Of holy discipline, to glorious war The sacramental host of God's elect: Are all such teachers? would to Heav'n all were! 849 355 He teaches those to read whom schools dismiss❜d, And colleges, untaught: sells accent, tone, O, name it not in Gath!-it cannot be, That grave and learned clerks should need such aid. I venerate the man, whose heart is warm, 370 Whose hands are pure, whose doctrine and whose life, Coincident, exhibit lucid proof That he is honest in the sacred cause. 375 To such I render more than mere respect. Whose actions say that they respect themselves. But loose in morals and in manners vain, In conversation frivolous, in dress 380 Or with his pen, save when he scrawls a card; 385 Of ladyships, a stranger to the poor; To make God's work a sinecure; a slave 390 To his own pleasures and his patron's pride; Preserve the church! and lay not careless hands 395 400 And anxious mainly that the flock he feeds 405 And tender in address, as well becomes A messenger of grace to guilty men. Behold the picture!-Is it like?-Like whom! Object of my implacable disgust. What!-will a man play tricks-will he indulge A silly fond conceit of his fair form, And just proportion, fashionable mien, And pretty face, in presence of his God? 410 415 420 As with the diamond on his lilly hand, I seek divine simplicity in him Who handles things divine; and all besides, 425 430 Though learn'd with labour, and though much admir'd 435 Heard at the conventicle where worthy men, 440 Forth comes the pocket-mirror. First we stroke 445 450 The better hand more busy gives the nose Its bergamot, or aids th' indebted eye With op'ra glass, to watch the moving scene, And quaint, in its deportment and attire, 465 To court a grin, when you should woo a soul: To break a jest, when pity would inspire Pathetick exhortation; and t' address 470 When sent with God's commission to the heart! So did not Paul. Direct me to a quip Or merry turn in all he ever wrote, Your only one till sides and benches fail. 475 No: he was serious in a serious cause, And understood too well the weighty terms, That he had ta'en in charge. He would not stoop 480 O Popular Applause! what heart of man Is proof against thy sweet seducing charms? The wisest and the best feel urgent need Of all their caution in thy gentlest gales; But swell'd into a gust-who, then, alas! 485 With all his canvass set, and inexpert, And therefore heedless, can withstand thy pow'r? Praise from the rivell'd lips of toothless, bald Decrepitude, and in the looks of lean 490 And craving Poverty, and in the bow 495 All truth is from the sempiternal source Of light divine. But Egypt, Greece, and Rome, 500 Drew from the stream below. More favour'd we Drink when we choose it, at the fountain head. To them it flow'd much mingled and defil'd With hurtful errour, prejudice, and dreams But falsely. Sages after sages strove In vain to filter off a crystal draught 505 Pure from the lees, which often more enhanc'd 510 In vain they push'd inquiry to the birth And spring-time of the world; ask'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 bless? 515 Or does he sit regardless of his works? Knots worthy of solution, which alone His ashes, where? and in what weal or wo? 520 A Deity could solve. Their answers, vague And all at random, fabulous and dark, Left them as dark themselves. Their rules of life Defective and unsanction'd, prov'd too weak To bind the roving appetite, and lead 525 Blind nature to a God not yet reveal'd. That fools discover it, and stray no more. 530 535 |