Verses Addressed to the Rev. Mr. (Now Bishop) Warburton, Occasioned by Reading His Sermons

Let Rome, on man God's image to deface, Still deem stupidity a mark of grace, On ignorance build what monks devotion name; Her faith, impiety; her glory, shame: While priest and people ghostly commerce hold, And pious frauds exchange for sinful gold, May Truth's divine invariable ray Still bless our isle with intellectual day, Here, still let wisdom at each temple wait, Trace all our streets, and knock at every gate, Still keep us sacred, as her last retreat From fools much cheated, and from knaves who cheat: Still teach thy hands to build, a blest employ! On knowledge virtue, and on virtue joy; On Reason's base to bid Religion rise, 'Till the tall pile shall end within the skies.