The' Almighty voice bid ancient night Her endless realm resign, And lo! ten thousand globes of light In fields of azure shine. Now wisdom with superior sway He spake; the sun obedient stood, Old Jordan backward drives his flood, Lord of the armies of the sky, Chain'd to his throne a volume lies, His Providence unfolds the book, And makes his counsels shine : Each opening leaf, and every stroke, Fulfils some deep design. Here he exalts neglected worms And treads the monarch down. Not Gabriel asks the reason why, My God, I never long'd to see In thy fair book of life and grace DIVINE JUDGMENTS. NoT from the dust my sorrows spring, Their mingled curses on my head, Are but his slaves, and must obey; They wait their orders from above, And execute his word, the vengeance, or the love. 'Tis by a warrant from his hand The gentler gales are bound to sleep : The north-wind blusters, and assumes command Over the desert and the deep; Old Boreas with his freezing pow'rs And chains them moveless to their shores; Walks o'er the marble meads with withering eyes, Walks o'er the solid lakes, snuffs up the wind, and dies. Fly to the polar world, my song, A troop of statues on the Russian plains, And magazines of frost, and magazines of flame. His sharp artillery from the north [frame. Shall pierce thee to the soul, and shake thy mortal Sublime on Winter's rugged wings He rides in arms along the sky, And scatters fate on swains and kings; Grow pale; and, quivering at his dreadful cold, The mischiefs that infest the earth, When the hot dog-star fires the realms on high, Drought and disease, and cruel dearth, Are but the flashes of a wrathful eye From the incens'd Divinity. In vain our parching palates thirst, For vital food in vain we cry, And pant for vital breath; The verdant fields are burnt to dust, Ye scourges of our Maker's rod, Hail! whirlwinds, hurricanes, and floods, And bear down with a mighty sweep And bury millions in the waves ; Turn cities into heaps, and make our beds our graves ; 'Tis the Creator's voice that sounds your loud alarms, When guilt with louder cries provokes a God to arms. O for a message from above To bear my spirits up! Some pledge of my Creator's love I shall be rich till thou art poor; For all I fear, and all I wish, Heaven, earth, and hell, are thine. EARTH AND HEAVEN. HAST thou not seen, impatient boy, 'Pleasure must be dash'd with pain?' The thirsty boy repeats the taste; Nor hearkens to despair, but tries the bowl again. The rills of pleasure never run sincere ; (Earth has no unpolluted spring) From the curs'd soil some dangerous taint they bear; So roses grow on thorns, and honey wears a sting. In vain we seek a Heaven below the sky; The world has false, but flattering charms : And when we grasp the airy forms We lose the pleasing dream. Earth with her scenes of gay delight But bring the nauseous daubing nigh, t |