Inhuman bondage! The hard galling load
Over-press'd their feeble souls,
Bent their knees to senseless bulls,
And broke their knees to God.

م

Now had they pass'd the' Arabian bay,

And march'd between the cleaving sea;

[way,

The rising waves stood guardians of their wondrous But fell with most impetuous force,

On the pursuing swarms,

And buried Egypt all in arms,

Blending in watry death the rider and his horse,

O'er struggling Pharaoh roll'd the mighty tide,
And sav'd the labours of a pyramid.

Apis and Ore in vain he cries,

And all his horned gods beside,
He swallows fate with swimming eyes,

And curs'd the Hebrews as he died.

Ah! foolish Israel to comply

With Memphian idolatry!

And bow to brutes, (a stupid slave)

To idols impotent to save!

Behold thy God, the Sovereign of the sky,
Has wrought salvation in the deep,
Has bound thy foes in iron sleep,
And rais'd thine honours high:
His grace forgives thý follies past,
Behold he comes in majesty,
And Sinai's top proclaims his law:
Prepare to meet thy God in haste;
But keep an awful distance still:
Let Moses round the sacred hill
The circling limits draw.

Hark! the shrill echoes of the trumpet roar,
And call the trembling armies near;
Slow and unwilling they appear,

Rails kept them from the mount before,

Now from the rails their fear:

'Twas the same herald, and the trump the same
Which shall be blown by high command,
Shall bid the wheels of nature stand,
And Heaven's eternal will proclain,
That time shall be no more.

Thus while the labouring angel swell'd the sound.
And rent the skies, and shook the ground,
Uprose the' Almighty; round his sapphire seat
Adoring thrones in order felt;

The lesser powers at distance dwell,

And cast their glories down successive at his feet:
Gabriel the great prepares his way,
'Lift up your heads, eternal doors,' he cries;
The' eternal doors his word obey,
Open and shoot celestial day

Upon the lower skies.

Heaven's mighty pillars bow'd their head,

As their Creator bade,

And down Jehovah rode from the superior sphere, A thousand guards before, and myriads in the rear.

His chariot was a pitchy cloud,

The wheels beset with burning gems,
The winds in harness with the flames
Flew o'er the' ethereal road;
Down through his magazines he past
Of hail, and ice, and fleecy snow,
Swift roll'd the triumph, and as fast
Did hail, and ice, in melted rivers flow.

The day was mingled with the night,
His feet on solid darkness trod,
His radiant eyes proclaim'd the God,
And scatter'd dreadful light;

He breath'd, and sulphur ran, a fiery stream:

He spoke,and(though with unknown speed he came) Chid the slow tempest, and the lagging flame.

Sinai receiv'd his glorious flight,
With axle red and glowing wheel
Did the wing'd chariot light,

And rising smoke obscur'd the burning hill.
Lo, it mounts in curling waves,

Lo, the gloomy pride out-braves

The stately pyramids of fire;
The pyramids to Heaven aspire,

And mix with stars, but see their gloomy offspring higher.

So have you seen ungrateful ivy grow

Round the tall oak that six score years has stood, And proudly shoot a leaf or too

Above its kind supporter's utmost bough, And glory there to stand the loftiest of the wood.

Forbear, young Muse, forbear;

The flowery things that poets say,
The little arts of simile

Are vain and useless here;

Nor shall the burning hills of old
With Sinai be compar'd,
Nor all that lying Greece has told,

Or learned Rome has heard;

Ætna shall be nam'd no more,
Ætna the torch of Sicily;

Not half so high

Her lightnings fly,

Not half so loud her thunders roar

Cross the Sicanian sea, to fright the' Italian shore. Behold the sacred hill: its trembling spire Quakes at the terrors of the fire,

While all below its verdant feet

Stagger and reel under the' Almighty weight: Press'd with a greater than feign'd Atlas' load Deep groan'd the mount; it never bore Infinity before,

It bow'd, and shook beneath the burden of a GOD. Fresh horrors seize the camp; despair,

And dying groans, torment the air,

And shrieks, and swoons, and deaths were there;
The bellowing thunder and the lightning's blaze
Spread through the host a wild amaze;
Darkness on every soul, paleness on every face :
Confus'd and dismal were the cries,

Let Moses speak, or Israel dies:
Moses the spreading terror feels,
No more the man of God conceals
His shivering and surprise:

Yet, with recovering mind, commands

[bands.

Silence, and deep attention, through the Hebrew Hark! from the centre of the flame,

All arm'd and feather'd with the same, Majestic sounds break through the smoky cloud : Sent from the All-creating tongue,

A flight of cherubs guard the words along, And bear their fiery law to the retreating crowd. I am the Lord: 'tis I proclaim

That glorious and that fearful name,

Thy GoD and King: 'twas I, that broke
Thy bondage, and the' Egyptian yoke :
Mine is the right to speak my will,
And thine the duty to fulfil.

'Adore no God beside me, to provoke mine eyes; Nor worship me in shapes and forms that men devise;

With reverence use my name, nor turn my words

to jest;

Observe my sabbath well, nor dare profane my rest; Honour, and due obedience to thy parents give; Nor spill the guiltless blood, nor let the guilty live: Preserve thy body chaste, and flee the' unlawful bed; Nor steal thy neighbour's gold, his garment, or his

bread;

Forbear to blast his name with falsehood, or deceit, Nor let thy wishes loose upon his large estate.'

REMEMBER YOUR CREATOR, &c.

ECCLESIASTES XII.

CHILDREN, to your Creator, GOD,

Your early honours pay,

ile vanity and youthful blood
Yould tempt your thoughts astray.

memory of his mighty name Demands your first regard: Nor dare indulge a meaner flame Till you have lov'd the Lord.