1. A Sferting the authority of the Scripture, in which this
II. The preference and Love of GOD to man in the Creation:
III. The fame Love more amply declar'd in our Redemption.
IV. How necessary this Love is to reform mankind, and bow excellent in itself.
V. Shewing how happy the world would be, if this Love were univerfally embrac’d.
VI. Of preferving this Love in our memory; and how useful the contemplation thereof is.
HE GRECIAN Mufe has all their Gods furviv'd,.
Nor Jove at us, nor PH OE BUS is arriv'd:
Frail Deities! which first the Poets made,
And then invok'd, to give their fancies aid.
Yet, if they still divert us with their rage,
What may be hop'd for in a better age;
When, not from HELICON's imagin'd spring,
But Sacred Writ, we borrow what we fing?
This with the fabric of the world begun;
Elder than light, and fhall out-last the fun.
Before this oracle, like DAG ON, all
The false pretenders, DE LP HOS, AMMON, fall:
Long fince defpis'd, and filent, they afford
Honour, and triumph, to th' eternal Word.
As late philofophy our globe has grac'd,
And rowling earth among the planets plac'd:
So has this Book intitled us to heav'n;
And rules, to guide us to that mansion, giv'n:
Tells the conditions how our peace was made;
And is our pledge for the Great AUTHOR's aid.
His pow'r in nature's ample book we find;
But the lefs volume does express his mind.
This light unknown, bold EPICURUS taught,
That his bleft Gods vouchfafe us not a thought:
But unconcern'd, let all below them flide,
As Fortune does, or humane wisdom, guide.
Religion thus remov'd, the facred yoke,
'And band of all fociety, is broke:
What use of oaths, of promife, or of teft,
Where men regard no God, but interest ?
What endless war would jealous nations tear,
If none above did witness what they swear?
Sad fate of unbelievers, and yet juft,
Among themselves to find fo little truft!
Were Scripture filent, nature would proclaim,
Without a God, our falfhood, and our shame.
To know our thoughts the object of his eyes,
Is the first step tow'rds being good, or wise:
For, tho' with judgment we on things reflect,
Our will determines, not our intellect:
Slaves to their paffion, reafon men employ
Only to compass what they would enjoy.
His fear, to guard us from ourselves, we need;
And Sacred Writ our reason does exceed.
For, tho' heav'n fhews the glory of the LORD,.
Yet fomething shines more glorious in his Word::
His mercy this, (which all his work excells!)
His tender kindness, and compaffion, tells:
While we, inform'd by that cœleftial Book,
Into the bowels of our MAKER. look.
Love there reveal'd, (which never shall have end;
Nor had beginning) fhall our fong commend:
Describe itself, and warm us with that flame,
Which first from heav'n, to make us happy, came.
CANTO II.
HE fear of hell, or aiming to be bleft,
Tsavors too much of private interest.
This mov'd not Moses, nor the zealous PAUL;
Who for their friends abandon'd foul and all:
A greater yet from heav'n to hell defcends,
To fave, and make his enemies his friends.
What line of praise can fathom such a love,
Which reach'd the lowest bottom from above?
The Royal prophet, that extended grace
From heav'n to earth, measur'd but half that space.
The law was regnant, and confin'd his thought;
Hell was not conquer'd, when that Poet wrote:
Heav'n was scarce heard of, until He came down
To make the region, where love triumphs, known.
That early love of creatures yet unmade,
To frame the world th' ALMIGHTY did perfuade::
For, love it was that first created light,
Mov'd on the waters, chas'd away the night
From the rude Chaos: and beftow'd new grace
On things difpos'd of to their proper place;
Some, to rest here; and fome, to fhine above:
Earth, fea, and heav'n, were all th' effects of love.
And love would be return'd. But, there was none
That to themselves, or others, yet were known:.
The world a palace was without a guest,
'Till one appears, that muft excel the reft:
One! like the AUTHOR, whofe capacious mind
Might, by the glorious work, the MAKER find:
Might measure heav'n, and give each star a name 3.
With art, and courage,. the rough ocean tame;
Over the globe with fwelling fails might go,
And that 'tis round, by his experience know:
Make strongest beafts obedient to his will,
And ferve his ufe the fertil earth to till.
When, by his WORD, GOD had accomplish'd all,
Man to create he did a council call:
Employ'd his hand, to give the duft he took
A graceful figure, and majestic look:
With his own breath, convey'd into his breast
Life, and a foul fit to command the rest:
Worthy alone to celebrate his name
For fuch a gift; and tell from whence it came.
Birds fing his praises in a wilder note;
But not with lafting Numbers, and with thought;
Man's great prerogative! But above all
His grace abounds, in his new fav'rite's fall.
If he create, it is a world he makes;
If he be angry, the creation shakes:
From his juft wrath our guilty parents fled;
He curft the earth, but bruis'd the ferpent's head.
Amidst the storm, his bounty did exceed,
In the rich promife of the V1RGIN's feed:
Tho' juftice death, as fatisfaction, craves,
Love finds a way to pluck us from our graves.
OT willing terror should his image move;
He gives a pattern of eternal love;
His Son defcends, to treat a peace with those
Which were, and must have ever been, his foes.
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