$g$ sIt9CELLANEO CS THOUGHTS. IX. The Sacred Concert of Praise. I. COME, prettybirds, fly to this verdant shade, here let our different notes in.praise conspire 'Twos the same hand your painted pinions spread. That form'd my nobler pow'rs to raise his honours higher. 2 Fair songsters, come; beneath the sacred grove We'll sit and teach the woods our Maker's name ; Men have forgot his works, his power, his love, Forgot the mighty arm that rear'd their wondrous frame. 3 I search the crowded court, the busy street, Run thro' the villages, trace every road: in vain I search; for every heart I meet Is laden with the world, and empty, of its God. X. The World a 1 INFINITE beauty, everlasting love, How are our hearts, our thoughts, estrang'd from thee ! Th' eternal God surrounds us; yet we rove In chace of airy toys, and follow as they flee. 2 Oh could I cry, and make the nations hear, From northto south my voice should teach thy name; 4 How shall I bear with men to spendmy days? Dear feather'd innocents, you please me best: My God has fram'd your voices for his praise, IIis high designs are answer'd by your tuneful breast. 5 Sweet warblers, come, wake all your chearfnl tongues, Wejoin with angelsand their heav'n- ly choirs ; Our humble airs may imitate their songs, Tho' bolder are their notes, and purer are their fires. 6 Had I ten thousand hearts, my God, my Love. Had. I ten thousand voices all are : Where thi love ne inflames the soul, the lips must move, Nor shall the song be mortal where the theme's divine. Stranger to God.- I'd tell them, that they buy their joys too dear, Andpay immortal souls for glitt'rign dustor fame. 3 Alinightypow'r,-break off these chains of sense, Melt them away with love's celestial fire, Create the world anew; let man com- mence A seraph here on earth, let Man to heav'n aspire. XI. Purgatory. IT was a gainful contrivance of the priests of Rome, to erect a building between heaven and hell, where to dispose of good- christians'after death till they are completely fit for .heaven : This is 'purgatory ; a placé where the remaining vices of the dying man are purged out with fire : The torments of it are said to be equal with the torments of hell, and differ only in the duration. Those souls for whom the priest is hired to say most masses, are soonest freed from the relics of iniquity, and get the speediest release to the heavenly regions. This fills the coffers of the clergy by the-legacies of the dead : Every one that leaves the world, takes something away from his friends and his heirs to purchase prayers for himself, and to shorten the anguish of his purification. 'Even that excellent man, the Archbishop of Cambray, in his posthumous book, called his Spiritual Works, speaks of the necessity of this.; purifying fire, for good christiaos
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