'Tis God commands: no farther motive feek,
Speak or without, or with reluctance speak :
To love's habitual fenfe by acts afpire,
And kindle, till you catch the gospel fire.
Difcov'ries immature of truth decline,
Nor proftitute the gofpel pearl to fwine.
Beware, too rafhly how you speak the whole,
The vileness, or the treasures of your foul.
If fpurn'd by fome, where weak on earth you lie,
If judg'd a cheat or dreamer, where you fly;
Here the fublimer ftrain, th' exerted air
Forego; you're at the bar, not in the chair.
To the pert reas'ner if you speak at all,
Speak what within his cognizance may fall;
Expofe not truths divine to reafon's rack,
Give him his own belov'd ideas back,
Your notions, till they look like his, dilute;
Blind he must be--but fave him from difpute!
But when we're turn'd of reason's noontide glare,
And things begin to fhew us what they are,
More free to fuch your true conceptions tell;
Yet graft them on the arts where they excel.
If fprightly fentiments detain their tafte;
If paths of various learning they have trac'd;
If their cool judgment longs, yet fears to fix:
Fire, erudition, hesitation mix.
All rules are dead: 'tis from the heart you
The living luftre, and unerring law.
A ftate of thinking in your manner fhew,
Nor fiercely foaring, nor fupinely low :
Others their lightness in each inward fault
Quench in the ftilnefs of your deeper thought.
Let all your gestures fixt attention draw,
And wide around diffufe infectious awe;
Prefent with God by recollection feem,
Yet prefent, by your chearfulness, with them.
Without elation chriftian glories paint, Nor by fond am'rous phrase assume the saint. Greet not frail men with compliments untrue; With fmiles to peace confirm'd and conquest due, There are who watch t' adore the dawn of grace, And pamper the young profelyte with praise: Kind, humble fouls! they with a right good will Admire his progress-till he ftands stock still.
Speak but to thirsty minds of things divine,
Who ftrong for thought, are free in yours to join.
The bufy from his channel parts with pain,
The languid loaths an elevated fstrain.
With thefe you aim but at good-natur'd chat,
Where all except the love, is low and flat.
Not one addrefs will diff'rent tempers fit, The grave and gay, the heavy and the wit. Wits will fift you, and most conviction find
Where leaft 'tis urg'd, and feems the least design'd.
Slow minds are merely paffive; and forget
Truths not inculcated: to thefe repeat,
Avow your counfel, nor abftain from heat.
Some gentle fouls to gay indiff'rence true, Nor hope, nor fear, nor think the more for you: Let love turn babbler here, and caution fleep, Blush not for fhallow fpeech, nor mufe for deep; Thefe to your humour, not your sense attend, 'Tis not th' advice that fways them, but the friend. Others have large receffes in their breast: With panfive procefs all they hear digeft: Here well-wh'd words with wary forefight fow, For all you fay will fink, and ev'ry feed will grow.
At first acquaintance prefs each truth fevere,
Stir the whole odium of your character;
Let harfheft do&rines all your words engross,
And nature bleeding on the daily crofs.
Then to yourfelf th' afcetic rule enjoin,
To others floop furprisingly benign;
Pitying, if from themselves with pain they part,
If stubborn nature long holds out the heart.
Their outworks now are gain'd; forbear to prefs;
The more you urge them, you prevail the less;
Let fpeech lay by its roughness to oblige,
Your fpeaking life will carry on the fiege :
By your example ftruck, to God they strive
To live, no longer to themselves alive.
To pofitive adepts infidious yield,
T'infure the conqueft, feem to quit the field:
Large in your grants; be their opinion shown:
Approve, amend-and wind it to your own.
Couch in your hints, if more refign'd they hear,
Both what they will be foon, and what they are:
Pleasing these words now to their confcious breast,
Th' anticipating voice hereafter bleft.
In fouls juft wak'd the paths of light to choofe,
Convictions keen, and zeal of pray'r infufe.,
Let them love rules; till freed from paffion's reign,
Till blameless moral rectitude they gain.
But left reform'd from each extremer ill,
They should but civilize old nature still,
The loftier charms and energy difplay
Of virtue modell'd by the Godhead's ray;
The lineaments divine, perfection's plan,
And all the grandeur of the heav'nly man.
Commences thus the agonizing firife
Previous to nature's death, and second life:
Struck by their own inclement piercing eye,
Their feeble virtues blufh, fubfide, and die:
They view the scheme that mimic nature made,
A fancy'd goddess, and religion's fhade;
With angry fcorn they now reject the whole,
Unchanged their heart, undeify'd their foul:-
Till indignation fleeps away to faith,
And God's own pow'r and peace take root in facred
Aim lefs to teach than love. The work begun In words, is crown'd by artlefs warmth alone, Love to your friend a fecond office owes,
Yourself and him before heav'n's footitcol throws:
You place his form as fuppliant by your fide,
(A helpless worm, for whom the Saviour dy'd)
Into his foul call down the ethereal beam,
And longing afk to spend, and to be spent for him.
PRESERVATION BY LAND AND SEA.
are thy fervants bleft, O Lord!
How fure is their defence!
Eternal Wifdom is their guide,
Their help Omnipotence.
In foreign realms, and lands remote,
Supported by thy care,
Through burning climes I pass'd unhurt,
And breath'd in tainted air.
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