Thou Great First Cause, leaft understood:

Who all my Senfe confin'd

To know but this, that Thou art Good,
And that myself am blind;

Yet gave me, in this dark Estate,
To fee the Good from Ill;

And binding Nature fast in Fate,

Left free the Human Will.

What Confcience dictates to be done,

Or warns me not to do,

This, teach me more than Hell to fhun,

That, more than Heav'n pursue.

What Bleffings thy free Bounty gives,

Let me not caft away;

For God is paid when Man receives, T'enjoy is to obey.

Yet not to Earth's contracted Span
Thy goodness let me bound,

Or think Thee Lord alone of Man,
When thousand Worlds are round

Let not this weak, unknowing hand
Prefume thy bolts to throw,
And deal damnation round the land,
On each I judge thy Foe.

Mean tho' I am, not wholly fo,

Since quick❜ned by thy Breath; O lead me wherefoe'er I go,

Thro' this day's Life or Death.

This day, be Bread and Peace my Lot:

All elfe beneath the Sun,

Thou know't if best bestow'd or not,
And let thy Will be done.

To Thee, whofe Temple is all Space,
Whose Altar, Earth, Sea, Skies!

One Chorus let all Being raife!
All Nature's Incense rife!

MORAL ESSAYS,

IN

FOUR EPISTLES,

ΤΟ

Several Perfons.

Est brevitate opus, ut currat fententia, neu fe
Impediat verbis laffas onerantibus aures:
Et fermone opus eft modo trifti, fæpe jocofo,
Defendente vicem modo Rhetoris átque Poetæ,
Interdum urbani, parcentis viribus, atque

Extenuantis eas confultò.

HOR.