[ceafe,

There with the princes, who in grandeur fhone, And aw'd the trembling nations from the throne, Afflicted Job an equal reft must have, And share the dark retirement of the grave; Or as a thapeless embryo seek the tomb, Rude and imperfect from the abortive womb : Ere motion's early principle began, Or the dim fubitance kindled into man. There from their monftrous crimes the wicked Their labouring guilt is weary'd into peace; There blended fleep the coward and the brave; Stretch'dwith his lord,the undiftinguifh'd flave Enjoys the common refuge of the grave. An equal lot the mighty victor shares, And lies amidst the captives of his wars; With his, thofe captives mingle their remains, The fame in death, nor leffen'd by their chains. Why are we doom'd to view the genial ray Why curs'd to bear the painful light of day? O! with what joy the wretches yield their breath, And pant in bitterness of soul for death ! As a rich prize the diftant blifs they crave, And find the glorious treasure in the grave. Why is the wretch condemn'd without relief To combat woe, and tread the round of grief, Whom in the toils of fate his God has bound, And drawn the line of miferies around?

When nature calls for aid, my fighs intrude, My tears prevent my ncceffary food: Like a full ftream o'ercharg'd my forrows flow, In bursts of anguish, and a tide of woe; For now the dire affliction which I fled, Pours like a roaring torrent on my head. My terrors ftill the phantom view'd, and wrought The dreadful image into every thought: At length plack'd down, the fatal ftroke I feel, And lote the fancy'd in the real ill.

24. The 25th Chapter of Fob paraphrafed.

PITT.

THEN will vain man complain and murmur ftill,

And ftand on terms with his Creator's will? Stall this high privilege to clay be given ? Shall duft arraign the providence of Heaven? With reafon's line the boundless distance scan? Oppofe heaven's aw ful majefty to man? To what a length his vaft dimenfions run! How far beyond the journeys of the fun! He hung yon golden balls of light on high, And launch'd the planets through the liquid fky: To rolling worlds he mark'd the certain space, Fix'd and fuftain'd the clemental peace.

How then fhall man, thus infolently proud, Plead with his judge, and combat with his God? How from his mortal mother can he come Unftain'd from fin, untin&tur'd from the womb?

The Lord, from his fublime empyreal throne, As a dark globe regards the filver moon. Thofe ftars, that grace the wide celestial plain, Are but the humbleft fweepings of his train Dim are the brighteft fplendors of the sky; And the fun darkens in Jehovah's eye. But does not fin diffufe a fouler ftain, And thicker darkness cloud the foul of man? Shall he the depths of endless wisdom know? This fhort-liv'd fovereign of the world below? His frail original confounds his boast, [duft. Sprung from the ground, and quicken'd from the

Unnumber'd as thofe worlds his armies move, And the gay legions guard his realms above; High o'er th' ethereal plains the myriads rise, And pour their flaming ranks along the skies: From their bright arms inceffant fplendors ftream, And the wide azure kindles with the gleam.

To this low world he bids the light repair, Down through the gulphs of undulating air; For man he taught the glorious fun to roll From his bright barrier to his western goal,

§ 25.

The Song of Mofes in the Fifteenth Chapter of Exodus, paraphrafed. PITT. THEN to the Lord the vaft triumphant throng

Of Ifrael's fons, with Mofes, rais'd the fong. To God our grateful accents will we raife, And every tongue fhall celebrate his praise : Behold difplay'd the wonders of his might; Behold the Lord triumphant in the fight! With what immortal fame and glory grac'd! What trophies rais'd amid the watery wafte! How did his power the fteeds and riders sweep Ingulph'd in heaps, and whelm'd beneath the deep! Whom should we fear, while he, heaven's awful Unsheaths for Ifrael his avenging fword? [Lord, His outstretch'd arm, and tutelary care, Guarded and fav'd us in the laft defpair: His mercy cas'd us from our circling pains, Unbound our fhackles, and unlock'd our chains. To him our God, our father's God, we'll rear A facred temple, and adore him there With vows and incenfe, facrifice and prayer.

The Lord commands in war: his matchlefs
might

Hangs out and guides the balance of the fight:
By him the war the mighty leaders form,
And teach the hovering tumult where to ftorm.
His name, O Ifrael, heaven's eternal Lord,
For ever honour'd, reverenc'd, and ador'd.

When to the fight, from Egypt's fruitful foil,
Pour'd forth in myriads all the fons of Nile;
The Lord o'erthrew the courfer and the car,
Sunk Pharaoh's pride, and overwhelm'd his war.
Beneath th encumber'd deeps his legions lay,
For many a league impurpling all the fea :
The chiefs, and fteeds, and warriors whirl'd
around,

Lay midft the roarings of the furges drown'd. Who fhall thy power, thou mighty God, withftand,

And check the force of thy victorious hand? Thy hand, which red with wrath in terror rose, To crufh that day thy proud Egyptian foes. Struck by that hand, their drooping fquadrons fall, Crowding in death; one fate o'erwhelms them all.

Soon as thy anger charg'd with vengeance came They funk like ftubble crackling in the flame.

At

Till, all around with liquid toils befet,
The Lord twept o'er their heads the watery net.
He freed the ocean from his fecret chain, [main.
And on each hand difcharg'd the thundering
The loofen'd billows burft from every fide,
And wheim the war and warriors in the tide ;
But on each hand the folid billows stood,
Like lofty mounds to check the raging flood;
Till the bleft race to promis'd Canaan pafs'd
O'er the dry path, and trod the watery waste.

At thy dread voice the fummon'd billows crowd, And a still flence lulls the wondering food: Roll'd up, the crystal ridges strike the skies, Waves peep o'er waves, and feas o'er feas arife. Around in heaps the liftening furges stand, Mute and obfervant of the high command. Congeal'd with fear attends the watery train, Rous'd from the fecret chambers of the main.

With favage joy the fons of Egypt cry'd, (Vaft were their hopes, and boundlefs was their Let us purfue thofe fugitives of Nile, [pride) This fervile nation, and divide the spoil;" And fpread fo wide the flaughter, till their blood Dyes with a stronger red the blufhing flood. Oh! what a copious prey their hofts afford, To glut and fatten the devouring fword!

As thus the yawning gulf the boafters pafs'd, At thy command rush'd forth the rapid blast. Then, at the fignal given, with dreadful fway, In one huge heap roll'd down the roaring fea And now the difcntangled waves divide, Unlock their folds, and thaw the frozen tide. The deeps alarm'd call terribly from far The loud, embattled furges to the war; Till her proud fons aftonish'd Egypt found Cover'd with billows, and in tempefts drown'd. What God can emulate thy power divine, Or who oppofe his miracles to thine? When joyful we adore thy glorious name, Thy trembling foes confefs their fear and thame; The world attends the abfolute command. And nature waits the wonders of thine hand. That hand, extended o'er the fwelling fea, The confcious billows reverence and obey. O'er the devoted race the furges fweep, And whelm the guilty nation in the deep. That hand redeem'd us from our fervile toil, And each infulting tyrant of the Nile: Our nation came beneath that mighty hand, From Egypt's realms, to Canaan's facred land. Thou wert their Guide, their Saviour, and their God,

To fmooth the way, and clear the dreadful road.
The diftant kingdoms fhall thy wonders hear,
The fierce Philiftines fhall confefs their fear;
Thy fame fhall over Edom's princes spread,
And Moab's kings, the univerfal dread;
While the vaft fcenes of miracles impart
A thrilling horror to the braveft heart.
As through the world the gathering terror runs,
Canaan fhall thrink, and tremble for his fons:
Till thou haft Jacob from his bondage brought,
At fuch a vast expence of wonders bought,
To Canaan's promis'd realms and bleft abodes,
Led through the dark receifes of the floods.
Crown'd with their tribes fhall proud Moriah rife,
And rear his fummit nearer to the fkies.

Through ages, Lord, fhall firetch thy boundlefs power,

Thy throne thall stand when time shall be no more: For Pharaoh's steeds, and cars, and warlike train, Leap'd in, and boldly rang'd the fandy plain : While in the dreadful road, and defert way, The fhining crowds of gasping fishes lay :

O

26. The 139th Pfalm paraphrafed. PITT. DREAD Jehovah ! thy all-piercing eyes Explore the motions of this mortal frame, This tenement of duft: Thy ftretching fight Surveys th' harmonious principles, that move In beauteous rank and order, to inform This cafk, and animated mafs of clay. Nor are the profpects of thy wondrous fight To this terreftrial part of man confin'd; But fhoot into his foul, and there difcern The firit materials of unfashion'd thought, Yet dim and undigested, till the mind, Big with the tender images, expands, And, fwelling, labours with th' ideal birth. Where'er I move, thy cares purfue my feet Attendant. When I drink the dews of fleep, Stretch'd on my downy bed, and there enjoy A fwect forgetfulnefs of all my toils, Unfeen, thy fov reign prefence guards my fleep, Wafts all the terrors of my dreams away, Sooths all my foul, and foftens my repofe. Before conception can employ the tongue, And mould the ductile images to found; Before imagination ftands difplay'd, Thine eye the future eloquence can read, Yet unarray'd with speech. Thou, mighty Lord! Hift moulded man froin his congenial duft, And fpoke him into being; while the clay, Beneath thy forming hand, leap'd forth, infpir'd, And ftarted into life: through every part, At thy command, the wheels of motion play'd. But fuch exalted knowledge leaves below, And drops poor man from its fuperior sphere.

In vain, with reafon's ballaft, would he try To ftem th' unfathomable depth; his bark O'erfets, and founders in the vast abyss. Then whither fhall the rapid fancy run, Though in its full career, to speed my flight From thy unbounded prefence? which, alone, Fills all the regions and extended space Beyond the bounds of nature! Whither, Lord! Shall my unrein'd imagination rove,

To leave behind thy Spirit, and out-fly [fpread, Its influence, which, with brooding wings outHatch'd unfledg'd nature from the dark profound ?

If mounted on my tow'ring thoughts I climb Into the heaven of heavens, I there behold The blaze of thy unclouded majefty! In the pure empyrean thee I view,

High thron'd above all height, thy radiant fhrine Throng'd with the proftrate Seraphs, who receive Beatitude paft utterance! If I plunge

1

Down

Down to the gloom of Tartarus profound,
These too I find thee, in the loweft bounds
Of Erebus, and read thee in the fcenes
Of complicated wrath: I ice thee clad
It all the majefty of darknefs there.

[all

If, on the ruddy morning's purple wings Upborne, with indefatigable courle I feck the glowing borders of the caft, Where the bright fun, emergent from the deeps, With his first glories gilds the sparkling feas, And trembles o'er the waves; ev'n there thy hand Shall thro' the watery defert guide my courte, And o'er the broken furges pave my way, While on the dreadful whirls I hang fecure, And mock the warring ocean. If, with hopes As fond as falfe, the darknets I expect To hide, and wrap me in its mantling shade, Vain were the thought; for thy unbounded ken Darts thro' the thick'ning gloom, and pries through The palpable obfcure. Before thy eyes The vanquifl'd night throws off her dulky fhrowd, And kindles into day: the fhade and light To man fill various, but the fame to thee. On thee is all the ftructure of my frame Dependant. Lock'd within the filent womb Selping I lay, and rip`ning to my birth; [there; Yet, Lord, thy outstretch'd arm picferv'd me Before I moved to entity, and trod The verge of being. To thy hallow'd name Il pay due honours; for thy mighty hand Built this corporeal fabric, when it laid The ground-work of exifterce. Hence I read The wonders of thy art. This frame I view With terror and delight; and, wrapt in both, I tarile at myself. My bones, unform'd As yet, nor hardening from the viscous parts, But blended with th' unanimated mafs, Thy eye diftinctly view'd; and, while I lay Within the carth, imperfect, nor perceiv'd The first faint dawn of life, with cafe furvey'd The vital glimmerings of the active feeds, Juft kindling to exiftence, and beheld My fubftance fearce material. In thy book Was the fair model of this ftru&ture drawn, Where every part, in juft connection join'd, Compos'd and perfected th' harmonious piece, Ere the dim fpeck of being learn'd to ftretch Its ductile form, or entity had known To range and wanton in an ampler space. How dear, how rooted in my ininoft foul, Are all thy counfels, and the various ways Of thy eternal providence! the fum So boundlefs and immenfe, it leaves behind The low account of numbers; and outflies All that imagination e'er conceiv'd: [fhores, Lefs numerous are the fands that crowd the The barriers of the ocean. When I rife From my foft bed, and fofter joys of fleep, I rife to thee. Yet lo! the impious flight Thy mighty wonders. Shall the fons of vice Elude the vengeance of thy wrathful hand, And mock thy ling ring thunder which withholds Its furky-terrors from their guilty heads? [fly Thou great tremendous GoD-Avaunt, and

All ye who thirt for blood !--for, fœtoln with pride, Tach taughty wretch blafphemes by fiered name, And bellows has reproaches to affiant

Thy gloncus Majedy. Thy for I hate
Worfe than my own. O Lord' cxplore my foul!
See if a flaw or ftain of fin iafects

My guilty thoughts; then, lead me in the way That guides my feet to thy own heaven and thee.

27. An Hymn to the Supreme Being. An Imitation of the 104th Pjälm. BLACKLOCK.

Quid prius dicam folitis parentis Laudibus qui res hominum ac deorum, Qui mare & terras, varijque mundum Temperat boris?

HOR.

In

RISE, my foul! on wings feraphic rife! And praife th'almighty Sov'reign of the skies; whom alone effential glory thincs, Which not the heav'n of heav'ns, nor boundless fpace confines.

When darkness rul'd with univerfal fway, He fpcke, and kindled up the blaze of day; Firft, faireft offspring of th' omnitic word! Which like a garment cloth'd its fov'reign Lord. On liquid air he bade the column. rife, That prop the ftarry concave of the fkics; Diffus'd the blue expanfe from pole to pole, And spread circumfluent æther round the whole. Soon as he bids impetuous tempefts fly, To wing his founding chariot thro' the tky, Impetuous tempefts the command chev, Suftain his flight, and fweep th' aërial way. Fraught with his mandates, from the realins on Unnumber'd hofts of radiant heralds fly [high, From orb to orb, with progreis unconfia'd, As lightning fwift, refifllels as the wind.

In ambient air this pond'rous ball he hung, And bade its centre'reft for ever ftrong; Heav'n, air, and fea, with all their ftorms, in vain Affault the basis of the firm machine. At thy almighty vcice old Ocean raves, Wakes all his force, and gathers all his waves; Nature lies mantled in a watery robe, And thoreless billows revel round the globe: O'er higheft hills the higher furges rite, Mix with the clouds, and meet the fluid fkies. But when in thunder the rebuke was giv'n, That hook th' eternal firmament of heav'n; The grand rebuke th' affrighted waves obey, And in confufion fcour their uncouth way; And pofting rapid to the place decreed, Wind down the hills, and fweep the humble mead. Reluctant in their bounds the waves fubfide; The bounds, impervious to the lathing tide, Reftrain its rage; whilft, with inceffant roar, It thakes the caverns, and affaults the there.

When thou, O Lord, fhalt ftand difclos'd
In majefty fevere,

And fit in judgment on my foul,
O! how thall I appear?

But thou haft told the troubled foul, Who does her fins lament,

The timely tribute of her tears Shall endless woe prevent.

Then fee the forrows of my heart,
Ere yet it be too late;

And hear my Saviour's dying groans,
To give thofe forrows weight.
For never shall my foul despair
Her pardon to procure,
Who knows thy only Son has died
To make that pardon fure.

$30. A Hymn on the Seafons. THOMSON. THESE, as they change, Almighty Father, thefe Are but the varied God. The rolling year Is full of Thee. Forth in the pleafing Spring Thy beauty walks, thy tenderness and love. Wide flush the fields; the foftening air is balm; Echo the mountains round; the foreft fmiles; And every fenfe and every heart is joy. Then comes thy glory in the Summer months, With light and heat refulgent. Then thy fun Shoots full perfection thro' the fwelling year: And oft thy voice in dreadful thunder fpeaks, And oft at dawn, deep noon, or falling eve, By brooks and groves, in hollow-whifp'ring gales. Thy bounty thines in Autumn unconfin'd, And fpreads a common feast for all that lives. In Winter awful thou! with clouds and ftorms Around Thee thrown, tempeft o'er tempeft roll'd, Majestic darkness! On the whirlwind's wing, Riding fublime, Thou bidd'ft the world adore, And humbleft nature with thy northern blaft.

Myfterious round! what skill, what force di-
Deep-felt, in thefe appear! a fimple train, [vine,
Yet fo delightful mix'd, with fuch kind art,
Such beauty and beneficence combin'd;
And all fo forming an harmonious whole,
Shade, unperceiv'd, fo foftening into shade;
That, as they ftill fucceed, they ravish still.
But wandering oft, with rude inconscious gaze,
Man marks not Thee, marks not the mighty hand
That, ever bufy, wheels the filent fpheres ;
Works in the fecret deep; fhoots, fteaming, thence
The fair profufion that o'erfpreads the spring;
Flings from the fun direct the flaming day;
Feeds ev'ry creature; hurls the tempeft forth,
And, as on earth this grateful change revolves,
With tranfport touches all the fprings of life.
Nature, attend! join, every living foul
Beneath the fpacious temple of the fky,
In adoration join; and ardent raise
One general fong! To him, ye vocal gales,
Breathe foft, whofe fpirit in your freshness breathes;
Oh talk of him in folitary glooms,

Where o'er the rock the fcarcely waving pine
Fills the brown fhade with a religious awe!

And