Of endless arguments above, below,
Without us, and within, the short result-
If man's immortal, there's a God in heaven!' But wherefore such redundancy? such waste Of argument? one sets my soul at rest;
One obvious, and at hand, and, oh!-at heart.
So just the skies, Philander's life so pain'd,
His heart so pure, that or succeeding scenes
Havo palms to give, or ne'er had he been born!
'What an old tale is this!' Lorenzo cries.-
I grant this argument is old; but truth
No years impair; and had not this been true,
Thou never hadst despised it for its age
Truth is immortal as thy soul, and fable
As fleeting as thy joys. Be wise, nor make
Heaven's highest blessing vengeance. O be wise! 990
Nor make a curse of immortality!
Say, know'st thou what it is, or what thou art? Know'st thou the' importance of a soul immortal? Behold this midnight glory: worlds on worlds! Amazing pomp; redouble this amaze !
Ten thousand add; add twice ten thousand more;
Then weigh the whole; one scul outweighs them all, And calls the' astonishing magnificence
Of unintelligent creation poor.
For this, believe not me: no man believe;
Trust not in words, but deeds; and deeds no less
Than those of the Supreme, nor his a few.
Consult them all; consulted, all proclaim
Thy soul's importance. Tremble at thyself,
For whom Omnipotence has waked so long;
Has waked, and work'd for ages; from the birth
Of Nature to this unbelieving hour.
In this small province of his vast domain (All Nature bow while I pronounce his name!). What has God done, and not for this sole end,
I rescue souls from death? The soul's high price Is writ in all the conduct of the skies
The soul's high price is the Creation's key,
Unlocks its mysteries, and naked lays
The genuine cause of every deed divine:
That is the chain of ages which maintains
Their obvious correspondents, and unites
Most distant periods in one bless'd design:
That is the mighty hinge on which have turn'd
All revolutions, whether we regard
The natural, civil, or religious world;
The former two, but servants to the third :
To that their duty done, they both expire,
Their mass new-cast, forgot their deeds renown'd,
And angels ask, 'Where once they shone so fair?'
To lift us from this abject, to sublime;
This flux, to permanent; this dark, to day;
This foul, to pure; this turbid, to serene;
This mean, to mighty!—for this glorious end
The' Almighty, rising, his long sabbath broke!
The world was made, was ruin'd, was restored;
Laws from the skies were publish'd, were repeal'd;
On earth kings, kingdoms, rose; kings, kingdoms, fell;
Famed sages lighted up the Pagan world;
Prophets from Sion darted a keen glance
Through distant age; saints travel'd, martyrs bled;
By wonders sacred Nature stood control'd;
The living were translated; dead were raised;
Angels, and more than angels, came from Heaven;
And, oh! for this descended lower still:
Gilt was Hell's gloom; astonish'd at his guest,
For one short moment Lucifer adored.
Lorenzo and wilt thou do less?-For this
That hallow'd page, fools scoff at, was inspired,
Of all these truths, thrice-venerable code!
Deists! perform your quarantine; and then
Fall prostrate, ere you touch it, lest you die.
Nor less intensely bent infernal powers
To mar, than those of light, this end to gain.
O what a scene is here!--Lorenzo! wake!
Rise to the thought; exert, expand thy soul
To take the vast idea; it denies
All else the name of great. Two warring worlds,
Not Europe against Afric! warring worlds,
Of more than mortal, mounted on the wing!
On ardent wings of energy and zeal,
High hovering o'er this little brand of strife,
This sublunary ball.-But strife, for what?
In their own cause conflicting! no; in thine,
In man's. His single interest blows the flame; 1060
His the sole stake; his fate the trumpet sounds
Which kindles war immortal. How it burns!
Tumultuous swarms of deities in arms;
Force, force opposing, till the waves run high,
And tempest Nature's universal sphere.
Such opposites eternal, steadfast, stern,
Such foes implacable are good and ill;
Yet man, vain man, would mediate peace between them.
Think not this fiction: There was war in heaven.'
From heaven's high crystal mountain, where
The' Almighty's outstretch'd arm took down his bow,
And shot his indignation at the deep :
Rethunder'd Hell, and darted all her fires.-
And seems the stake of little moment still!
And slumbers man, who singly caused the storm? 1075
He sleeps. And art thou shock'd at mysteries?
The greatest, thou. How dreadful to reflect
What ardour, care, and counsel mortals cause
In breasts divine! how little in their own!
Where'er I turn, how new proofs pour upon me!
How happily this wondrous view supports
My former argument! how strongly strikes
Immortal life's full demonstration here!
Why this exertion? why this strange regard
From Heaven's Omnipotent indulged to man?- 1085
Because in man the glorious, dreadful power,
Extremely to be pain'd, or bless'd for ever.
Duration gives importance, swells the price.
An angel, if a creature of a day,
What would he be ? a trifle of no weight.
Or stand or fall, no matter which, he's gone.
Because immortal, therefore is indulged
This strange regard of deities to dust.
Hence Heaven looks down on earth with all her eyes, Hence, the soul's mighty moment in her sight; 1095 Hence, every soul has partisans above,
And every thought a critic in the skies :
Hence clay, vile clay! has angels for its guard,
And every guard a passion for his charge:
Hence, from all age, the cabinot divine
Has held high counsel o'er the fate of man.
Nor have the clouds those gracious counsels hid
Angels undrew the curtain of the throne,
And Providence came forth to meet mankind:
In various modes of emphasis and awe
He spoke his will, and trembling Nature heard
He spoke it loud, in thunder, and in storm:
-Witness thou, Sinai! whose cloud-cover'd height,
And shaken basis, own'd the present God:
Witness, ye billows! whose returning tide,
Breaking the chain that fasten'd it in air,
Swept Egypt and her menaces to hell.
Witness, ye flames! the' Assyrian tyrant blew
To sevenfold rage, as impotent as strong:
And thou, Earth! witness, whose expanding jaws 1115
Closed o'er Presumption's sacrilegious sons :*
Has not each element, in turn, subscribed
The soul's high price, and sworn it to the wise ?
Has not flame, ocean, ether, earthquake, strove
To strike this truth through adamantine man?
If not all adamant, Lorenzo! hear;
All is delusior.; Nature is wrapp'd up
In tenfold night, from Reason's keerest eye.
There's no consistence, meaning, plan or end.
In all beneath the sun, in all above,
(As far as man can penetrate) or heaven
Is an immense, inestimable prize;
Or all is nothing, or that prize is all.—
And shall each toy be still a match for heaven,
And full equivalent for groans below?
Who would not give a trifle to prevent
What he would give a thousand worlds to cure?
Lorenzo! thou hast scen (if thine to see)
All Nature, and her God, (by Nature's course,
And Nature's course control'd) declare for me.
The skies above proclaim'immortal man!'
And 'man immortal!' all below resounds.
The world's a system of theology,
Read by the greatest strangers to the schools;
If honest, learn'd; and sages o'er` a plough.
Is not, Lorenzo! then, imposed on thee
This hard alternative, or to rerounce
Thy reason and thy sense, or to believe?
What then is unbelief? 'tis an exploit,
A strenuous enterprise; to gain it, man
Must burst through every bar of common sense,
Of common shame, magnanimously wrong;
And what rewards the sturdy combatant?—
His prize, repentance; infamy, his crown.
But wherefore infamy!—for want of faith
Down the steep precipice of wrong he slides;
There's nothing to support him in the right.
Faith in the future wanting is, at least
In embryo, every weakness, every guilt,
And strong temptation ripens it to birth.
If this life's gain invites him to the deed,
Why not his country sold, his father slain?
"Tis virtue to pursue our good supreme,
And his supreme, his only good, is here!
Ambition, avarice, by the wise disdain'd,
Is perfect wisdom while mankina are fools,
And think a turf or tombstone covers all:
These find employment, and provide for sense
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