SUBJECT ILLUSTRATED. MERCY, TRUTH, AND JUSTICE. The Babe yet lies in smiling infancy, That on the bitter cross Must redeem our loss; So both himself and us to glorify: Yet first, to those ychain'd in sleep, The wakeful trump of doom must thunder through the deep; With such a horrid clang As on Mount Sinai rang, While the red fire and smouldering clouds out brake: The aged earth aghast, With terrour of that blast, Shall from the surface to the center shake; When, at the world's last session, The dreadful Judge in middle air shall spread his throne. And then at last our bliss Full and perfect is, But now begins; for, from this happy day, The old Dragon, under ground In straiter limits bound, Not half so far casts his usurped sway; And, wroth to see his kingdom fail, Swindges the scaly horrour of his folded tail. THE CHILD JESUS, WITH VISIONS OF FUTURE MOUNT SINAI. The oracles are dumb, No voice or hideous hum Runs through the arched roof in words de ceiving. THE HEATHEN ORACLE SUPERSEDED. SUBJECT ILLUSTRATED. Apollo from his shrine Can no more divine, With hollow shriek the steep of Delphos leaving. No nightly trance, or breathed spell, Inspires the pale-eyed priest from the prophetick cell. the Temple of Apollo), AND Steep of The Nymphs in twilight shade of tangled thickets mourn. Affrights the Flamens at their service quaint. FLAMEN, PRIESTESS, POURING A LIBATION- Peor and Baälim Forsake their temples dim With that twice-batter'd God of Palestine ; And mooned Ashtaroth, Heaven's queen and mother both, Now sits not girt with tapers' holy shine; The Libyck Hammon shrinks his horn, In vain the Tyrian maids their wounded Thammuz mourn. RUINED TEMPLE. TYRIAN MAIDS LAMENTING. And sullen Moloch, fled, Hath left in shadows dread His burning idol all of blackest hue; In vain with cymbals' ring They call the grisly king, In dismal dance about the furnace blue. Nor is Osiris seen In Memphian grove or green. MEMPHIAN GROVE. |