Classic Poem

My next acquaintance in that neer degree
Of learned Friendship, Hall, I lost in thee,
For knowledge did thy yeares anticipate,
A sad, but Glorious, sign of timeless fate.
Thou early blossom of the wondring North!
Where first I saw and singled out thy worth.
Ah! that thy innocent prodigious Youth
Had never been transplanted to the South!
Then had'st thou liv'd untainted with the Crimes
Of those Rebellious Epecurian Times!
Atheist and Theist then the Kingdome sway'd
And, Rivall-like, each other did invade;
Pernicious Twins of Hell, the elder brother
Denyes a God, his providence the other.
Fools, to vain purpose eager in contest,
Where both are worst, which Tenet is the best?
Each greedy of self-ruine, does essay
To mortalize his soul the subtler way.
Hot in debate, though in the Game they choose
Whoever wins, yet both are sure to lose.
Ill buisied mind of Man! in what a maze
Inextricable, once let loose, it straies!
Shall he be deaf who first the Ear design'd?
And who first made the Eye, shall he be blind?
In such Nice Order this Stupendious Ball
Form'd he first giddy Chance to sport withall?
Gave he to man, above a Beasts degree,
The Notion of an Immortality
Only to vex his quiet, and make knowne
A blisse which he nere must aspire to owne?
Ah no, Reflections of Immortall rest
Could never enter into humane brest
Unlesse that Man himselfe Immortall were;
Nothing can Act beyond its proper Sphere.
Against the Deist, who a while allay'd
Thy better Temper, thus I oft inveigh'd;
But happy doutlesse was thy latest breath,
Repentant, Loyall, pious, at thy death.