Or why so long (in life if long can be)
Lent heav'n a parent to the poor and me? 110
What makes all physical or moral ill?
There deviates nature, and here wanders will.
God sends not ill; if rightly understood,
Or partial ill is universal good,
Or change admits, or nature lets it fall, 115
Short, and but rare, till man improv'd it all.
We just as wisely might of heav'n complain,
That righteous Abel was destroy'd by Cain;
As that the virt'ous son is ill at ease,
When his lewd father gave the dire disease. 120
Think we, like some weak prince, th' eternal cause
Prone for his fav'rites to reverse his laws?
Shall burning Ætna, if a sage requires,
Forget to thunder, and recal her fires?
On air or sea new motions be impress'd, 125
Oh blameless Bethel! to relieve thy breast?
When the loose mountain trembles from on high,
Shall gravitation cease if you go by?
Or some old temple, nodding to its fall,
For Chart'ris' head reserve the hanging wall? 130
But still this world (so fitted for the knave)
Contents us not. A better shall we have?
A kingdom of the just then let it be:
But first consider how those just agree.
The good must merit God's peculiar care; 135
But who, but God, can tell us who they are?
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