Yet gave me, in this dark Eftate, To fee the Good from Ill; And binding Nature fast in Fate, Left free the Human Will. What Confcience dictates to be done, This, teach me more than Hell to fhun, What Bleffings thy free Bounty gives, For God is paid when Man receives, Yet not to Earth's contracted Span Or think Thee Lord alone of Man, When thousand Worlds are round: Let not this weak, unknowing hand And deal damnation round the land, On each I judge thy Foe. of Hope and Immortality. To give all this the greater weight, the poet chofe for his model the LORD'S PRAYER, which, of all others, beft deferves the title prefixed to his Paraphrafe. If I am right, thy grace impart, Save me alike from foolish Pride, At aught thy wisdom has deny'd, Teach me to feel another's Woe, Mean tho' I am, not wholly fo, Oh lead me wherefoe'er I go, Thro' this day's Life or Death. NOTES. If I am right, the grace impart,- As the imparting grace on the chriftian fyftem is a ftronger ex- This day, be Bread and Peace my Lot: All elfe beneath the Sun, Thou know'ft if beft beftow'd or not, And let Thy Will be done. To thee, whofe Temple is all Space, Whofe Altar, Earth, Sea, Skies! One Chorus let all Being raise! All Nature's Incenfe rife! Moral Effays IN FOUR EPISTLES то Several Perfons. Eft brevitate opus, ut currat fententia, neu fe HOR. |