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The Skies Above proclaim "Immortal Man!"
And, "Man Immortal!" all Below resounds.
The World's a Syftem of Theology,

Read, by the greatest Strangers to the Schools;
If Honeft, Learn'd; and Sages o'er a Plough.
Is not, LORENZo! then, impos'd on Thee
This hard Alternative; or, to renounce
Thy Reafon, and thy Senfe; or, to Believe?
What then is Unbelief? "Tis an Exploit ;
A ftrenuous Enterprize: To gain it, Man
Muft burst thro' ev'ry Bar of common Sense,
Of common Shame, magnanimously wrong
And what rewards the fturdy Combatant?
His Prize, Repentance; Infamy, his Crown.

But wherefore, Infamy ?-For want of Faith,
Down the steep Precipice of Wrong He flides;
There's nothing to fupport him in the Right.
Faith in the Future wanting, is, at least

In Embryo, ev'ry Weakness, ev'ry Guilt;
And ftrong Temptation ripens it to Birth.
If this Life's Gain invites him to the Deed,
Why not his Country fold, his Father flain?
'Tis Virtue to purfue our Good Supreme;
And his Supreme, his Only Good is Here.
Ambition, Av'rice, by the Wife difdain'd,
Is perfect Wisdom, while Mankind are Fools,
And think a Turf, or Tombstone, covers All:
These find Employment, and provide for Sense
A richer Pature, and a larger Range;

And Senfe by Right divine afcends the Throne,
When Virtue's Prize and Profpect are no more;
Virtue no more we think the Will of Heaven..
Would Heav'n quite beggar Virtue, if belov'd?
"Has Virtue Charms "-I grant her heav'nly Fair;
But if unportion'd, all will Int'reft wed;

Tho' That our Admiration, This our Choice.
The Virtues grow on Immortality;

That Root destroy'd, they wither and expire.
A DEITY believ'd, will nought avail;
Rewards and Punishments make God ador'd;
And Hopes and Fears give Confcience all her Power..
As in the dying Parent dies the Child,
Virtue, with Immortality, expires.

Who tells me He denies his Soul Immortal,
Whate'er his Boaft, has told me, He's a Knave.
His Duty 'tis, to love Himfelf alone;

Nor care tho' Mankind perish, if He fmiles.
Who thinks ere-long the Man fhall wholly die,
Is dead already; nought but Brute furvives.

And are there fuch ?-Such Candidates there are
For more than Death; for utter Lofs of Being,
Being, the Bafis of the DEITY!

Afk you the Caufe?-The Caufe they will not tell;
Nor need they: Oh the Sorceries of Sense!
They work this Transformation on the Soul,
Dismount her like the Serpent at the Fall,

Difmount her from her native Wing (which foar'd
Ere-while ethereal Heights), and throw her down,
To lick the Duft, and crawl, in fuch a Thought.

Is it in Words to paint you ? O ye Fall'n!
Fall'n from the Wings of Reafon, and of Hope!
Erect in Stature, Prone in Appetite!

Patrons of Pleasure, pofting into Pain!
Lovers of Argument, averse to Sense !
Boafters of Liberty, fast-bound in Chains!
Lords of the wide Creation, and the Shame!
More Senfeless than th' Irrationals you fcorn!
More Bafe than thofe you rule! Than thofe you pity,
Far more Undone ! O ye most infamous

Of Beings, from Superior Dignity!

Deepeft

Deepest in Woe from Means of boundless Bliss!
Ye curft by Bleffings infinite! Because
Moft highly favour'd, moft profoundly loft!
Ye motly Mafs of Contradiction strong!

And are you, too, convinc'd, your Souls fly off
In Exhalation foft, and die in Air,

From the full Flood of Evidence against you?
In the coarfe Drudgeries, and Sinks of Senfe,
Your Souls have quite worn out the Make of Heaven,
By Vice new-caft, and Creatures of your own:
But tho' you can deform, you can't destroy;"
To curfe, not uncreate, is all your Power.
LORENZO! this black Brotherhood renounce ;
Renounce St. Evremont, and read St. Paul.
Ere rapt by Miracle, by Reason wing'd,
His mounting Mind made long Abode in Heaven.
This is Freethinking, unconfin'd to Parts,

To fend the Soul, on curious Travel bent,
Thro' all the Provinces of Human Thought;

To dart her Flight, thro' the whole Sphere of Man;
Of this vaft Univerfe to make the Tour;

In each Recefs of Space and Time, at Home;
Familiar with their Wonders; diving deep;
And, like a Prince of boundless Int'refts There,
Still most ambitious of the most Remote;
To look on Truth unbroken, and intire;
Truth in the Syftem, the full Orb; where Truths
By Truths enlighten'd, and sustain'd, afford
An arch-like, ftrong Foundation, to support
Th' incumbent Weight of abfolute, complete
Conviction; Here, the more we press, we stand
More Firm; Who moft Examine most Believe.
Parts, like Half-fentences, confound; the Whole
Conveys the Senfe, and GoD is understood;

Who not in Fragments writes to Human Race:
Read his whole Volume, Sceptic! then Reply.
This, This, is Thinking-free, a Thought that grafps
Beyond a Grain, and looks beyond an Hour.
Turn up thine Eye, furvey this Midnight Scene;
What are Earth's Kingdoms, to yon boundless Orbs,
Of human Souls, one Day, the deftin'd Range?
And what yon boundless Orbs, to Godlike Man?
Those num'rous Worlds that throng the Firmament,
And ask more Space in Heav'n, can roll at large
In Man's capacious Thought, and ftill leave Room
For ampler Orbs; for new Creations, There.
Can fuch a Soul contract itself, to gripe
A Point of no Dimenfion, of no Weight?
It can; it does: The World is fuch a Point:
And, of that Point, how small a Part enslaves!
How small a Part-of Nothing, fhall I fay?
Why not?-Friends, our chief Treasure! How they drop!
LUCIA, NARCISSA fair, PHILANDER, gone!
The Grave, like fabl'd Cerberus, has op'd
A triple Mouth; and, in an aweful Voice,
Loud calls my Soul, and utters All I fing.
How the World falls to pieces round about us,
And leaves us in a Ruin of our Joy!
What fays this Tranfportation of my Friends?
It bids me love the Place where now they dwell,
And fcorn this wretched Spot, they leave fo Poor.
Eternity's vaft Ocean lies before thee;

There, There, LORENZO! thy CLARISSA fails.
Give thy Mind Sea-room; keep it wide of Earth,
That Rock of Souls immortal; cut thy Cord;
Weigh Anchor; fpread thy Sails; call ev'ry Wind;
Eye thy Great Pole-ftar; make the Land of Life.

Two Kinds of Life has double-natur'd Man,
And Two of Death; the Last far more severe.

Life animal is nurtur'd by the Sun ;

Thrives on his Bounties, triumphs in his Beams.
Life rational fubfits on higher Food,

Triumphant in His Beams, who made the Day.
When we leave that Sun, and are left by this,
(The Fate of all who die in ftubborn Guilt)
'Tis utter Darkness ; ftrictly Double Death.
We fink by no Judicial Stroke of Heaven,
But Nature's Courfe; as fure as Plumbets fall..
Since God, or Man, muft alter, ere they meet,
(Since Light and Darkness blend not in one Sphere).
Tis manifeft, LORENZO! who must change.

If, then, that Double Death should prove thy Lot,
Blame not the Bowels of the DEITY;
Man fhall be bleft, as far as Man permits.
Not Man alone, all Rationals, Heav'n arms
With an Illuftrious, but Tremendous, Power
To counter-act Its own most gracious Ends;
And this, of strict Neceffity, not Choice:
That Pow'r deny'd, Men, Angels, were no more,
But paffive Engines, void of Praise, or Blame.
A Nature Rational implies the Power

Of being bleft, or wretched, as we please ;;
Elfe idle Reafon would have nought to do;
And he that would be barr'd Capacity
Of Pain, courts Incapacity of Blifs.
Heav'n wills our Happiness, allows our Doom;
Invites us ardently, but not compels ;

Heav'n but perfuades, Almighty Man decrees;
Man is the Maker of Immortal Fates.
Man falls by Man, if finally He falls;
And fall He must, who learns from Death alone,
The dreadful Secret,-That he lives for Ever..
Why This to thee? Thee yet, perhaps, in Doubt
Of Second Life? But wherefore doubtful kill?