why does the constant Sun

With measur'd Steps his radiant Journeys run?
Why does he order the diurnal Hours,
To leave Earth's other Part, and rise in ours?
Why does he wake the correspondent Moon,
And fill her willing Lamp with liquid Light,
Commanding her with delegated Pow'rs
To beautify the World, and bless the Night?
Why does each animated Star
Love the just Limits of its proper Sphere ?
Why does each consenting Sign
With prudent Harmony combine
In turns to move, and subsequent appear,
To gird the Globe, and regulate the Year?

With fansy'd Rules and arbitrary Laws
Matter and Motion he restrains;
And study'd Lines and fictious Circles draws :
Then, with imagin'd Sovereignty,
Lord of his new HYPOTHESIS he reigns.
He reigns: How long? till fome Ufurper rife;
And he too, mighty thoughtful, mighty wife,
Studies new Lines, and other Circles feigns.
From this last Toil again what Knowledge flows?
Just as much, perhaps, as shows
That all his Predecessor's Rules

Were empty Cant, all JARGON of the Schools;
That he on t'other's Ruin rears his Throne;

And shows his Friend's Mistake, and thence confirms his own.

VII.

On Earth, in Air, amidst the Seas and Skies,
Mountainous Heaps of Wonders rife;
Whose tow'ring Strength will ne'er fubmit
To Reason's Batteries, or the Mines of Wit :
Yet still enquiring, still mistaking Man,
Each Hour repuls'd, each Hour dares onward press;
And levelling at GOD, his wandring Guess,
(That feeble Engine of his reasoning War,
Which guides his Doubts, and combats his Despair)
Laws to his Maker the learn'd Wretch can give:
Can bound that Nature, and prescribe that Will,
Whose pregnant WORD did either Ocean fill;

Can tell us whence all BEINGS are, and how they move, and

Thro' either Ocean, foolish Man!

That pregnant Word fent forth again,

Might to a World extend each Атом there;

(live.

For every Drop call forth a Sea, a Heav'n for every Star.

,

VIII.

Let cunning Earth her fruitful Wonders hide;

And only lift thy staggering Reason up

To trembling CALVARY'S astonish'd Top;
Then mock thy Knowledge, and confound thy Pride,

Explaining how Perfection fuffer'd Pain,

Almighty languish'd, and Eternal dy'd :
How by her Patient Victor Death was flain;
And Earth prophan'd, yet bless'd with Deicide.

Then

Then down with all thy boasted Volumes, down;
Only referve the Sacred One;

Low, reverently low,

Make thy stubborn Knowledge bow;

Weep out thy Reason's and thy Body's Eyes;

Deject thy felf, that Thou may'st rife;

To look to Heav'n, be blind to all below.

IX.

Then Faith, for Reason's glimmering Light, shall give

Her immortal Perspective;

And Grace's Presence Nature's Loss retrieve :

Then thy enliven'd Soul shall fee,
That all the Volumes of Philofophy,

With all their Comments, never cou'd invent

So politick an Instrument,

To reach the Heav'n of Heav'ns, the high Abode,
Where MOSES places his mysterious God,
As was that Ladder which old JAсов rear'd,
When Light Divine had human Darkness clear'd;
And his enlarg'd Ideas found the Road,

Which Faith had dictated, and Angels trod.

**********.

************

CHARITY.

A Paraphrase on the xIIrth Chapter of the First Epistle to the CORINTHIANS.

DIT

By the fame.

ID sweeter Sounds adorn my flowing Tongue
Than ever Man pronounc'd, or Angel sung;

Had I all Knowledge, human and divine,
That Thought can reach, or Science can define;
And had I Pow'r to give that Knowledge Birth,
In all the Speeches of the babbling Earth:
Did Shadrach's Zeal my glowing Breast inspire,
To weary Tortures, and rejoice in Fire;

Or

Or had I Faith like that which Ifrael faw,
When Moses gave them Miracles and Law :
Yet, gracious CHARITY, indulgent Guest,
Were not thy Pow'r exerted in my Breast;
Those Speeches would send up unheeded Pray'r,
That Scorn of Life would be but wild Despair :
A Timbal's Sound were better than my Voice;
My Faith were Form, my Eloquence were Noise.
CHARITY, decent, modest, easy, kind,
Softens the high, and rears the abject Mind;
Knows with just Reins and gentle hand to guide,
Betwixt vile Shame and arbitrary Pride.
Not foon provok'd, she easily forgives;
And much she suffers, as she much believes.
Soft Peace she brings wherever she arrives :
She builds our Quier, as she forms our Lives;
Lays the rough Paths of peevish Nature even;
And opens in each Heart a little Heaven.

Each other Gift, which GOD on Man bestows, Its proper Bounds and due Reflection knows ; To one fixt Purpose dedicates its Pow'r; And finishing its Act, exifts no more. Thus, in Obedience to what Heav'n decrees, Knowledge shall fail, and Prophecy shall cease : But lasting CHARITY's more ample Sway, Nor bound by Time, nor subject to Decay, In happy Triumph shall for ever live, And endless Good diffuse, and endless Praise receive.

As thro' the Artist's intervening Glass,
Our Eye observes the distant Planets pass ;
A little we discover, but allow,

That more remains unseen than Art can show:
So whilft our Mind its Knowledge wou'd improve,
(Its feeble Eye, intent on Things above)
High as we may, we lift our Reason up,
By FAITH directed, and confirm'd by HOPE:
Yet are we able only to furvey

Dawnings of Beams, and Promises of Day.
Heav'n's fuller Effluence mocks our dazzl'd Sight,
Too great its Swiftness, and too strong its Light.
But foon the mediate Clouds shall be dispell'd:

The Sun shall soon be Face to Face beheld,
In all his Robes, with all his Glory on,
Seated fublime on his meridian Throne.

1

Then