921.73 W589w.pdf - Mesa FamilySearch Library

Rev. Samuel _Fhilbzg. 17 3
With Ambrose, and more of the highest class
In Christ's great school, with honor I let pass,
And humbly pay my debt to Whiting's ghost,
Of whoin both Englands may with reason boast.
Nations for men of lesser worth have strove
To have the fame, and in transports of love
Built temples, or fixed statues of pure gold,
And their vast worth to after ages told.
His modesty forbade so fair a tomb,
Who in ten thousand hearts obtained a room.
What sweet composure in his angel face I
What soft affections I melting gleams of grace I
How mildly pleasant ! by his closed lips
Rhetoric's bright body suffers an eclipse.
Should half his sentences be fairly numbered,
And weighed in wisdom's scales, 'twould spoil a Lom-
bard, •
And churches' homilies but homily be,
If, venerable Whiting, set by thee.
Profoundest judgment, with a meekness rare,
Preferred him to the moderator's chair,
Where, like truth's champion, with his piercing eye,
He silenced errors, and bade Hectors fly.
Soft answers quell hot passions, ne'er too soft,
Where solid judgment is enthroned aloft.
Church doctors are my witnesses, that here
Affections always keep their proper sphere