And cares and wants and man’s rebukes I bore:

Alas! new foes assail’d me; I was vain,

They stung my pride and they confused my brain:

Oh! these deluders! with what glee they saw

Their simple dupe transgress the righteous law;

’Twas joy to them to view that dreadful strife,

When faith and frailty warr’d for more than life;

So with their pleasures they beguiled the heart,

Then with their logic they allay’d the smart;

They proved (so thought I then) with reasons strong,