OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Moral Pieces, in Prose and Verse/At Mid-Day

AT MID-DAY.
THOU art in every place, Being Supreme!
Best seen and worship'd, in thy court above,
Yet here on earth thy countenance doth beam
With rays of terror, majesty, and love,
And joys unspeakable thy smile do move;
And none may veil him from thy piercing sight,
Escape thine hand, or from thy presence rove;
Or hide in secret cells close wrapt in night,
For unto thee the darkness shineth as the light.
Thou dwellest where the curtain'd whirlwinds hide;
Where the arm'd thunder walks his lofty round;
Thou on the tempest of the night dost ride,
Flames mark thy path, and clouds thy car surround,
And mighty winds are rous'd, and surging billows sound,
While from thine eye the winged lightnings part;
Thou in the highest arch of Heaven art found;
In the dark regions of the earth thou art,
And in the humble mansion of the contrite heart.
With fear I bow me at thine awful seat;
How to thy holy presence dare I press!
But hark; a voice celestial seems to meet
My waiting ear, and my intrusion bless,
"Spread before me your wants and your distress,
Upon mine arm of strength your burdens cast,
An intercessor fills the holy place."
I come; the hour of terror now is past,
I trust thou wilt not leave me comfortless at last.
Oh! if the storms of life with bitter rage,
Upon my sad, unshelter'd head should blow,
If trembling down the cold, dark steep of age,
My weak and unsupported step should go,
My heart all sunk with weariness and woe,
Or wheresoe'er my unknown path shall tend,
Still let my bosom at thy presence glow,
Still let my ceaseless prayers to thee ascend,
And ever to my wants thy kind compassion lend.
# Moral Pieces, in Prose and Verse/Cares of Earth

CARES OF EARTH.
Whoever has attempted to fix all the powers of his mind upon intellectual or religious attainments, must have felt and mourned the intrusion of restless projects and worldly pursuits, which, under the name of necessary diligence, or laudable economy, usurp places not belonging to them, and check the noblest fruits of the soul.
O cares of earth! how vast and strong ye rise,
To keep the spirit from her kindred skies;
To blind the eye which looks on things divine,
And cool the heart where Christ's own love might shine.
Why hold ye o'er my soul this restless power?
Why steal ye thus upon the midnight hour?
Why will ye on my secret haunts intrude,
And break the charm of much lov'd solitude?
For whether evening stars with splendour shine,
Or morning lead the dawn, or day decline,
Or meek retirement spread her soft control,
Or intellectual joys inspire the soul,
Or active zeal the ready powers command,
Or high devotion lift her sceptred hand,
Or sad contrition wake the secret tear,
Still, still, ye vain pursuits, ye strive to hover near.
Not always thus your burden shall I bear;
The silence of the tomb!—Ye come not there;
The pure abodes of bliss ye shall not stain,
The spirit freed and cleans'd ye shall not pain.
To this vain world is your short reign confin'd,
This empty bubble dancing on the wind;
A little while your boasted arts renew;
A little while—and then, a long and last adieu.
# Moral Pieces, in Prose and Verse/Contemplation

CONTEMPLATION.
OFT, when the morning draws her dewy veil,
Or twilight slumbers on the shrouded dale,
Or moon beams tremble thro' the whisp'ring trees, Or float on clouds before the western breeze,
Or evening, in her starry mantle bright,
Precedes the slow majestic train of night;
In that still hour the mind excursive roves,
A heavenly voice the listening spirit moves.
Then light wing'd forms appear with brow serene,
And tempt the soul from this terrestrial scene.
Her pow'rs no more can present objects move,
And cold is earthly care, and earthly love;
Memory hangs pausing o'er the unstain'd page,
The prostrate passions all renounce their rage,
Fear shrinks no more, and wrath forgets to frown,
And fluttering fancy shuts her pinions down;
The roving thoughts restrain their wild pursuit,
Ev'n crested vanity sits meek and mute,
And sceptred reason, bowing on her throne,
Yields to a Pow'r acknowledged, though unknown,
The world allures—but clouds her glories blot; The world may call; the spirit hears her not.
A still, small voice arrests th' expanding soul,
The full, strong tides of inspiration roll,
A viewless harp responds—soft tones arise,
And quick within an answering harp replies;
No more the vague and wild ideas float,
Charm'd into order by that blended note;
But waking genius strives, with fondest care,
To woo the magic music from the air;
The strong, unmeasured minstrelsey to bind,
In harmony by mortal pow'rs confin'd.
# Moral Pieces, in Prose and Verse/Death of an Invalid

DEATH OF AN INVALID.
HOW oft, reviving Invalid, would'st thou,
 When vernal plants diffus'd their blossoms fair,
Salute the opening scene with cheerful brow,
 And hail the genial freshness of the air.
How oft would'st thou the passing hour beguile,
 Though health refus'd to flush thy cheek again,
Oh, I shall miss thy custom'd morning smile,
 Though pale beneath the shaft of lingering pain.
Placid and gentle ev'n in life's decline,
 Though no fair hand thy lonely path did strew,
Well pleas'd to see the joys of youth, though thine,
 Chill'd by the hand of age, were faint and few.
Buried and stiff, awhile thy form must rest,
 The cold, damp earth thy dream of life must blot.
Thus all, like thee, shall sink on Natures breast,
 Like thee be mourn'd a moment—then forgot.
# Moral Pieces, in Prose and Verse/Dedication for a Book of Poetical Extracts to a Friend

DEDICATION FOR A BOOK OF POETICAL EXTRACTS, TO A FRIEND.
TO aid the garland yet untwin'd,
 And gently swell this budding wreath,
A wild and mountain flow'r I bind,
 And o'er its leaves the lyre shall breathe,
And as you seek for varying sweets,
 The future chaplet to compose,
Tread lightly o'er those lone retreats,
 Where genius hides, and beauty glows.
Ask from the opening rose its bloom,
 Ask of its buds their tissued fold,
Seek the meek violet's perfume,
 And bow to cull the snow drop cold.
Choose freely from the gay parterre,
 Or groves where oaks their shadows cast,
And climb the cliff where high in air,
 The evergreen endures the blast.
From cold recess where forests wave,
 Pluck the wild laurel bold and free,
And gather from the Christian's grave
 The cypress and the rosemary.
And blend with these the varying stalks,
 That fancy's hand in sport may strew,
Or wisdom scatter in her walks,
 Or pity bring all damp with dew.
And if you rove in lonely hour,
 Where rudely rocks on rocks are pil'd,
Perhaps some unexpected flow'r
 May pour its sweetness on the wild.
But all in vain this anxious round,
 In vain the sweets by genius given,
Unless with these that flow'r is found,
 Whose rich perfume ascends to Heav'n.
# Moral Pieces, in Prose and Verse/Election

ELECTION.
ON THE MEETING OF THE FREEMEN TO ELECT THEIR REPRESENTATIVES, SEPT. 19th, 1814.
I SEEM to hear a distant voice
 Thus feebly and imploring say,
"My sons—supporters of my laws,
 Arouse ye at my call to day."
Is this my Country? She whose tone
 Was once so strong, so bold, so just;
Now like a captive sad and lone,
 Why sighs she faintly from the dust?
Ask not: I cannot answer why;
 Turn from me, I would seek to mourn:
But cast not thine indignant eye
 On yonder banner stain'd and torn.
Its hue was once like mountain snows,
 Which no rude foot had ever prest;
And like the azure tint that glows,
 When summer suns the skies invest.
Now faded, dark, and foul with stains,
 Defac'd with blood, and soil'd with clay,
A remnant round the staff remains,
 Oh! save it, ere 'tis rent away.
And ask not why that sword is dyed
 In carnage reeking to the hilt?
The stains are dark that mark its side,
 But redden with the hue of guilt,
Yet Oh! the land where saints have pray'd,
 And holy men, and heroes trod,
Though for a season dark with shade,
 Is not forsaken of its God.
I trust some beam of hope will rise,
 To cheer this dim and troubled spot;
Some star of mercy light the skies,
 Though now its lustre glimmers not.
Then if one plant of peace be left,
 One stream that still with freedom runs, One branch not yet of bloom bereft,
 Oh, save it for your infant sons.
Like diamond be the shield you wear,
 Which no rash stain of blood shall dim;
Lift to your God the eye of prayer,
 And firmly fix your trust in Him.
# Moral Pieces, in Prose and Verse/Birth Day

BIRTH DAY.
THOU, whose kind hand, and ever watchful care,
Presents another year, and wakes my prayer,
Guide thou my steps, direct me in my course,
Crush vain resolves, and errors strengthen'd force;
Impart the meek desire, the hope sublime,
The thought that soars above the scenes of time,
The hand that toils untir'd for other's good,
And sets the seal to duty understood,
The humble heart, the sympathy sincere,
The smile for joy, for misery, the tear,
Balm for the wounded, for the drooping—aid,
A tranquil trust when ills of life invade,
The conscience clear, that leads to sweet repose,
And the warm thrill that pure devotion knows.
Let gratitude to those who kindly strew
My path with flow'rs, he uniform and new;
And still my spirit reach each fair degree
Of gratitude to those, and love to thee.
What shall I ask, or what refrain to say,
Where shall I point, or how conclude my lay?
So much my weakness needs; so much thy voice
Assures that weakness, and confirms my choice.
Oh, give an active life of peace and truth,
Strength to my heart, and wisdom to my youth;
A sphere of usefulness—the boon to fill
That sphere with duty, and perform thy will;
An angel's zeal to grace my little span,
And the meek soul of him who died for man.
And when at last the heavy shades shall fall,
Of that dark dream which comes but once to all,
Whether in youth, maturity, or age,
Oh, let thy gentle care my pains assuage,
My faith support, my gather'd fears remove,
And tell my spirit of thy pard'ning love.
Then with firm heart I'd tempt the foaming tides,
Which this dark land from that of bliss divides,
Lift the dim eye to catch the smile of Heaven,
Nerve the rent heart that feels its sins forgiven,
Meet with calm brow the dashing billow's roar,
And land with safety on the eternal shore.
# Moral Pieces, in Prose and Verse/Deception

DECEPTION.
WHO can detect the bosom's hidden pain,
When peace, and love, and beauty, light the scene,
Ah, who can tell what sins the heart may stain
When smiles of mirth and pleasure deck the mein?
For oft hypocrisy will smile serene,
Veiling her falsehood with a semblance fair,
Soothing her victim while she toils unseen,
To wind him fast in her destructive snare,
While disappointed hope and misery are there.
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series I/Volume V/On the Predestination of the Saints/Book I/Chapter 1

Chapter 1 [I.]—Introduction.
We know that in the Epistle to the Philippians the apostle said, “To write the same things to you to me indeed is not grievous but for you it is safe;” yet the same apostle writing to the Galatians when he saw that he had done enough among them of what he regarded as being needful for them, by the ministry of his preaching, said, “For the rest let no man cause me labour,” or as it is read in many codices, “Let no one be troublesome to me.” But although I confess that it causes me trouble that the divine word in which the grace of God is preached (which is absolutely no grace if it is given according to our merits), great and manifest as it is, is not yielded to, nevertheless my dearest sons, Prosper and Hilary, your zeal and brotherly affection—which makes you so reluctant to see any of the brethren in error, as to wish that, after so many books and letters of mine on this subject, I should write again from here—I love more than I can tell, although I do not dare to say that I love it as much as I ought. Wherefore, behold, I write to you again. And although not with you, yet through you I am still doing what I thought I had done sufficiently.

## Footnotes

* ↑ Phil. iii. 1.
* ↑ Gal. vi. 17.
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series I/Volume V/On the Predestination of the Saints/Book I/Chapter 11

Chapter 11 [VI.]—That Some Men are Elected is of God’s Mercy.
“Many hear the word of truth; but some believe, while others contradict. Therefore, the former will to believe; the latter do not will.” Who does not know this? Who can deny this? But since in some the will is prepared by the Lord, in others it is not prepared, we must assuredly be able to distinguish what comes from God’s mercy, and what from His judgment. “What Israel sought for,” says the apostle, “he hath not obtained, but the election hath obtained it; and the rest were blinded, as it is written, God gave to them the spirit of compunction,—eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear, even to this day. And David said, Let their table be made a snare, a retribution, and a stumblingblock to them; let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see; and bow down their back always.” Here is mercy and judgment,—mercy towards the election which has obtained the righteousness of God, but judgment to the rest which have been blinded. And yet the former, because they willed, believed; the latter, because they did not will believed not. Therefore mercy and judgment were manifested in the very wills themselves. Certainly such an election is of grace, not at all of merits. For he had before said, “So, therefore, even at this present time, the remnant has been saved by the election of grace. And if by grace, now it is no more of works; otherwise grace is no more grace.” Therefore the election obtained what it obtained gratuitously; there preceded none of those things which they might first give, and it should be given to them again. He saved them for nothing. But to the rest who were blinded, as is there plainly declared, it was done in recompense. “All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth.” But His ways are unsearchable. Therefore the mercy by which He freely delivers, and the truth by which He righteously judges, are equally unsearchable.

## Footnotes

* ↑ Rom. xi. 7.
* ↑ According to the Vatican mss. is read, “The former who willed,” and below, “The latter who willed not.”
* ↑ Rom. xi. 5.
* ↑ Ps. xxv. 10.
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series I/Volume V/On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins, and on the Baptism of Infants/Book III/Chapter 8

Chapter 8.—Jesus is the Saviour Even of Infants.
And therefore, if there is an ambiguity in the apostle’s words when he says, “By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so it passed upon all men;” and if it is possible for them to be drawn aside, and applied to some other sense,—is there anything ambiguous in this statement: “Except a man be born again of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God?” Is this, again, ambiguous: “Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins?” Is there any doubt of what this means: “The whole need not a physician, but they that are sick?”—that is, Jesus is not needed by those who have no sin, but by those who are to be saved from sin. Is there anything, again, ambiguous in this: “Except men eat the flesh of the Son of man,” that is, become partakers of His body, “they shall not have life?” By these and similar statements, which I now pass over, —absolutely clear in the light of God, and absolutely certain by His authority,—does not truth proclaim without ambiguity, that unbaptized infants not only cannot enter into the kingdom of God, but cannot have everlasting life, except in the body of Christ, in order that they may be incorporated into which they are washed in the sacrament of baptism? Does not truth, without any dubiety, testify that for no other reason are they carried by pious hands to Jesus (that is, to Christ, the Saviour and Physician), than that they may be healed of the plague of their sin by the medicine of His sacraments? Why then do we delay so to understand the apostle’s very words, of which we perhaps used to have some doubt, that they may agree with these statements of which we can have no manner of doubt?

## Footnotes

* ↑ Rom. v. 12.
* ↑ John iii. 5.
* ↑ Matt. i. 21.
* ↑ Matt. ix. 12.
* ↑ See John vi. 53.
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series I/Volume V/On the Predestination of the Saints
## Contents

* Title Page
* Book I
* Book II
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series I/Volume V/On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins, and on the Baptism of Infants/Book III/Chapter 9

Chapter 9.—The Ambiguity of “Adam is the Figure of Him to Come.”
To me, however, no doubt presents itself about the whole of this passage, in which the apostle speaks of the condemnation of many through the sin of one, and the justification of many through the righteousness of One, except as to the words, “Adam is the figure of Him that was to come.” For this phrase in reality not only suits the sense which understands that Adam’s posterity were to be born of the same form as himself along with sin, but the words are also capable of being drawn out into several distinct meanings. For we have ourselves perhaps actually contended for various senses from the words in question at different times, and very likely we shall propound yet another view, which, however, will not be incompatible with the sense here mentioned; and even Pelagius has not always expounded the passage in one way. All the rest, however, of the passage in which these doubtful words occur, if its statements are carefully examined and treated, as I have tried my best to do in the first book of this treatise, will not (in spite of the obscurity of style necessarily engendered by the subject itself) fail to show the incompatibility of any other meaning than that which has secured the adhesion of the universal Church from the earliest times—that believing infants have obtained through the baptism of Christ the remission of original sin.

## Footnotes

* ↑ “Adam formam futuri;” see Rom. v. 14.
* ↑ Comp. above, Book i. c. 13; Epist. 157; De Nuptiis, ii. 44; and Contra Julianum, vi. 8.
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series I/Volume V/On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins, and on the Baptism of Infants/Title Page

a treatise on the merits and forgiveness of sins, and on the baptism of infants.
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series I/Volume V/On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins, and on the Baptism of Infants/Book III/Chapter 7

Chapter 7 [IV.]—Proof of Original Sin in Infants.
Now, although I may not be able myself to refute the arguments of these men, I yet see how necessary it is to adhere closely to the clearest statements of the Scriptures, in order that the obscure passages may be explained by help of these, or, if the mind be as yet unequal to either perceiving them when explained, or investigating them whilst abstruse, let them be believed without misgiving. But what can be plainer than the many weighty testimonies of the divine declarations, which afford to us the clearest proof possible that without union with Christ there is no man who can attain to eternal life and salvation; and that no man can unjustly be damned,—that is, separated from that life and salvation,—by the judgment of God? The inevitable conclusion from these truths is this, that, as nothing else is effected when infants are baptized except that they are incorporated into the church, in other words, that they are united with the body and members of Christ, unless this benefit has been bestowed upon them, they are manifestly in danger of damnation. Damned, however, they could not be if they really had no sin. Now, since their tender age could not possibly have contracted sin in its own life, it remains for us, even if we are as yet unable to understand, at least to believe that infants inherit original sin.

## Footnotes

* ↑ Pertinere ad.
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series I/Volume V/On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins, and on the Baptism of Infants/Extract from Augustin's Retractations

Extract from Augustin’s “Retractations,”
Book II. Chap. 23,
On the Following Treatise,
“De Peccatorum Meritis Et Remissione.”
A Necessity arose which compelled me to write against the new heresy of Pelagius. Our previous opposition to it was confined to sermons and conversations, as occasions suggested, and according to our respective abilities and duties; but it had not yet assumed the shape of a controversy in writing. Certain questions were then submitted to me [by our brethren] at Carthage, to which I was to send them back answers in writing; I accordingly wrote first of all three books, under the title “On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins,” in which I mainly discussed the baptism of infants because of original sin, and the grace of God by which we are justified, that is, made righteous; but [I remarked] no man in this life can so keep the commandments which prescribe holiness of life, as to be beyond the necessity of using this prayer for his sins: “Forgive us our trespasses.” It is in direct opposition to these principles that they have devised their new heresy. Now throughout these three books I thought it right not to mention any of their names, hoping and desiring that by such reserve they might the more readily be set right; nay more, in the third book (which is really a letter, but reckoned amongst the books, because I wished to connect it with the two previous ones) I actually quoted Pelagius’ name with considerable commendation, because his conduct and life were made a good deal of by many persons; and those statements of his which I refuted, he had himself adduced in his writings, not indeed in his own name, but had quoted them as the words of other persons. However, when he was afterwards confirmed in heresy, he defended them with most persistent animosity. Cœlestius, indeed, a disciple of his, had already been excommunicated for similar opinions at Carthage, in a council of bishops, at which I was not present. In a certain passage of my second book I used these words: “Upon some there will be bestowed this blessing at the last day, that they shall not perceive the actual suffering of death in the suddenness of the change which shall happen to them;”—reserving the passage for a more careful consideration of the subject; for they will either die, or else by a most rapid transition from this life to death, and then from death to eternal life, as in the twinkling of an eye, they will not undergo the feeling of mortality. This work of mine begins with this sentence: “However absorbing and intense the anxieties and annoyances.”

## Footnotes

* ↑ See Matt. vi. 12.
* ↑ See Book ii. ch. 50.
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series I/Volume IX/Instructions to Catechumens/Title Page

St. Chrysostom:
instructions to catechumens.
translated with introduction, and notes by
rev. w. r. w. stephens, m.a.,
prebendary of chichester, and rector of woolbeding, sussex.
assisted by
rev t. p. brandram, m.a.,
rector of rumboldswhyke, chichester.
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series I/Volume IX/Letter to a Young Widow/Introduction

INTRODUCTION TO THE LETTER TO A YOUNG WIDOW.
The date of the following letter can be determined within very narrow limits. It contains a reference (c. 5) to the defeat and death of the Emperor Valens in the battle with the Goths at Hadrianople, in a.d. 378, as a recent event. The Emperor who is described as having incessantly engaged in war ever since his accession (c. 4) must be Theodosius, who succeeded Valens, and as the Goths are said to be still overrunning large regions with impunity, and insolently mocking the timidity of the imperial troops (ib.) the letter must have been written prior to the crushing defeat which Theodosius inflicted on them in 382. The whole epistle is deeply tinged with that profound sense of the unhappiness and instability of human life which the moral corruption of society and recent calamities of the empire impressed with peculiar force on the minds of men; producing too often amongst Pagans either a cynical gloom or reckless indifference, but leading Christians to cling more closely and earnestly to the hopes and consolations of the Gospel.
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series I/Volume IX/Letter to a Young Widow
## Contents

* Title Page
* Introduction
* Letter to a Young Widow
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series I/Volume IX/Instructions to Catechumens
## Contents

* Title Page
* First Instruction
* Second Instruction