Then for the style, majestic and divine, It speaks no less than God in every line: Commanding words; whose force is still the same As the first fiat that produced our frame. All faiths beside, or did by arms ascend; Or, sense indulged, has made mankind their friend: This only doctrine does our lusts oppose-- Unfed by Nature's soil, in which it grows; Cross to our interests, curbing sense, and sin; 160 Oppress'd without, and undermined within, It thrives through pain; its own tormentors tires; And with a stubborn patience still aspires. To what can reason such effects assign, Transcending nature, but to laws divine? Which in that sacred volume are contain'd; Sufficient, clear, and for that use ordain'd. But stay: the Deist here will urge anew, No supernatural worship can be true: Because a general law is that alone 170 Which must to all, and every where be known: A style so large as not this Book can claim, Nor aught that bears Reveal'd Religion's name. 'Tis said the sound of a Messiah's birth Is gone through all the habitable earth: But still that text must be confined alone To what was then inhabited, and known: And what provision could from thence accrue To Indian souls, and worlds discover'd new? In other parts it helps, that ages past, 180 The Scriptures there were known, and were embraced, Till sin spread once again the shades of night: What's that to these who never saw the light?