Boox
Blesa’d in himself, had from his forming hand |In whose clear eye the bright angelic train,
No creatures sprung to hail his wide command; Appear fuffus'd with imperfection's stain !
Bless'd, had the sacred fountain ne'er run o'er, Impervious to the man's or seraphi's eye,
A boundless sea of bliss that knows no shore! Beyond the ken of each exalted high.

Nor sense can two prime origins conceive, Him would in vain material semblance feign,
Nor reason two eternal Gods believe!

Ur figur'd thrines the boundless God contair
Could the wild Manichæan own that guide, Object of faith! he thuns the view of sense,
The good would triumph, and the ill lublide ! Loit in the blaze of lightless excellence !
Again would vanquish'd Aramanius bleed, Moit perfect, inolt intelligent, most wise,
And darkness from prevailing light recede ! In whom the fanctity of pureness lies;
In diff'rent individuals we find

In whose adjusting mind the whule is wroug) An evident disparity of mind;

Whole form is fpirit, and whoseesience thoug! Hence ductile thought a thousand changes gains, Are truths infcrib'd by Wisdom's brightest ra And a&tions vary as the will ordains; In characters that gild the face of day! But should two Beings, equally supreme,

Reason confess d (howe'er we may dispute Divided pow'r and parted empire claim; Fix'd boundary! diicovers man froin brute; How soon would universal order ceale! But, dim to us, exerts its fainter ray, How soon would discord harmony displace ! Depress'd in matter, and allied to clay! Eternal schemes maintain eternal fight, In forms fuperior kindles less confind, Nor yield, supported by eternal might; Whose dress is æther, and whole fubitance min Where each would uncontrould his aim pursue, Yet all from Him, fupeçuar of causes flow, The links diflever, or the chain renew! To Him their pow'rs and their existence owe Matter from notion cross impressions take, From the bright cherub of the noblest birth, As serv'd each pow'r his rival's pow'r to break, To thepoor reatoningglow-wormplac'don eart While neutral Chaos from his deep reces:,. From matter then to Ipirit ftill ascend, Would view the never-ending strife increase, Thro' spirit still refining, higher tend; And bless the content that secur'd his peace! Pursue, on knowledge bent, the pathless road While new creations would opposing rise, Pierce thro' infiniture in quest of God! And elemental war deform the skies! Still from thy search, the center still fall fly, Around wild uproar and confusion hurl'd, Approaching still-thou never fhalt coine nig Eclipse the heav'ns, and waste the ruin'd world. So its bright orb th' atpiring flame would joi:

Two independant causes to admit, But the valt distance mocks the fond design. Destroys religion, and debases wit;

If he, Almighty! whose decree is fate, The first by such an anarchy undone, Could, to display his pow'r, subvert his state The last acknowledges its source but one. Bid from his plástic hand, a greater rise, As from the main the mountain rills are drawa, Produce a malter, and resign his skies; That wind irriguous thro' the flow'ry lawn; Impart his incommunicable Alame, So, mindful of their spring, one course they The mystic number of th' Eternal Name ; keep,

Then miglit revolting reason's feeble ray Exploring, till they find their native deep! Aspire to queition God's all-perfect day!

Exalted Power, invisible, supreme, Vain taik ! the clay in the directing hand,
Thou sov'reign, sole unutterable Name ! The reason of its form might so demand,
As round thy throne thy faming seraphs stand, As man presume to question his dispose
And touch the golden lyre with trembling hand; From whom the power he thus abuses flows.
Too weak thy pure effulgence to behold, Here point, fair Muse! the worship God r
With their rich plumes their dazzled eyesinfold; quires,
Transported with the ardors of thy praise, The soul inflam'd with chaste and holy fires
The holy! holy! holy! anthem raile ! Where love celestial warms the happy breaft,
To them responsive, let creation fing, And from fincerity the thought's exprefs di
Thee, indivisible eternal King!

Where genuine piety, and truth refin',
III. SPIRITUALITY.

Re-confecrate the temple of the mind;

With grateful flames the living altars glow, O say, celestial Muse! whose purer birth And God defcends to visit man below ! Disdains the low material ties of earth; By what bright images shall be defin'd

IV. OMNIPRESENCE. The mystic nature of th' eternal Mind! Thro' th’unmeasurable tracts of space Orhow thallthought the dazzling heightexplore, Go, Mufe divine! and present God head trac Where all that reason can—is to adore ! See where, by place uncircunscrib'd as time,

That God's an immaterial essence pure, He reigns extended; and he thines sublime ! Whom figure can't defcribe, nor parts immure; Should it thou above the heav'n of heav Incapable of paflions, impulse, fear,

ascend, In good pre-eminent, in truth severe : Couleft thou below the depth of depths defcen Unmix d bis nature, and sublim'd his pow'rs Could thy fond Night beyond the itarry spher From all the gross allay that tempers purs; The raciant morning's ducid pinions bear!

1

There bold his brighterprefence shine confefto His all-enlight'ningOmnipresenceown,[known;
There his almighty arī thy course arrest ! Whence firit thou feel'lt thy dwindling presence
Cosur ebon the thickeit vel of night affume, His wide Omniscience, justly, grateful, ling;
Otick to hide thee in the central gloom!

Whence thyweak science prunes its callowwing!
Yet tbere, all patent to his piercing light,

And bless th' Eternal, All-informing Soul, Darknes itself would kindle into light:

Whose light pervades, whose knowledge fills the Not the black manions of the filent grave,

whole. Nor darker hell , from his perception fave;

IMMUTABILITY. What pow't, alas ! thy footsteps can convey

As the Eternal and Omniscient Mind,
Beyond the reach ei anniprelent day?

By laws not limited, nor bounds contin'd,
in luis wide galo
, and comprehensive eye,

Is always independant, always free,
Immedute worlds on worlds unnumber'd lie: Hence ihines confefs d Immutability!
Sștiens incios d in his perception roll,

Change, whether the spontaneous child of will
Whofe all-informing mınd directs the whole:

Or birth of force-is imperfection ftill.
Lazid inhis grasp theircertain ways they know; But he, all-perfe&t, in himself contains
Piac id in the right from whence can nothing go. Pow'r felf-deriv'd, and from himself he reigns !
On cards his tweltool fix’d

, in heav'n his feat; If, alter'd by constraint, we could suppose,
Enthroa d be dictates
, and his word is fate.

That God his fix'd stability should lose ;
Nor wint bis hining images below,

How startles reason at a thought so Itrange!
In Areas, that mumuar, ur in winds that blow; What pow'r can force Omnipotence to change?
His igini broods along the boundless flood,

If from his own divine productive thought,
Smiles in the plain, and whispers in the wood; Were the yet stranger alteration wrought;

Could excellence supreme new rays acquire ?
Breates in the air, and beautifies the day!

Or itrong perfection raise its glories higher?
Absurd !--his high meridian brightness glows,
Never decreales, never over flows !
Knows no addition, yields to no decay,

The blaze of incommunicable day!
Hiuskou.edge
, power, his goodness all confinid,

Below through different forms does matter
And life sublift from elemental change; (range,
Liquids condensing lhapes terrestrial wear,
Earth mounts in fire, and fire diffolves in air;
While we, enquiring phantoms of a day,
Inconstant as the shadows we survey !
With them, along time's rapid current pass,
And haste to mingle with the parent mass ;
But Thou, Eternal Lord of life divine !
In youth immortal shalt for ever shine!
No change thall darken thy exalted name ;

From everlalting ages still the fame!
Vain were our hope, and emoty were our fear; His laws could vary, or his plans undo;

If God, like man, his purpose could renew,
Cagunid vice would o'er the world prevail, Defponding Faithwould droopitscheerless wing,

Religion deaden to a lifeless thing!

Where could we, rational, repose our trust,
Flora na tigh pow'r its slender texture takes ; If truth unerring gave not the design ?
Esen the weak embryo, ere to lite it breaks, How judge of revelation's force divine,

But in a Paw'r immutable as jult ?
Wie in his book the various parts inroll’d,
Lucrezing, own eternal Wisdom's mould.

Where, as in nature's fair according plan,
Nor is he only the material whole,

All smiles benevolent and good to man. Bat pierces thought, and penetrates the foul !

Plac'd in this narrow clouded spot below, Ere from the lips the vocal accents part,

We darkly see around and darkly know ! Orihe faint purpose dawns within the heart,

Religion lends the falutary beam, Hitty eye the mental birth perceives,

That guides our reason thro'the dubious gleam;

Till sounds the lour, when he who rules thefkies Kroawhat we say, ere yet the words proceed, Shall dissipate the mists that veil our fight,

Shall bid the curtain of Omniscience rise ! Andetae form th'intention, marks the deed! And thew his creatures all his ways are right! Agents Author, and restores the scenel

But Confcience, fair vicegerent-light within, Then, when astonishid nature feels its fate, Points out the beauty of the govern'd plan,

And fetter'd time shall know his latest date; * And vindicates the ways of God to man.'

When earth thall in the mighty blaze expire, From heav'n descended, as by heav'n inspir’d; And cealing orbs confess th' almighty (way! Then, acred Muse, by the vast prospect fir'd, The universal system shrink away, . Heav'n melt withheat, andworlds dissolve infire!

Immortal

Wanas in tre genial fun's enliv'ning ray,

Sweld man his great immenlity deny,
Man n.ght as well ufurp the vacant iky :
For metë be iciter in date, or view,
Thence were his attributes iinperfect too ;
dad lost th' juca of a ruling Mind!
Ferble the truit, and comfortless the sense
Dí a defective partial Providence !
Bedly might iben his arm injustice brave,
Orinoctice in vain his mercy crave ;
Deated vinue lit its hopeless eye:
And beavy forrow pent the heartless ligh!
An anasi God no abler to defend,
Protect, of punit, than an absent friend;
Ditani alike our wants or griefs to know,
To the the anguish

, or prevent the blow, If he, Supreme Director, were not near,

And anrewarded virtue toil-to fail !
The moral world a second chaos lie,
And nature ficken to the thoughful eye!

Tre pe to us the new idea lives!

VI.

Immortal He, amidst the wreck secure, Then at our intermediate globe repose,
Shall fit exalted, permanently pure!

And view yon lunar satellite that glows!
As in the Sacred Bush, thall thine the same, Or caft along the azure vault thy eye,
And from the ruin raise a fairer fraine ! When golden day enlightens all the sky;

Around, behold earth's variegated scene, OMNIPOTENCE.

The mingling prospects, and th' flow'ry gree

The mountain brow, the long-extended woor Far hence, ye visionary charming maids, Or the rude rock that threatens o'er the floor Yefanciednymphsthat haunt the Grecianthades! And say, are there the wild eifects of chance Your birth who from conceiving fiction drew, Oh, strange effect of reas'ning ignorance! Yourselves producing phantoms as untrue: Nor pow'r alone confeis'd in grandeur lies But coine, fuperior Muse! divinely bright, The glittering planet or the painted skies! Daughter of heav'n,whose offspring still is light; Equal, the elephant's or emmet's dress Oh condescend celestial sacred guest !

The wisdom of Omnipotence confess; To

purge my light, and animate my breaft, Equal, the cumbrous whale's enormous mass, While I presume Omnipotence to trace, With the small infects in the crouded grass; And fing that Pow'r who peopled boundless The mite that gamhels in its acid sea, space!

(rode, In thape a porpus, though a fpeck to thee! Thon present wert, when forth th' Almighty Ev'n the blue down the purple plum surround WhileChaostrembledat the voiceof God![drew, A living world, thy failing right confounds, Thou saw'it, when o'er th'immense his line be To him a peopled habitation shows, When Nothing from bis Word existence knew! Where millions taste the bounty God bestows His Word, that wak’d to life the vast profound, Great Lordof life,wbofe all-controuling mig While conscious light was kindled at the sound! Thro' wide creation beams divincly bright, Creation fair surpriz'd the angelic eyes, Nor only does thy pow'r in forming line, And sov'reign Wisdom saw that all was wise! But to annihilate, dread King! is thine

Him, fole Almighty, nature's book displays, Shouldlt thou withdraw thy ftill-Supportis Distinct the page, and legible the rays !

hand, Let the wild sceptic his attention throw How languid nature would astonishid stand! To the broad horizon, or earth below; Thy frown the ancient realm of night reitore Ile finds thy soft impression touch his breast, Ard raisea blank—where fyftems imild befon He feels the God, and owns him unconfelt : See in corruption, all-surprising state, Should the stray pilgrim, tir'd of sandsand ikies, How struggling life eludes the stroke of fite; In Lybia's waite behold a palace rile, Shock'd at the scene, tho' sense averts its eye Wouldhe believe the charmtromatoms wrought? Nor Itops the wondrous procels to descry; Go, atheist, hence, and mend thy jullerthought! Yet julter thought the mystic change portue

What band, Almighty Architect! but thine, And with delight Almighty Wisdom views Could give the model of this valt defign? The brute, the vegetable world surveys, What hand but thine adjut th’amazing whole : Sces life fubfitting ev'n from life's decays! And bid conf. nting Systems beauteous roll! Mark there,felf-taught, the penlive reptile cor What hand but thine supply the solar light! Spin his thin shroud, and living build his tora Fver beitowins, yet for ever bright!

With conscious care his former pleasures lea What hard but thine the Itarry train array, And dress him for th' business of the grave Or give the Moon to thed her borrow'd ray? Thence, pass'd the short-liv'd change, renew What hand but thine the azure convex ípread! he springs, What hand but ihine conipore the ocean's bed? Admires the skies, and tries his filken wing To the vast mun the fandy barrier throw, With airy flight the in sect roves abroad, And with the feeble curb reltrain the foe! And scorns the meaner earth he lately trod What hand but thine the wint’ry food assuage, Thee, potent, let deliver'd Israel praise, Or stop the tempeft in its wilde it rage! And to thy name their grateful homage raif

Thee infinite! what finite can explore ? Thee, potent God! let Egypt's land declar Inngination links beneath thy pow'r; That felt thy justice awfully severe ! Thee could the ablelt of thy creatures know, How did thy frown benight the shadow'd la Icit were thy Unity, for he were Thou ! Nature revers’d, how own thy high comma. Yet present to all sense thy pow'r remains, When jarring elements their use forgot, Reveal'd in nature, nature's Author reigns ! And the sun felt thy overcasting blot ! In vain would error from conviction fly, When earth produc'd the peftilential brood Thou ev'ry where art present to the eye! And the foul stream was crimson'd into ble The sense how stupid, and the light how blind, How deep the horrors of that awful night, That fails this universal truth to find ! How strong the terror, and how wild the fri

Go! all the fightless realms of space survey, When o'er the land thy sword vindi&tive pa Returning trace the Planetary Way! And men and infants breath'd at once their The fun that in his central glory shines, How did thy arm thy favour'd tribes cons While ev'ry planet round his orb inclines; Thy light conducting point the patent way

Obec

Yet where thy majesty divine appear'd,

Ohedienr ocean to their march divide

Breathes her wide influence on the world below, The Tity wall diitinct on either lide;

And bids the tides alternate ebb and How. While bro’ the deep the long procession led,

View how in course the constant seasons rise, And law the wonders of the cozy bed!

Deform the earth, or beautify the skies: No: long theymarcb'dell.black’ninginthe rear, Firit, Spring advancing, with her flow’ry train; The vengeful tyrant and his hoft appear!

Next, Summer's hand, that spreads the Tylvan Plunge down the itees, the waves thy nod obey,

scene; And shelm the threat ning ftormbeneath the sea? Then, Autumn,with heryellowharveitscrown'd,

Nor yet thy pow's thy chosen train forsook, And trembling Winter close the annual round. When thro

' Arabia's tun's their way they took; The vegetable tribes obfervant trace, Bs day tty closi oris present to the fight,

From the tall cedar to the creeping grass : Thy sey pilier let the inarch by night;

The chain of animated beings scale, Tuy band amidst the waite their table ipread, From the small reptile to the enorinous whale; With izzther'd viands, and with heav'nly bread: From the strong eagle stooping thro’ the skies, When the dry widerness no streams fupplied, To the low intect tñat etcapes thy eyes! Guard from the vieiding rock the viral tide! And see, if see thou canit, in ev'ry frame, What limits can Omnipotence confine?

Eternal Wisdom ihine confeis d the fame : What obstacles oppole thy arm divine ?

As proper organs to the least affign'd, Since itunes and waves their fettled laws forego, As proper means to propagate the kind, Siace feas can barden, and since rocks can How? As just the itructure, and as wite the plan,

Da Sina's top, the Muse with ardent wing As in this lord of all-debating man ! The triumphs of Omnipotence would ling!

Hence, reas'ning creature,thydittinctionfind, W oer its airy brow thy cloud display'd, Nor longer to the ways of Heav'n be blind. Iarosd the nations in its awful thade;

Wisdom in outward beauty strikes the mind, When firunk the earth from thy approaching But outward beauty points a charm behind. And the rock trembled to its rooted bale : [face, What gives the earth, the ambient air, or seas,

The plain, the river, or the wood to please? Where hune ter glory,and tlly voice was heard, Oh say, in whom does beauty's self refide, Er'n in the bkze of that tremendous day,

The Beautifier, or the beautified ? Idolatry its impious rites could pay!

(vade, There dwells the Godhead in the bright disguise, ob fame to thoaght!—thy facred throne in- Beyond the ken of all created eyes and brave the boit that linger'd round its head! His works our love and our attention steal;

His works (surprising thought) the Maker veil;

Too weak our fight to pierce the radiant cloud, thon, whos henth'Almightyform’dthis All,

Where Wisdom thines,in all her charins avow'd. Uphead the fruit and weighid each balanced ball; Unerting Lord, and Ruler of the heart

O gracious God, omnipotent and wise, azter'd the work, and fix'd the real divine; One beam of thy celestial light impart; Woole says diftule new lustre o'er the whole,

I seek not sordid wealth, or glitt'ring pow'r; What tongue thall make thy charms celestial

O grant me Wisdom--and I ask no more ! known? What hand, fair Goddess ! paint thee but thy

[own?

PROVIDENCE.
As from some level country'sshelter'dground,

Withtowns replete,withgreen enclosuresbound, A 'd ratt we gaze, and comfortless admire.

Where the eye kept within the verdant maze,

But gets a tranfient vilta as it strays; Tre beaty of the whole result 's divine!

The pilgrim to some rising summit tends,

Whence opens all the scene as he ascends; Hrnce lite acknowledges its glorious cause, So Providence the friendly heights fupplies, Hence in a thousand different models wrought, Here Goodness, Power, and Wisdom, ali unite, uw fx'd to quiet, now allied to thought;

And dazzling glories whelm the ravish'd light 1 Heze sw the forins and properties of things,

Almighty Cause! 'tis thy preserving care, Hesceries harmony, and order springs;

That keeps thy works for ever fresh and fair; Ele, had the mals a thapeless chaos lay,

The sun, from thy superior radiance bright, Not ever felt the dawn of Wisdom's day!

Eternal sheds his delegated light; Ses, ba affociate round their centralsun, Lends to his lifter orb inferior day, Their fataful rings the circling planets run; And paints the filver moon's alternate ray: Stil equi-ciftant, never yet too near, Thv hand the waite of eating Time renews : kxactly tracing their appointed sphere. Tnou shedd'it the tepid morning's balmy dews: Alark how the moon our flying orb pursues, When raging winds the blacken'd deep deform, Whic from the sun ber monthly light renews; Thy spirit rides commission'd in the storm;

Bids

VII. WISDOM.

O Wisdom inanite! creation's soul,

VIII.

What tho' in nature's universal store
Appar the wonders of almighty pow's;
P = 1, unattended, terror would inspire,
But even fair Wildom joins in the design,

Bids at thy will the Nack'ning tempeft cease, Why saints and fages, mark'd in every age
While the calm ocean smooths its ruffled face; Perish 'the victims of tyrannic rage;
When lightnings thro' the air tremendous Ay, Why Socrates for truth and freedom fell,
Or the blue plague is looiend to destroy, Or Nero reign'd the delegate of hell ?
Thy hand directs, or turns aside the stroke ; In vain by reason is the maze pursued,
Thy word the fiend's commission can revoke; Of ill triumphant, and a ficted good,
When subterraneous fires the surface heave, Fix'd to the hold, so might the failor aim
And towns are buried in the yawning grave; To judge the pilot, and the steerage blame,
Thou suffer'st not the inischief to prevail; As we direct to God what should belong,
Thy sovoreign touch the recent wound can heal. Or fay, that sov'reign wisdom governs wron
ToZembla's rock thou send'it thecheerfulgleam; Nor always vice does uncorrected go,
O'erLybia's landsthoupour'st the coolingstream; Nor virtue unrewarded pass below!
Thy watchful providence o'er all intends ; Oft facred Justice lifts her awful head,
Thy works obey their great Creator's ends. And dooms the tyrant and th' usurper dead;

When man too long the paths of vice pursued, Oft Providence, more friendly than severe,
Thy hand prepar'd the universal food; Arrests the hero in his wild career;
Gracious, io Noah gave the timely fign, Directs the fever, poniard, or the ball,
To lave a remnant from the wrath divine! By which an Ammon, Charles, or Cæfar fall;y
One thining waste the globe terrestrial lay, Or, when the cursed Borgias brew the cup
And the ark heav'd along the troubled fea; For merit, bids the moniters drink it up;
Thou bad'It the deep his ancient bed explore, On violence oft retorts the cruel fpear,
The clouds their wat'ry deluge pour'd no more! Or fetters cunning in its crafty snare;
The skies were clear'd—the mountain tops were Relieves the innocent, exalts the just,
The dove pacific brought the olive green (seen, And lays the proud oppressor in the dust!
On Arrarat the happy Patriarch tolt,

But, fast as Time's swift pinions can convey Found the recoverd world his hopes had lost; Haftens the pomp of that tremendous day, There his fond eyes review'd the pleasing scene, When to the view of all created eyes The earth all verdant, and the air serene ! God's high tribunal Thall majettic rise, Its precious freighit the guardian ark display'd, When the loud trumpet thall afsemble round While Noah grateful adoration paid ! The dead, reviving at the piercing sound ! Beholding in the many-tinctur'd bow Where men and angels fhall to audit come, The promise of a safer world below.

And millions yet unborn receive their doom! When wild ambition reard its impious head, Then shall fisir Providence, to all display'd, And riting Babel Heav'n with pride survey'd ; Appear divinely bright without a thade; Thy word the mighty labour could confound, In light triumphant all her acts be shown, And leave the maisto moulder with the ground, And blushing Doubt eternal Wisdom own!

From Thee all humanactions taketheiriprings, Mean while, thou great Intelligence supreme
The rise of empires, and the fall of kings! Sovoreign Director of this mighty frame,
See the vast theatre of time display'd, Whose watchful hand, and all-observing ken,
While o'er the scene fucceeding heroes tread ! Fashions the hearts, and views the ways of mer!
With pomp the shining images succeed, Whether thy band the plenteous table spread
Whatleaders triumph! andwhatmonarchsbleed! Or meafure íparingly the daily bread;
Perform the parts thy providence assign'd, Whether or wealth or honouis yild the scene,

Their pride, their pations, to thy ends inclin’d: Or wants de form, and wasting anguish Nain;
A while they glitter in the face of day, On thee let truth and virtue firm rely,
Then at thy nod the phantoms pass away;

Bleted in the care of thy approving eye! No traces left of all the buty scene,

Know that thy providence, their confiant friend But that remembrancefaysThe thingsbavebeen! Thro'life ihali guard them,and in death aiten “But(questions Doubt) whencelicklynaturefeels with everlasting arms their caule embrace, “Theague-fits her face fu oft reveals? (breaft? And crown the paths of piery with peace. “Whenceearthquakesheavetheearth'sastonish'd

GOODNESS "Whence tempeits rage? or yellow plaguesinfett? “Whence draws rank Atric her empoifund Yeseraphs, who God's throne encircling sti? “Or liquid fires explosive Ætna pour?" (store: With holy zeal your golden censers fill; Go, sceptic mole!' demand th' eternal cause, Ye flaming ministers, to distant lands The secret of bis all-preserving laws; Who bear, obsequious, his divine commands The depths of wisdom infinite explore, Ye cherubs, who compose the facred choir, And alk thy Maker-why he knows no more? Attuning to the voice th' angelic lyre !

Thy error still in moral things as great, Or ye, fair natives of the heav'nly plain, As vain to cavil at the ways of tite,

Who once were mortal--now a happier train To alk why prosp'rous vice to oft succeeds, Who spend in peaceful love your joyful hou Wły luffers innocence, or virtue bleeds? In blissful meads, and amaranthine bow'rs, Why montters, nature muft with bluthes own, Oh lend one fpark of your celestial fire, By crimes grow pow'rful and difgrace a throne? Oh deign my glowing buicm to inspire,

ΑΙ

IX.