What is all righteousness that men devise?
What-but a sordid bargain for the skies?
But Christ as soon would abdicate his own,
As stoop from Heav'n to sell the proud a throne.
His dwelling a recess in some rudé rock,
Book, beads, and maple-dish, his meagre stock;
In shirt of hair and weeds of canvass dress'd,
Girt with a bell-rope that the pope has bless'd;
Adust with stripes told out for ev'ry crime,
And sore tormented long before his time;
His pray'r preferred to saints that cannot aid;
His praise postpon'd, and never to be paid;
See the sage hermit, by mankind admir'd,
With all that bigotry adopts inspir'd,
Wearing out life in his religious whim,"
Till his religious whimsy wears out him.
His works, his abstinence, his zeal 'allow'd,
You think him humble-God accounts him proud;
High in demand, though lowly in pretence,
Of all his conduct this the genuine sense
My penitential stripes, my streaming blood,
Have purchas'd Heav'n, and prove my title good.
Turn eastward now, and Fancy shall apply --ki
To your weak sight her telescopic eye? 26 si 1
The bramin kindles on his own bare head? 20A
The sacred fire, self-torturing his trade,ĵo eniq sudil
His voluntary pains, severe and long, aut n'vist?
Would give a barb'rous all to British song fou
thegasy blight 25 for adb 979ra af* ed o
No grand inquisitor could worse invent,
Than he contrives to suffer well content.
Which is the saintlier worthy of the two? Past all dispute, yon anchorite, say you.
Your sentence and mine differ. What's a name?!
say the bramin has the fairer claim.
If suff'rings, Scripture no where recommends,
Devis'd by self to answer selfish ends,
Give saintship, then all Europe must agree
Ten starv'ling hermits suffer less than he.
The truth is (if the truth may suit your ear, olf And prejudice have left a passage clear), (1, Pride has attain'd it's most luxuriant growth, edit And poison'd ev'ry virtue in them both.
Pride may be pamper'd while the flesh grows lean;
Humility may clothe an English dean;
That grace was Cowper's-his, confess'd by all
Though plac'd in golden Durham's second stall.
Not all the plenty of a bishop's board,
His palace, and his lacqueys, and “My Lord,”
More nourish pride, that condescending vice,
Tnan abstinence, and beggary, and lice;
It thrives in mis'ry, and abundant grows:
In mis'ry fools upon themselves impose.
But why before us protestants produce
An Indian mystic, or a French recluse
Their sin is plain; but what have we to fear,
Reform'd and well instructed? You shall bear.
Yon ancient prude, whose wither'd features show She might be young some forty years ago, Her elbows pinion'd close upon her hips,
Her head erect, her fan upon her lips,
Her eye-brows arch'd, her eyes both gone astray
To watch yon am'rous couple in their play,
With bony and unkerchief'd neck defies
The rude inclemency of wintry skies,
And sails with lappet-head and mincing airs
Duly at chink of bell to morning pray'rs.
To thrift and parsimony much inclin'd,
She yet allows herself that boy behind;
The shiv'ring urchin, bending as he goes,
With slipshod heels, and dewdrop at his nose;
His predecessor's coat advanc'd to wear,
Which future pages yet are doom'd to share,
Carries her Bible tuck'd beneath his arm,
And hides his hands to keep his fingers warm.
She, half an angel in her own account,
Doubts not hereafter with the saints to mount,
Though not a grace appears on strictest search,
But that she fasts, and item, goes to church.
Conscious of age she recollects her youth,
And tells, not always with an eye to truth,
Who spann'd her waist, and who, where'er he came,
Scrawl'd upon glass miss Bridget's lovely name;
Who stole her slipper, fill'd it with tokay,
And drank the little bumper ev'ry day.
Of temper as envenom'd as an asp,
Censorious, and her ev'ry word a wasp
In faithful mem'ry she records the crimes
Or real, or fictitious, of the times;
Laughs at the reputations she has torn, it ! ! 2 And holds them dangling at arm's length in scorn. Such are the fruits of sanctimonious pride, H Of malice fed while flesh is mortified:
Take, Madam, the reward of all your pray'rs, T
Where hermits and where bramins meet with theirs;
Your portion is with them.-Nay, never frown,
But, if you please, some fathoms lower down.
Artist attend-your brushes and your paint
Produce them-take a chair-now draw a saint.
farawa
Oh sorrowful and sad! the streaming tears
Channel her cheeks-a Niobe appears! 0
Is this a saint? Throw tints and all away
True Piety is cheerful as the day,
Will weep indeed and heave a pitying groan
For others' woes, but smiles upon her own.
What purpose has the King of saints in view
Why falls the Gospel like a gracious dew?
To call up plenty from the teeming earth, 19, 20%
Or curse the desert with a tenfold dearth?
Is it that Adam's offspring may be sav'di sorbol
From servile fear, or be the more enslav'd 2p me?
To loose the links, that gall'd mankind before,
Or bind them faster on, and add still more? autoss
The freeborn Christian has no chains to prove,
Or, if a chain, the golden one of love :
No fear attends to quench his glowing fires,
What fear he feels his gratitude inspires.
Shall he, for such deliv'rance freely wrought,
Recompense ill? He trembles at the thought.
His master's int'rest and his own combin'd
Prompt ev'ry movement of his heart and mind:
Thought, word and deed, his liberty evince,
His freedom is the freedom of a prince.
Man's obligations infinite, of course
His life should prove that he perceives their force;
His utmost he can render is but small-
The principle and motive all in all.
You have two servants-Toni, an arch, sly rogue,
From top to toe the Geta now in vogue,
Genteel in figure, easy in address,
Moves without noise, and swift as an express,
Reports a message with a pleasing grace,
Expert in all the duties of his place;
Say, on what hinge does his obedience move?
Has he a world of gratitude and love?
No, not a spark 'tis all mere sharper's play:
He likes your house, your housemaid, and your pay;
Reduce his wages, or get rid of her,
Tom quits you, with Your most obedient, Sir.
The dinner serv'd, Charles takes his usual stand, Watches your eye, anticipates command';
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