GOD SUPREME AND SELF-SUFFICIENT.

WHAT is our God, or what his name,
Nor men can learn, nor angels teach:
He dwells conceal'd in radiant flame,
Where neither eyes nor thoughts can reach.
The spacious worlds of heavenly light,
Compar'd with him, how short they fall!
They are too dark, and he too bright.
Nothing are they, and God is All.

He spoke the wondrous word, and lo
Creation rose at his command:
Whilwinds and seas their limits know,
Bound in the hollow of his hand.

There rests the Earth, there roll the spheres,
There Nature leans, and feels her prop:
But his own self-sufficience bears
The weight of his own glories up.
The tide of creatures ebbs and flows,
Measuring their changes by the Moon :
No ebb his sea of glory knows,
His age is one eternal Moon.
Then fly, my song, an endless round,
The lofty tune let Michael raise;
All Nature dwell upon the sound,
But we can ne'er fulfil the praise.

JESUS THE ONLY SAVIOUR.

ADAM, our father and our head,
Transgress'd; and justice doom'd us dead:
The fiery law speaks all despair,
There's no reprieve nor pardon there.
Call a bright council in the skies;
"Seraphs, the mighty and the wise,
Say, what expedient can you give?
That sin be damn'd, and sinners live?
"Speak, are you strong to bear the load,
The weighty vengeance of a God?
Which of you loves our wretched race,
Or dares to venture in our place?"

In vain we ask: for all around

Stands silence through the heavenly ground:
There's not a glorious mind above
Has half the strength, or half the love.
But, O unutterable grace!

Th' Eternal Son takes Adam's place:
Down to our world the Saviour flies,
Stretches his naked arms, and dies.
Justice was pleas'd to bruise the God,
And pay its wrongs with heavenly blood;
What unknown racks and pangs he bore!
Then rose: The law could ask no more.

Amazing work! Look down, ye skies,
Wonder and gaze with all your eyes;
Ye heavenly thrones, stoop from above,
And bow to this mysterious love.

See, how they bend! see, how they look!
Long they had read th' eternal book,
And studied dark decrees in vain:
The cross and Calvary makes them plain.
Now they are struck with deep amaze,
Each with his wings conceals his face;
Now clap their sounding plumes, and cry,
"The wisdom of a Deity!"

Low they adore th' Incarnate Son,
And sing the glories he hath won;
Sing how he broke our iron chains,
How deep he sunk, how high he reigns.
Triumph and reign, victorious Lord,
By all thy flaming hosts ador'd:
And say, dear Conqueror, say, how long
Ere we shall rise to join their song.
Lo, from afar the promis'd day.
Shines with a well-distinguish'd ray;
But my wing'd passion hardly bears
These lengths of slow delaying years.
Send down a chariot from above,
With fiery wheels, and pav'd with love;
Raise me beyond th' ethereal blue,
To sing and love as angels do.

LOOKING UPWARD.

THE heavens invite mine eye,
The stars salute me round;
Father, I blush, I mourn to lie
Thus grovelling on the ground.
My warmer spirits move,
And make attempts to fly;
I wish aloud for wings of love
To raise me swift and high.
Beyond those crystal vaults,
And all their sparkling balls;
They're but the porches to thy courts,
And paintings on thy walls.
Vain world, farewell to you;
Heaven is my native air:

I bid my friends a short adieu,
Impatient to be there.

I feel my powers releas'd
From their old fleshy clod;
Fair guardian, bear me up in haste,
And set me near my God.

CHRIST DYING, RISING, AND REIGNING.
He dies! the heavenly lover dies!
The tidings strike a doleful sound
On my poor heart-strings: deep he lies
In the cold caverns of the ground.
Come, saints, and drop a tear or two
On the dear bosom of your God:
He shed a thousand drops for you,
A thousand drops of richer blood.

Here's love and grief beyond degree,
The Lord of Glory dies for men!
But lo, what sudden joys I see!
Jesus the dead revives again.
The rising God forsakes the tomb,
Up to his Father's court he flies;
Cherubic legions guard him home,
And shout him welcome to the skies.

Break off your tears, ye saints, and tell
How high our Great Deliverer reigns;
Sing how he spoil'd the hosts of Hell,
And led the monster Death in chains.
Say, "Live for ever, wondrous King!
Born to redeem, and strong to save!"
Then ask the monster, Where's his sting?
And where's thy victory, boasting Grave?

THE GOD OF THUNDER.

O THE immense, th' amazing height,
The boundless grandeur of our God,
Who treads the worlds beneath his feet,
And sways the nations with his nod!
He speaks; and lo, all Nature shakes,
Heaven's everlasting pillars bow;

He rends the clouds with hideous cracks,
And shoots his fiery arrows through.
Well, let the nations start and fly
At the blue lightning's horrid glare,
Atheists and emperors shrink and die,
When flame and noise torment the air.
Let noise and flame confound the skies,
And drown the spacious realms below;
Yet will we sing the Thunderer's praise,
And send our loud Hosannas through.
Celestial King, thy blazing power
Kindles our hearts to flaming joys;
We shout to hear thy thunders roar,
And echo to our Father's voice.

Thus shall the God our Saviour come,
And lightnings round his chariot play :
Ye lightnings, fly to make him room;
Ye glorious storms, prepare his way

THE DAY OF JUDGMENT,

AN ODE.

Attempted in English Sapphic. WHEN the fierce North-wind with his airy forces Rears up the Baltic to a foaming fury ; And the red lightning with a storm of hail comes Rushing amain down,

While the hoarse thunder, like a bloody trumpet, How the poor sailors stand amaz'd and tremble! Roars a loud onset 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 terrour when the great Archangel
Shakes the creation;

Tears the strong pillars of the vault of Heaven,
Breaks up old marble, the repose of princes;
See the graves open, and the bones arising,

Flames all around them. Hark, the shrill outcries of the guilty wretches! Lively bright horrour, and amazing anguish, [lies Stare through their eye-lids, while the living worm Gnawing within them. Thoughts, like old vultures, prey upon their heart.

strings,

And the smart tinges, when the eye beholds the
Lofty Judge frowning, and a flood of vengeance
Rolling afore him.
Hopeless immortals! how they scream 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 horrid
Doleful ideas!) come, arise to Jesus,
How he sits God-like! and the saints around him
Thron'd, yet adoring!

O may I sit there when he comes triumphant,
Dooming the nations! then ascend to glory,
While our Hosannas all along the passage

Shout the Redeemer.

THE SONG OF ANGELS ABOVE. EARTH has detain'd me prisoner long,

And I'm grown weary now;

My heart, my hand, my ear, my tongue,
There's nothing here for you.

Tir'd in my thoughts, I stretch me down,
And upward glance mine eyes;
Upward, my Father, to thy throne,
And to my native skies.

There the dear Man, my Saviour, sits,
The God, how bright he shines!
And scatters infinite delights

On all the happy minds.

Seraphs with elevated strains

Circle the throne around,

And move and charm the starry plains
With an immortal sound.

Jesus the Lord their harps employs,
Jesus my love they sing ;
Jesus, the name of both our joys
Sounds sweet from every string.
Hark, how beyond the narrow bounde
Of time and space they run,
And speak in most majestic sounds
The Godhead of the Son!
How on the Father's breast he lay,
The darling of his soul,
Infinite years before the day
Or heavens began to roll.

And now they sink the lofty tone,
And gentler notes they play,
And bring th' Eternal Godhead down
To dwell in humble clay.

O sacred beauties of the Man!
(The God resides within)

His flesh all pure, without a stain,

His soul without a sin.

Then, how he look'd, and how he smil'd,

What wondrous things he said!
Sweet cherubs, stay, dwell here a while,
And tell what Jesus did.

At his command the blind awake,
And feel the gladsome rays;
He bids the dumb attempt to speak,
They try their tongues in praise.
He shed a thousand blessings round
Where-e'er he turn'd his eye;
He spoke, and at the sovereign sound
The hellish legions fly.

Thus while with unambitious strife
Th' ethereal minstrels rove
Through all the labours of his life,
And wonders of his love,

In the full choir a broken string

Groans with a strange surprise;
The rest in silence mourn their King,
That bleeds, and loves, and dies.
Seraph and saint, with drooping wings,

Cease their harmonious breath;
No blooming trees, nor bubbling springs,
While Jesus sleeps in death.

Then all at once to living strains

They summon every chord,

Break up the tomb, and burst his chains, And show their rising Lord.

Around the flaming army throngs

To guard him to the skies,
With loud Hosannahs on their tongues,
And triumph in their eyes.

In awful state the conquering God
Ascends his shining throne,
While tuneful angels sound abroad

The victories he has won.

Now let me rise, and join their song,
And be an angel too;

My heart, my hand, my ear, my tongue,
Here's joyful work for you.

I would begin the music here,
And so my soul should rise:

O for some heavenly notes to bear
My spirit to the skies!

There ye that love my Saviour sit;
There I would fain have place,
Among your thrones, or at your feet,
So I might see his face.

I am confin'd to Earth no more,
But mount in haste above,

To bless the God that I adore,
And sing the Man I love.

FIRE, AIR, EARTH, AND SEA, PRAISE YE
THE LORD.

EARTH, thou great footstool of our God
Who reigns on high; thou fruitful source
Of all our raiment, life and food;
Our house, our parent, and our nurse;
Mighty stage of mortal scenes,

Drest with strong and gay machines,
Hung with golden lamps around
(And flowery carpets spread the ground);
Thou bulky globe, prodigious mass,

That hangs unpillar'd in an empty space!

While thy unwieldy weight rests on the feeble air, Bless that Almighty Word that fix'd and holds thee there.

Fire, thou swift herald of his face,

Whose glorious rage, at his command,

Levels a palace with the sand,

Blending the lofty spires in ruin with the base:
Ye heavenly flames, that singe the air,
Artillery of a jealous God,

Bright arrows that his sounding quivers bear
To scatter deaths abroad;

Lightnings, adore the sovereign arm that flings
His vengeance, and your fires, upon the heads of

kings.

Thou vital element, the Air,

Whose boundless magazines of breath

Our fainting flame of life repair,

[Death:

And save the bubble man from the cold arms of And ye, whose vital moisture yields

Life's purple stream a fresh supply,

Sweet Waters, wandering through the flowery fields,
Or dropping from the sky;

Confess the Power whose all-sufficient name
Nor needs your aid to build, or to support our frame.
Now the rude Air, with noisy force,
Beats up and swells the angry Sea,
They join to make our lives a prey,
And sweep the sailors' hopes away,
Vain hopes, to reach their kindred on the shores!
Lo, the wild seas and surging waves
Gape hideous in a thousand graves:

Be still, ye floods, and know your bounds of sand,
Ye storms, adore your Master's hand :

The winds are in his fist, the waves at his com

Here I renounce my carnal taste

Of the fair fruit that sinners prize :
Their Paradise shall never waste
One thought of mine, but to despise.
All earthly joys are over-weigh'd
With mountains of vexatious care;
And where's the sweet that is not laid
A bait to some destructive snare?
Be gone for ever, mortal things!
Thou mighty mole-hill, Earth, farewell!
Angels aspire on lofty wings,

And leave the globe for ants to dwell.
Come, Heaven, and fill my vast desires,
My soul pursues the sovereign good:
She was all made of heavenly fires,
Nor can she live on meaner food.

Those guardian drops my soul secure,
And wash away my sin;
Eternal Justice frowns no more,

And conscience smiles within.

I bless that wondrous purple stream
That whitens every stain;

Yet is my soul but half redeem'd,
If Sin the tyrant reign.

Lord, blast his empire with thy breath!
That cursed throne must fall:

Ye flattering plagues, that work my death,
Fly, for I hate you all.

GOD ONLY KNOWN TO HIMSELF.

STAND, and adore! how glorious He
That dwells in bright eternity!
We gaze, and we confound our sight
Plung'd in th' abyss of dazzling light.
Thou sacred One, Almighty Three,
Great Everlasting Mystery,
What lofty numbers shall we frame
Equal to thy tremendous name?
Seraphs, the nearest to the throne,
Begin, and speak the Great Unknown:
Attempt the song, wind up your strings,
To notes untried and boundless things:
You, whose capacious powers survey
Largely beyond our eyes of clay:
Yet what a narrow portion too

Is seen, or known, or thought, by you!
How flat your highest praises fall
Below th' immense Original!
Weak creatures we, that strive in vain
To reach an uncreated strain !
Great God, forgive our feeble lays,
Sound out thine own eternal praise;
A song so vast, a theme so high,
Calls for the voice that tun'd the sky.

SOVEREIGNTY AND GRACE.

THE Lord! how fearful is his name!
How wide is his command!
Nature, with all her moving frame,
Rests on his mighty hand.
Immortal glory forms his throne,
And light his awful robe;
While with a smile, or with a frown,
He manages the globe.

A word of his almighty breath
Can swell or sink the seas;

Build the vast empires of the Earth,
Or break them as he please.

Adoring angels round him fall

In all their shining forms,

His sovereign eye looks through them all, And pities mortal worms.

His bowels, to our worthless race,

In sweet compassion move;

He clothes his looks with softest grace,
And takes his title, Love.

Now let the Lord for ever reign,

And sway us as he will;
Sick, or in health, in ease, or pain,
We are his favourites still.

No more shall peevish passion rise,
The tongue no more complain;
'Tis sovereign love that lends our joys,
And love resumes again.

PARDON AND SANCTIFICATION.

My crimes awake, and hideous fear
Distracts my restless mind;
Guilt meets my eyes with horrid glare,
And Hell pursues behind.
Almighty Vengeance frowns on high,
And flames array the throne;

While thunder murmurs round the sky,
Impatient to be gone.

Where shall I hide this noxious head?
Can rocks or mountains save?
Or shall I wrap me in the shade

Of midnight and the grave?
Is there no shelter from the eye
Of a revenging God?
Jesus, to thy dear wounds I fly;
Bedew me with thy blood.

Go, you that rest upon the law,
And toil, and seek salvation there;
Look to the flames that Moses saw,
And shrink, and tremble, and despair.
But I'll retire beneath the cross:
Saviour, at thy dear feet I lie;
And the keen sword that justice draws,
Flaming and red, shall pass me by.

"How weak's the prison where I dwell! Flesh but a tottering wall, The breaches cheerfully foretel,

The house must shortly fall.

"No more, my friends, shall I complain, Though all my heart-strings ache; Welcome disease, and every pain

That makes the cottage shake.

"Now let the tempest blow all round, Now swell the surges high,

WORLD.

O mens, quæ stabili fata regis vice, &c.
Casimire, Book III. Od. xxiii.

ETERNAL Mind, who rul'st the fates
Of dying realms and rising states
With one unchang'd decree;
While we admire thy vast affairs,
Say, can our little trifling cares
Afford a smile to thee?

Thou scatterest honours, crowns, and gold;
We fly to seize, and fight to hold
The bubbles and the oar;
So emmets struggle for a grain;
So boys their petty wars maintain
For shells upon the shore.

Here a vain man his sceptre breaks,
The next a broken sceptre takes,
And warriors win and lose;
This rolling world will never stand,
Plunder'd and snatch'd from hand to hand,
As power decays or grows.
Earth's but an atom: greedy swords
Carve it among a thousand lords,

And yet they can't agree :

Let greedy swords still fight and slay,
I can be poor; but, Lord, I pray
To sit and smile with thee.

HAPPY FRAILTY.

'How meanly dwells th' immortal mind! How vile these bodies are!

Why was a clod of earth design'd

T' inclose a heavenly star?

"Weak cottage where our souls reside!
This flesh a tottering wall;

With frightful breaches gaping wide
The building bends to fall.

"All round it storms of trouble blow,

And waves of sorrow roll;

Cold waves and winter storms beat through,

And pain the tenant-soul.

"Alas! how frail our state!" said I;

And thus went mourning on, Till sudden from the cleaving sky A gleam of glory shone.

"My soul all felt the glory come,
And breath'd her native air;

Then she remember'd Heaven her home,
And she a prisoner here.

'Straight she began to change her key,
And, joyful in her pains,
She sung the frailty of her clay
In pleasurable strains.

To let the stranger fly.

"I have a mansion built above

By the Eternal Hand;

And should the Earth's old basis move,

My heavenly house must stand. "Yes; for 'tis there my Saviour reigns, (I long to see the God)

And his immortal strength sustains

The courts that cost him blood."
Hark, from on high my Saviour calls:
"I come, my Lord, my Love :"
Devotion breaks the prison-walls,
And speeds my last remove.

LAUNCHING INTO ETERNITY.

It was a brave attempt! adventurous he,
Who in the first ship broke the unknown sea;
And, leaving his dear native shores behind,
Trusted his life to the licentious wind.

I see the surging 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 flood, and manages the gales.

Such is the soul that leaves this mortal land
Fearless when the great Master gives command.
Death is the storm: she smiles to hear it roar,
And bids the tempest waft her from the shore:
Then with a skilful helm she sweeps the seas,
And manages the raging storm with ease;
(Her faith can govern Death) she spreads her wings
Wide to the wind, and as she sails she sings,
And loses by degrees the sight of mortal things.
As the shores lessen, so her joys arise,
The waves roll gentler, and the tempest dies;
Now vast eternity fills all her sight,

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

A PROSPECT OF THE RESURRECTION.