These are the calamities by which Providence gradually difengages us from the love of life. Other evils fortitude may repel, or hope may mitigate; but irreparable privation leaves nothing to exercise refolution, or flatter expectation. The dead cannot return, and nothing is left us here but lan guishment and grief.

Yet fuch is the course of nature, that whoever lives long muft outlive those whom he loves and honours. Such is the condition of our prefent exiftence, that life must one time lofe its affociations, and every inhabitant of the earth muft walk downward to the grave alone and unregarded, without any partner of his joy or grief, without any interefted wit nefs of his misfortunes or fuccefs. Misfortunes indeed he may yet feel, for where is the bottom of the mifery of man! But what is fuccefs to him who has none to enjoy it? Hap. pinefs is not found in felf-contemplation;-it is perceived only when it is reflected from another.

We know little of the state of departed fouls, because fuch knowledge is not neceffary to a good life. Reafon deferts us at the brink of the grave, and gives no farther intelligence, Revelation is not wholly filent." There is joy in the angels of heaven over a finner that repenteth." And furely this joy is not incommunicable to fouls difentangled from the body, and made like angels.

Let the hope, therefore, dictate what revelation does not confute that the union of fouls may ftill remain; and that we, who are ftruggling with fin, forrow, and infirmities, may have our part in the attention and kindness of those who have finished their course, and are now receiving their reward.

There are the great occafions which force the mind to take refuge in religion. When we have no help in ourselves, what can remain but that we look up to a higher and a greater Power? And to what hope may we not raise our eyes and hearts, when we confider that the greateft power is the bef?

Surely there is no man who, thus afflicted, does not feek fuccour in the Gofpel, which has brought life and immor. tality to light! The precepts of Epicurus, which teach us to endure what the laws of the univerfe make neceffary, may filence but not content us. The dictates of Zeno, who com mands us to look with indifference on abstract things, may difpofe us to conceal our forrow, but cannot affuage it. Real alleviation of the lofs of friends, and rational tranquility in the profpect of our own diffolution, can be received only from the promife of Him in whofe hands are life and death, and from the aflurances of another and better state, in which all tears will be wiped from our eyes, and the whole foul fhall be filled with joy.-Philofophy may infufe fubbornness, but religion only can give patience. SAM. JOHNSON, POETRY.

1

POETRY.

Retailers of ancient Philofophy expoftulated with.-Sum of the whole matter.-Effects of the facerdotal mifmanagement of the Laity.

LL Truth is from the fempiternal

fource

Of light divine. But Egypt, Greece, and Rome,

Drew from the ftream below. More favor'd, we

Drink, when we chufe it, at the fountain head.
To them it flow'd much mingled and defil'd
With hurtful error, prejudice, and dreams
Illufive of philofophy, fo call'd,

But falfely. Sages after fages ftrove,
In vain, to filter off a chryftal draught

Pure from the lees, which often more enhanc'd
The thirft than flak'd it, and not feldom bred
Intoxication and delirium wild.

In vain they pufh'd enquiry to the birth

And fpring-time of the world; afk'd, Whence is man?
Why form'd at all? And wherefore as he is?

Where must he find his Maker? With what rites
Adore him? Will he hear, accept, and blefs?
Or does he fit regardless of his works?
Has man within him an immortal feed?
Or does the tomb take all? If he survive
His afhes, where? and in what weal or woe?
Knots worthy of folution, which alone

A Deity could folve. Their answers vague,
And all at random, fabulous and dark,

Left them as dark themselves. Their rules of life
Defective and unfanction'd, prov'd too weak
To bind the roving appetite, and lead
Blind nature to a God not yet reveal'd.
'Tis Revelation fatisfies all doubts,
Explains all myfteries, except her own,
And fo illuminates the path of life,
That fools difcover it, and fray no more.
Now tell me, dignified and fapient fir,
My man of morals, nurtur'd in the fhades
Of Academus, is this falfe or true?
Is Chrift the abler teacher, or the fchools?
If Chrift, then why refort at ev'ry turn.
To Athens or to Rome, for wisdom fhort
Of man's occafions, when in him refide
Grace, knowledge, comfort, an unfathom'd store?
How oft, when Paul has ferv'd us with a text,

SEMPITERNAL,-continual, perpetual, endlefs, everlafting.

Has

Has Epictetus, Plato, Tully preach'd!

Men that, if now alive, would fit content
And humble learners of a Saviour's worth,
Preach it who might. Such was their love of truth,
Their thirst of knowledge, and their candour too.

And thus it is. The paftor, either vain
By nature, or by flatt'ry made fo, taught
To gaze at his own fplendor, and t'exalt
Abfurdly, not his office, but himself;
Or unenlighten'd, and too proud to learn,
Or vicious, and not therefore apt to teach,
Perverting often by the ftrefs of lewd
And loofe example, whom he fhould inftruct,
Expofes and holds up to broad difgrace
The nobleft function, and difcredits much
The brightest truths that man has ever seen.
For ghoftly counfel, if it either fall
Below the exigence, or be not back'd
With fhow of love, at leaft with hopeful proof
Of fome fincerity on the giver's part;
Or be dishonor'd in th' exterior form
And mode of its conveyance, by fuch tricks
As move derifion, or by foppifh airs
And hiftrionic mumm'ry, that let down
The pulpit to the level of the ftage,
Drops from the lips a difregarded thing.
The weak perhaps are moved, but are not taught,
While prejudice in men of ftronger minds
Takes deeper root, confirm'd by what they fee.
A relaxation of religion's hold

Upon the roving and untutor'd heart

Soon follows, and the curb of confcience fnapt,
The laity run wild.

The country mourns,

Mourns, because ev'ry plague that can infeft
Society, and that faps and worms the base
Of th'edifice that policy has rais'd,

Swarms in all quarters; meets the eye, the ear,
And fuffocates the breath at ev'ry turn.
Profufion breeds them; and the caufe itfelf
Of that calamitous mifchief has been found:
Found too where most offensive, in the skirts
Of the rob'd pedagogue. Elfe, let th' arraign'd
Stand up unconfcious, and refute the charge.

HISTRIONIC,-befitting the flage; fuitable to a player;
belonging to the theatre: becoming a buffoon.

Se

So when the Jewish Leader ftretch'd his arm,
And wav'd his rod divine, a race obscene,
Spawn'd in the muddy beds of Nile, came forth,
Polluting Egypt. Gardens, fields, and plains

Were cover'd with the peft. The streets were fill'd ; .
The croaking nuisance lurk'd in ev'ry nook,
Nor palaces nor even chambers 'fcap'd,

And the land ftank, fo num'rous was the fry.

Mr. CowPER'S Time-Piece.

VERSES by a pious Clergyman in Virginia, who preaches to feven congregations, the nearest of which meets at the diftance of five miles from his House, as he was returning home in a very rainy night.

COME

NOME, heav'nly penfive contemplation, come,
Poffefs my Soul, and folemn thoughts infpire.
The facred hours, that with too fwift a wing
Inceffant hurry by, nor quite elaps'd,

Demand a ferious close. Then be my foul
Sedate and folemn, as this gloom of Night,
That thickens round me. Free from care, compos'd
Be all my foul, as this dread folitude,

Thro' which, with gloomy joy, I make my way.
Above these clouds, above the fpacious fky,
In whose vaft arch thefe cloudy oceans roll,
Difpenfing fatnefs to the world below;
There dwells the MAJESTY, whofe fingle hand
Props univerfal Nature, and who deals
His liberal Bleffings to this little Globe,
The refidence of worms; where ADAM's fons,
Thoughtless of him, who taught their fouls to think,
Ramble in vain purfuits. The Hofts of Heav'n,
Cherubs and Seraphs, Potentates and Thrones,
Array'd in glorious light, hover on wing
Before his throne, and wait his fovereign nod:
With active zeal, with facred rapture fir'd,
To his extenfive empire's utmost bound
They bear his orders, and his charge perform.
Yet he, ev'n he, (ye ministers of flame,
Admire the condefcenfion and the grace!)
Employs a mortal form'd of meaneft clay,
Debas'd by fin, whofe beft defert is hell;
Employs him to proclaim a SAVIOUR's name,
And offer pardon to a rebel world.

This day my tongue, the glory of my frame,
Enjoy'd the honour of his advocate:
Immortal fouls, of more tranfcendent worth

Thaa

Than Ophir, or Peru's exhaustless mines,
Are trufted to my care. Important truft!
What if fome wretched foul, (tremendous thought!)
Once favour'd with the Gofpel's joyful found,
Now loft, for ever loft thro' my neglect,
In dire infernal glooms, with flaming tongue,
Be heaping execrations on my head,
Whilft here fecure I dream my life away!
What if fome Ghoft, cut off from life and hope,
With fierce despairing eyes up-turn'd to Heav'n,
That wildly ftare, and witness horrors huge,
Be roaring horrid, "Lord, avenge my blood
"On that unpitying wretch, who saw me run
"With full career the dire enchanting road
"To these devouring Flames, yet warn'd me not,
"Or faintly warn'd me; and with languid tone,
"And cool harangue, denounc'd eternal fire,
"And wrath divine ?" At the dread fhocking thought
My fpirit fhudders, all my inmoft foul

Trembles and fhrinks. Sure, if the plaintive cries
Of fpirits reprobate can reach the ear

Of their great JUDGE, they must be cries like these.
But if the meaneft of the happy choir,
That with eternal fymphonies furround

The heav'nly throne, can ftand, and thus declare,
"I owe it to his care that I am here,

"Next to almighty grace: his faithful hand,
"Regardless of the frowns he might incur,
"Snatch'd me, reluctant, from approaching flames,
"Ready to catch, and burn unquenchable:
"May richest Grace reward his pious zeal
"With fome bright mansion in this world of blifs.”
Tranfporting thought! Then bleffed be the hand
That form'd my elemental clay to man,

And ftill fupports me. 'Tis worth while to live,
If I may live to purposes fo great.

Awake my dormant zeal! for ever flame
With gen'rous ardors for immortal fouls;

And may my head, and tongue, and heart, and all,
Spend and be spent in service so divine.