Or ignorance invincible may plead?

Not only charity bids hope the best,

But more the great apostle has exprest:

That, if the Gentiles, whom no law inspired,

By nature did what was by law required;

They, who the written rule had never known,

Were to themselves both rule and law alone;

To nature's plain indictment they shall plead,

And by their conscience be condemned or freed.

Most righteous doom! because a rule revealed