If works are done which nature's power exceed,

We in fome higher power these wondrous works must read.

The gifts of prophecy as plainly fhow There must be one to whom thofe gifts we owe Man's knowledge is too fhallow to foresee What shall to morrow or the next day be; Much more to tell a thoufand years events, Which all depend on future accidents,

And lay those things before us, bright and clear, And just as if they were already here,

Which fhall not come to pass, till distant age Shifts scenes, and brings new prospects on the stage.

Yet thus of old did Abraham foretell

That his poor off-fpring fhould in Ægypt dwell, * And for the space of many a tedious year,

The toilfome yoke of cruel Pharaoh bear.

*See Gen. XV. 13.

Exactly

Exactly did the fad event agree

With what had been foretold in prophecy:

Thus was Jofiah's birth and reign of old,
Some hundred years before they came, foretold. ||
And thus Ifaiah told, as he foresaw,

That Cyrus to the Perfians fhould give Law,
That by his mighty arm the Jews fhould rife,
And, tho' then flaves, fubdue their enemies.
And, that the matter might be free from doubt,
By name he mark'd this glorious monarch out.
Thus all the prophets did pre-fignify
The bleffed JESUS's Nativity,

And laid each circumstance so nicely down,
That by the character the God was known.

If all these prophecies are not fulfill'd,
We are content with fhame to quit the field;
But if they are, as justly we believe,

The Atheist must be damn'd beyond reprieve,

1 Kings xiii. 2, ↑ Ifa:ab xliv. 45%

For

For they who fhut their eyes, and will not fee
The power of an all-knowing Deity,

Who looks with eafe into futurity,

No mercy muft expect, or pity pray,

When the great God fhall keep his judgment day. Man they confefs is of too short a fight

To fee things future, fown in depth of night. Some nobler power they then of course muft grant, Which does no measure of fore-knowledge want. This power is God; whom rafhly they deny, They know not upon what account, or why.

But fome perhaps will call for inftances
Out of profane and vulgar histories;
Tho' without reason they this favour ask,
Yet I would willingly accept the task.

And here the ancient oracles afford

A thousand prophecies, which word for word
Exactly were accomplish'd and reveal'd,
So clearly that they must not be conceal'd,

Some

Some were indeed told in a doubtful way,
But others clear as fun-fhine at mid-day:
Such was the prophecy which did declare,
That Cyrus fhould the Lydians beat in *
Such that which told it should the fortune be
Of Xerxes' navy to be beat at fea, †
When all things promis'd the quite contrary.

war;

Before the bar then let the Atheist kneel,
And take conviction from his own appeal.
No more evasions can he hope to find,

But or must see, or must confefs he's blind.
For, as when day don't enter thro' the fight,
We ftrait conclude the organs are not right:
So, if our Atheist still will persevere,
And neither truth nor folid reason hear,
We must conclude his foul fo full of fin,
That he can't let her proper object in.

* See Herodotus. B.I.

+ Ibid B. VII.

VOL. III.

Y

Qnce

Once more I'll try, if like a fenflefs rock,
Fixt, and unmov'd, he'll ftand another shock;
I'll ply him but with one more argument,
From univerfal judgment and consent,
And if this fails to work upon his foul,
It is because his faculties are foul.

Let us furvey the universe around,
And search each nook where men are to be found;
No nation fhall we meet beneath the sky,
But what does worship fome Divinity.
Of this Divinity, which all believe,

Too few there are that do aright conceive.
Yet with one Voice they all agree in this,
God is, altho' they know not what he is.

A God-head fome attribute to the fun, Others with equal honours crown the moon; Some to a monkey with devotion bow,

Others religiously adore a cow,

*

* See the Alcoran.

And