Without us, and within, the short result-
"If man's immortal, there's a God in heav'n."
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
Have 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 despis'd it for its age.
Truth is immortal as thy soul; and fable
As fleeting as thy joys: be wise, nor make
Heav'n's highest blessing, vengeance; oh, be wise! 990 Nor make a curse of immortality.
Say, know'st thou what it is, or what thou art? Know'st thou th' 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 soul outweighs them all; And calls th' 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 wak'd so long:
Has wak'd, 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,
To 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 correspondence, 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
Th' Almighty, rising, his long Sabbath broke!
"The world was made; was ruin'd; was restor.'d;
Laws from the skies were publish'd; were repeal'd ;
On earth, kings, kingdoms, rose; kings, kingdoms, fell ;
Fam'd sages lighted up the Pagan world;
Prophets from Sion darted a keen glance
Through distant age; saints travell'd; martyrs bled;
By wonders sacred nature stood controll'd;
The living were translated; dead were rais'd;
Angels, and more than angels, came from heav'n;
And, oh! for this, descended lower still;
Guilt was hell's gloom; astonish'd at his guest,
For one short moment Lucifer ador.'d:
Lorenzo! and wilt thou do less?-For this,
That hallow'd page, fools scoff at, was inspir'd,
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 pow'rs
To mar, than those of light, this end to gain.
Oh, 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-hov 'ring 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:
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 heav'n."
From heav'n's high crystal mountain, where it hung,
Th' Almighty's outstretch'd arm took down his bow, 1071
And shot his indignation at the deep :
Re-thunder'd hell, and darted all her fires.-
And seems the stake of little moment still?
And slumbers man, who singly caus'd the storm?
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 indulg'd to man?—
Because, in man, the glorious dreadful pow'r,
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 indulg'd
This strange regard of deities to dust.
Hence, Heav'n looks down on earth with all her eyes; Hence, the soul's mighty moment in her sight:
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 cabinet 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 ber menaces, to hell:
Witness, ye flames! th' Assyrian tyrant blew
To sevenfold rage, as impotent, as strong:
And thou, earth! witness, whose expanding jaws
Clos'd o'er Presumption's sacrilegious sons:1
Has not each element, in turn, subscrib'd
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! hèar;
All is delusion; Nature is wrapt up,
In tenfold night, from Reason's keenest eye;
There's no consistence, meaning, plan, or end,
In all beneath the sun, in all above
(As far as man can penetrate), or heav'n
Is an immense, inestimable prize ;
Or all is nothing, or that prize is all.—-
And shall each toy be still a match for Heav'n,
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 seen (if thine to see)
All nature, and her God (by nature's course,
And nature's course controll❜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, impos'd on thee
This hard alternative; or, to renounce
Thy reason, or thy sense; or, to believe?
What then is unbelief? "Tis an exploit ;
1 'Presumption's sacrilegious sons:' Korah, &c.
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