On Exodus iii. 14. "I am that I am." ANO D E. WRITTEN 1688, AS AN EXERCISE AT ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE. MAN! foolish man! I. Scarce know'st thou how thyfelf began; Scarce haft thou thought enough to prove thou art; Vain are thy thoughts, while thou thyself art duft. II. Let wit her fails, her oars let wisdom lend; Yet ceafe to hope thy short-liv'd bark shall ride And, in the bofom of that boundless fea, VOL. XXXII. L III. With III. With daring pride and infolent delight, your labours crown', And, "EYPHKA! your God, forfooth, is found But is he therefore found? vain fearcher! no: That nothing you, the weak definer, know. IV. Say, why fhould the collected main Itfelf within itself contain? Why to its caverns should it fometimes creep, On the lov'd bofom of its parent deep? In comely difcipline, and fair array, Till winds and tides exert their high command! Their opening ranks o'er earth's fubmiffive head, V. Why does the constant fun With meafur'd steps his radiant journies run? To leave earth's other part, and rise in ours? Why Why does each animated star Love the juft limits of its proper fphere? VI. Man does with dangerous curiofity Matter and motion he restrains; And studied lines and fictious circles draws: Lord of his new hypothefis he reigns. He reigns: how long? till fome ufurper rife; Were empty cant, all jargon of the schools ; And shows his friend's mistake, and thence confirms his own.. VII. On earth, in air, amidst the feas and skies, L 2 : Yet Yet ftill inquiring, ftill mistaken man, Each hour repuls'd, each hour dares onward prefs; And, levelling at God his wandering guess (That feeble engine of his reafoning war, Which guides his doubts, and combats his defpair) Laws to his Maker the learn'd wretch can give: Can bound that nature, and prescribe that will, Whose pregnant word did either ocean fill: Can tell us whence all beings are, and how they move and live. Through either ocean, foolish man! That pregnant word fent forth again, Might to a world extend each atom there; For every drop call forth a fea, a heaven for every VIII. Let cunning earth her fruitful wonders hide ; To trembling Calvary's aftonifh'd top; ftar. Then mock thy knowledge, and confound thy pride, How by her patient victor death was flain ; Low, reverently low, Make thy ftubborn knowledge bow; Weep out thy reafon's and thy body's eyes; Deject thyfelf, that thou may'ft rife; To look to Heaven, be blind to all below. IX. Then IX. Then Faith, for Reason's glimmering light, fhall give Her immortal perspective; And Grace's prefence Nature's lofs retrieve : Then thy enliven'd soul shall fee, That all the volumes of Philofophy, With all their comments, never could invent To reach the heaven of heavens, the high abode, As was the ladder which old Jacob rear'd, CONSIDERATIONS ON PART OF THE 88th PSALM. A COLLEGE EXERCISE, 1690. I. HEAVY, O Lord, on me thy judgments lie, Accurft I am, while God rejects my cry. O'erwhelm'd in darkness and despair I groan; And every place is hell; for God is gone. O! Lord, arife, and let thy beams control Thofe horrid clouds, that press my frighted foul: II. Downward I hasten to my deftin'd place; There none obtain thy aid, or fing thy praife. L 3 Soon |