But pois'nous ftreams muft flow from pois'ned springs:
The priests were mortal, and mere men the kings.
What aid from monarchs, mighty to enflave?

What good from teachers, cunning to deceive?
Allegiance gives defenfive arms away;

And faith ufurps imperial reason's fway.

Let civil Rome, from faithful records, tell
What royal bleffings from her Nero fell.
When those, prefer'd all grievance to redress,
Bought of their prince a licence to oppress;
When uncorupted merit found no place,
But left the trade of honour to the bafe.
See industry, by draining impoft curst,
Starve in the harveft, in the vintage thirst!
In vain for help th' infulted matron cries,
'Twas death in husbands to have ears and eyes:
Fatal were beauty, virtue, wealth, or fame :

;

No man in aught a property could claim
No, not his fex: ftrange arts the monfter try'd;
And Sporus, fpight of nature, was his bride.
Unhurt by foes proud Rome for ages ftands,
Secure from all, but her protector's hands.
Recall your pow'rs, ye Romans, back again;
Unmake the monarch, and ne'er fear the man.
Naked and scorn'd, fee where the abject flies!
And once un-cæfar'd, soon the fidler dies.
Next holy Rome, thy happiness declare;

While peace and truth watch round the facred chair.

Peace!

Peace!

Peace!-which from racks and perfecution flows!
Mysterious truths!-which every sense oppose!

That God made man, was all th' unlearn'd could reach
That man makes God th' enlighten'd fathers teach.
Men, blind and partial, need a light divine:
Which popes new trim, and teach it how to shine.
Rude nature dreads accufing guilt, unknown
The balmy doctrine, that dead faints atone:
The careful pontiff, merciful to fave,
Hoards up a fund of merit from the grave;
And righteous hands the equal balance hold,
Nor weigh it out but to just sums of gold.
Sole judge, he deals his pardon, or his curfe
Not heav'n itself the fentence can reverfe:
Grac'd with his fcepter, aweful with his rod,
This man of fin ufurps the feat of God;
Difarm'd and unador'd th' Almighty lies,
And quits to faints his incenfe, and his skies :
No more the object of our fears, or hope;
The creature, and the vaffal of the pope.
"From fanes and cities fcar'd, fly fwift away!"
-To the rude Lybian in his wilds a prey.

"The blood-ftain'd fword from the fell tyrant wreft.!”
-Thoufands unfheath'd fhall threat thy naked breast.
"The dogmatifts imperious aid difdain !"

-So fink in brutish ignorance again.

"Is there no medium? muft we victims fall
"To one man's LuST, or to the RAGE of all?

D 2

"Is reafon doom'd a certain flave to be,

"To our blind PASSIONS, or a priest's DECREE?”
Hail happy Albion! whose distinguish'd plains
This temp❜rate mean, fo dearly earn'd, maintains !
Senates, (the will of individuals check'd)
The ftrength and prudence of the realm collect,
Each yields to all; that each may thence receive
The full affiftance, which the whole can give.
For this, thy patriots lawless pow'r withstood,
And bought their children's charter with their blood;
While reverend years, and various letter'd age,
Difpaffion'd open the myfterious page;
Not one alone the various judgment fways,
But prejudice the general voice obeys :
For this, thy martyrs wak'd the bloody ftrife,
Afferting truth with brave contempt of life.
Oh OXFORD! let deliver'd Briton know
From thy fam'd feats her feveral bleffings flow.
Th' accouter'd barons, and affifting knights,
In thee prepar'd for council, or for fights,
Plan'd and obtain'd her a civil liberty:
Truth found her fearless witneffes in thee;

2

b

By the Oxford provifions, A. D. 1258; at which time the commons are fuppofed first to have obtained the privilege of reprefentatives in parliament.

In the imprisonment, difputes, and fufferings of our first reformers, Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer, at Oxford, A. D. $554-6.

When,

When, try'd as gold, faints, from thy tott'ring pyres,
Rofe up to heav'n, Elijah-like, in fires!

Peace to thy walls! and honour to thy name!
May age to age record thy gathering fame!
While thy ftill favour'd feats pour forth their youth,
Brave advocates of liberty and truth!

In fair fucceffion rife to blefs the realm!
Fathers in church, and statesmen at the helm!

"But factious fynods thro' resentment err;

❝ And venal fenates private good prefer :
"How wild the faith which wrangling sophs dispose !
"The laws how harsh of penfion'd aye's and no's !"
Wilt thou by no authority be aw'd,
Self-excommunicated, felf-outlaw'd?
Expunge the creed, the decalogue reject ?
If they oblige not, nor will they protect.
You fear no God;-convinc'd by what you fay,
Knaves praise your wit, and fwear your lands away.
Corrupt not wives, erafe it if you will;

The injur'd husband blots out,- do not kill.
From God his fabbaths fteal, for fort, not need ;
Why hangs the wretch, who fteals thy purfe for bread?
Or fhall each schifmatic your faith new mould,

Or fenates ftand by patriot mobs controul'd?
Drive back, ye floods! roll, Xanthus, to your fpring!
Go, crown the people, and subject the king;
Break rule to pieces, analyse its pow'r,

And every atom to its lord reftore:

D 3

As

As mixt with knaves, or fools, the weak, or brave,
A dupe, a plague, a tyrant, or a slave.
"What fhall I do; how hit the happy mean

"Twixt blind fubmiffion, and unruly fpleen ?"
Confult your watch; you guide your actions by't;
And great its ufe, tho' not for ever right.
What tho' fome think implicit faith be due,
And dine at twelve if their town-clock ftrike two?
Or others bravely fquir their watch away,
Difdain a guide, and guess the time of day?
They guefs fo lucky, or their parts fo great,
They come on all affairs, but just too late;
You neither choofe. Nor trav'ling thro' the street,
Correct its hand by ev'ry one you meet;
Yet fcruple not, if you fhould find at one
It points to fix, to fet it by the SUN.

Aim at the bliss that's fuited to thy ftate,
Nor vainly hope for happiness compleat;
Some bounds imperfect natures must include,
And vice and weaknefs feel defects of good.
Nor is it blind neceffity alone:
Contriving wisdom, in the whole, we own:
And in that wisdom fatisfy'd may truft,
In its reftraints, as merciful, as juft.
By these thy felfish paffions it corrects;
By these from wrong thy weakness it protects;
In fovereign power thy fafety's heaven's defign;
Some faults permitted, as the fcourge of thine,

Abfurd