THE INFINITE.

[WATTS.]

SOME feraph, lend your heav'nly tongue,

Or harp of golden string,

That I may raise a lofty fong
To our Eternal King.

Thy names, how infinite they be !
Great Everlasting One!
Boundless Thy might and majesty,
And unconfin'd Thy throne.

Thy glories fhine of wond'rous fize,
And wond'rous large Thy grace;

Immortal day breaks from Thine eyes,
And Gabriel veils his face.

Thine effence is a vast abyss,

Which Angels cannot found,

An ocean of infinities

Where all our thoughts are drown'd.
G

The myft'ries of creation lie

Beneath enlighten'd minds;
Thoughts can ascend above the sky,
And fly before the winds.

Reason may grasp the maffy hills,
And stretch from pole to pole,
But half Thy name our spirit fills,
And overloads our foul.

In vain our haughty reason swells,
For nothing's found in Thee
But boundless inconceivables,

And vaft eternity.

THE DAY OF JUDGMENT.

ANODE.

[WATTS.]

WHEN the fierce north wind with his airy

Rears

forces

up the Baltic to a foaming fury,

And the red lightning with a storm of hail comes

Rufhing amain down,

How the poor failors stand amaz'd and tremble! While the hoarfe thunder, like a bloody trumpet, Roars a loud onfet to the gaping waters,

Quick to devour them.

Such shall the noise be, and the wild disorder,
(If things eternal may be like these earthly)
Such the dire terror, when the great archangel
Shakes the creation;

Tears the ftrong pillars of the vault of heaven,
Breaks up old marble, the repofe of princes;
See the graves open, and the bones arifing,

Flames all around 'em.

Hark the fhrill outcry of the guilty wretches !
Lively bright horror and amazing anguish

Stare thro' their eye-lids, while the living worm lies

Gnawing within them.

Thoughts, like old vultures, prey upon their heart

ftrings,

And the smart twinges, when their eye

beholds the

Rolling after him,

Lofty Judge frowning, and a flood of vengeance

Hopelefs immortals! how they fcream and shiver, While devils push them to the pit wide yawning, Hideous and gloomy, to receive them headlong

Down to the centre.

Stop here my fancy: (all away ye

Doleful ideas!) come arife to Jefus,

horrid

How he fits God-like! and the faints around him

Thron'd, yet adoring!

0

may I fit there when he comes triumphant, Dooming the nations! then afcend to glory,

While our Hofannas all along the paffage

Shout the Redeemer.

LAUNCHING INTO ETERNITY,

[WATTS.]

It was a brave attempt! advent'rous he,

Who in the first ship broke the unknown fea;
And leaving his dear native shores behind,
Trufted his life to the licentious wind.

I fee the furging brine: the tempest raves,
He on a pine-plank rides across the waves,
Exulting on the edge of thousand gaping graves;
He steers the winged boat, and shifts the sails,
Conquers the floods, and manages the gales.

Such is the foul that leaves this mortal land
Fearless, when the great Mafter gives command.
Death is the storm: fhe fmiles to hear it roar,
And bids the tempeft waft her from the shore:
Then with a skilful helm she sweeps the feas,
And manages the raging ftorm with ease;
(Her faith can govern Death) the fpreads her wings
Wide to the wind, and as she fails she fings,
And lofes by degrees the fight of mortal things.
As the fhores leffen, so her joys arise,
The waves roll gentler, and the tempeft dies:
Now vaft eternity fills all her fight;

She floats on the broad deep with infinite delight, The feas for ever calm, the skies for ever bright.