She falls from thence, and seems to drop her wing, But, ere she lights to rest, remounts to sing.

It is not far the days have roll'd their years Before the second brighten'd work appears, It is not far, alas! the faulty cause, Which, from the prophet, sad reflection draws; Alas! that blessings in possession cloy, And peevish murmurs are preferr'd to joy; That favour'd Israel could be faithless still, Or question God's protecting power or will, Or dread devoted Canaan's warlike men, And long for Egypt and their bonds again. Scarce thrice the Sun, since harden'd Pharaoh dy'd, As bridegrooms issue forth with glittering pride, Rejoicing rose, and let the nation see Three shining days of easy liberty, Ere the mean fears of want, produc'd within, Vain thought, replenish'd, with rebellious sin.

Oh look not, Israel, to thy former way; God cannot fail; and either wait or pray. Within the borders of thy promis'd lands, Lot's hapless wife a strange example stands, She turn'd her eyes, and felt her change begin, And wrath as fierce may meet resembling sin. Then forward move thy camp, and forward still, And let sweet Mercy bend thy stubborn will.

At thy complaint, a branch in Mayah cast, With sweetening virtue mends the water's taste. At thy complaint, the labouring tempest sails, And drives before a wondrous shower of quails. In tender grass the falling manna lies, And Heaven itself the want of bread supplies. The rock divided, flows upon the plain At thy complaint, and still thou wilt complain. As, thus employ'd, thou went the desert through, Lo! Sinai Mount uprear'd its head to view. Thine eyes perceiv'd the darkly-rolling cloud, Thine ears the trumpet shrill, the thunder loud, The forky lightning shot in livid gleam, The smoke arose, the mountain all a flame Quak'd to the depths, and work'd with signs of While God descended to dispense the law. [awe, Yet neither Mercy, manifest in might, Nor Power in terrours could preserve thee right. Provok'd with crimes of such an heinous kind, Almighty Justice sware the doom design'd. That they should never reach the promis'd seat, And Moses greatly mourns their hasten'd fate. I'll think him now retir'd to public care, While night in pitchy plumes slides soft in air, I'll think him giving what the guilty sleep, [weep. To thoughts where sorrow glides, and numbers Sad thoughts of woes that reign where such prevail, And man's short life, though not so short as frail. Within this circle for his inward eyes, He bids the fading low creation rise, And straight the train of mimic senses brings The dusky shapes of transitory things, Through pensive shades, the visions seem to range, They seem to flourish, and they seem to change; A Moon decreasing runs the silent sky, Aud sickly birds on moulting feathers fly; Men walking count their days of blessing o'er,. The blessings vanish, and the tale's no more, Still hours of nightly watches steal away, Big waters roll, green blades of grass decay, Then all the pensive shades, by just degrees, Grow faint in prospect, and go off with these: But while th' affecting notions pass along, He chooses such as best adorn his song;

And thus with God the rising lays began, God ever reigning, God compar'd with man: And thus they move to man beneath his rod, Man deeply sinning, man chastis'd by God.

"Oh Lord! oh Saviour! though thy chosen band Have stay'd like strangers, in a foreign laud, Through number'd ages, which have run their race, Still has thy mercy been our dwelling-place, Before the most exalted dust of earth, The stately mountains had receiv'd a birth, Before the pillars of the world were laid, Before the habitable parts were made; Thou wert their God, from thee their rise they Thou great for ages, great for ever too. [drew,

"Man (mortal creature) fram'd to feel decays, Thine unresisted power at pleasure sways; Thou say'st return, and parting souls obey, Thou say'st return, and bodies fall to clay. For what's a thousand fleeting years with thee? Or time, compar'd with long eternity, Whose wings expanding infinitely vast O'erstretch its utmost ends of first and last; 'Tis like those hours that lately saw the Sun; He rose, and set, and all the day was done : Or like the watches which dread night divide, And while we slumber uuregarded glide, When all the present seems a thing of nought, And past and future close to waking thought. As raging floods, when rivers swell with rain, Bear down the groves, and overflow the plain, So swift and strong thy wondrous might appears, So life is carried down the rolling years. As heavy sleep pursues the day's retreat, With dark, with silent, and unactive state, So life's attended-on by certain doom,

[fall;

And death's their rest; their resting-place, a tomb.
It quickly rises, and it quickly goes,
And youth its morning, age its evening shows.
Thus tender blades of grass, when beams diffuse,
Rise from the pressure of their early dews,
Point tow'rds the skies their elevated spires,
And proudly flourish in their green attires.
But soon (ah fading state of things below!)
The scythe destructive mows the lovely show.
The rising Sun thus saw their glories high;
That Sun descended, sees their glories die.
"We still with more than common haste of fate
Are doom'd to perish, in thy kindled hate.
Our public sins for public justice call,
And stand like marks, on which thy judgments
Our secret sins, that folly thought conceal'd,
Are in thy light for punishment reveal'd.
Beneath the terrours of thy wrath divine
Our days unmix'd with happiness decline,
Like empty stories, tedious, short, and vain,
And never, never more recall'd again.
Yet what were life, if to the longest date,
Which we have nam'd a life, we backen'd fate,
Alas, its most computed length appears
To reach the limits but of seventy years,
And if by strength to fourscore years we go,
That strength is labour, and that labour woe.
Then will thy term expire, and thou must fly,
Oh man! oh creature surely born to die!
But who regards a truth so throughly known?
Who dreads a wrath so manifestly shown?
Who seems to fear it, though the danger vies
With any pitch to which our fear can rise:
O teach us so to number all our days,
That these reflections may correct our ways,

That these may lead us from delusive dreams
To walk in heavenly wisdom's golden beams.

"Return, oh Lord: how long shall Israel sin? How long thine anger be preserv'd within? Before our time's irrevocably past,

Be kind, be gracious, and return at last,
Let favour soon dispens'd our souls employ,
And still remember'd favour live in joy.
Send years of comforts for our years of woes,
Send these at least of equal length with those,
Shine on thy flock, and on their offspring shine,
With tender mercy (sweetest act divine)
Bright rays of majesty serenely shed
To rest in glories on the nation's head.
Our future deeds with approbation bless,
'And in the giving them give us success."

Thus with forgiveness earnestly desir'd,
Thus in the raptures of a bliss requir'd,
The man of God concludes his sacred strain.
Now sit and see the subject once again;
See ghastly Death, where deserts all around
Spread forth the barren undelightful ground:
There stalks the silent melancholy shade,
His naked bones reclining on a spade;
And thrice the spade with solemn sadness heaves,
And thrice earth opens in the form of graves,
His gates of darkness gape, to take him in;
And where he soon would sink, he's push'd by sin.
Poor mortais! here your common picture know,
And with yourselves in this acquainted grow,
Through life, with airy, thoughtless pride you
And vainly glitter in the sphere of change, [range,
A sphere where all things but for time remain,
Where no fix'd stars with endless glory reign,
But meteors only, short-liv'd meteors rise,
To shine, shoot down, and die beneath the skies.
There is an hour, ah! who that hour attends?
When man, the gilded vanity, descends;
When foreign force, or waste of inward heat,
Constrain the soul to leave its ancient seat;
When banish'd beauty from her empire flies,
And with a languish leaves the sparkling eyes;
When softening music and persuasion fail,
And all the charms that in the tongue prevail;
When spirits stop their course, when nerves un-
And outward action and perception cease; [brace,
?Tis then the poor deform'd remains shall be
That naked skeleton we seem'd to see.

[bliss,

Make this thy mirror, if theu would'st have No flattering image shows itself in this; But such as lays the lofty looks of pride, And makes cool thought in humble channel glide; But such as clears the cheats of Errour's den, Whence magic mists surround the souls of men; Whence self-delusion's trains adorn their flight, As snow's fair feathers fleet to darken sight; Then rest, and in the work of fancy spread, To gay-wav'd plumes for every mortal's head. These empty forms, when death appears, disperse, Or melt in tears, upon its mournful hearse; The sad reflection forces men to know, Life surely sails and swiftly flies below. Oh, lest thy folly lose the profit sought, Oh never touch it with a glancing thought, As men to glasses come, and straight withdraw, And straight forget what sort of face they saw: But fix, intently fix, thine inward eyes, And in the strength of this great truth be wise. If on the globe's dim side our senses stray, Not us'd to perfect light, we think it day:

Death seems long sleep; and hopes of heavenly
Deceitful wishes, big with distant dreams; [beans,
But if our reason purge the carnal sight,
And place its objects in their juster light, [more,
We change the side, from dreams on Earth we
And wake through death, to rising life above,

Here o'er my soul a solemn silence reigns,
Preparing thought for new celestial strains,
The former vanish off, the new begin,
The solemn silence stands like night between,
In whose dark bosom day departing lies,
And day succeeding takes a lovely rise.
But though the song be chang'd, be still the flame,
And still the prophet, in my lines the same;
With care renew'd, upon the children dwell,
Whose sinful fathers in the desert fell,
With care renew'd, if any care can do,
Ah! lest they sin, and lest they perish too.
Go seek for Moses at yon sacred tent,
On which the Presence makes a bright descent.
Behold the cloud, with radiant glory fair,
Like a wreath'd pillar, curl itself in air!
Behold it hovering just above the door,
And Moses meekly kneeling on the floor.
But if the gazing turn thy edge of sight,
And darkness spring from unsupported light,
Then change the sense, be sight in hearing drown'd,
While these strange accents from the vision sound:

"The time, my servant, is approaching nigh, When thou shalt gather'd with thy fathers lie, And soon thy nation, quite forgetful grown Of all the glories which mine arm has shown, Shall through my covenant perversely break, Despise my worship, and my name forsake, By customs conquer'd, where to rule they go, And serving gods that can't protect their foe. Displeas'd at this, I'll turn my face aside Till sharp Affliction's rod reduce their pride; Till, brought to better mind, they seek relief, By good confessions in the midst of grief. Then write thy song, to stand a witness still Of favours past, and of my future will, For I their vain conceits before discern, Then write thy song which Israel's sons shall learn."

As thus the wondrous voice its charge repeats, The prophet musing deep within repeats, He seems to feel it on a streaming ray, Pierce through the soul enlightening all its way. And much obedient will, and free desire, And much his love of Jacob's seed inspire; And much, ob! much above the warmth of those, The sacred spirit in his bosom glows, Majestic Notion seems decrees to nod, And holy Transport speaks the words of God.

He now returns, the finish'd roll he brings, Enrich'd with strains of past and future things; The priests in order to the tent repair, The gather'd Tribes attend the elders there: Oh! sacred Mercy's inexhausted store! Shall these have warning of their faults before, Shall these be told the recompenses due, Shall Heaven and Earth be call'd to witness too! Then still the tumult, if it will be so, Let fear, to lose a word, its caution show; Let close attention in dead calm appear, And softly, softly steal with silence near; While Moses, rais'd above the listening throng, Pronounces thus in all their ears the song:

"Hear, oh ye Heavens, Creation's lofty show, Hear, oh thou Heaven-encompass'd Earth below,

As silver showers of gently dropping rain,
As honey dews distilling on the plain,
As rain, as dews, for tender grass design'd,
So shall my speeches sink within the mind,
So sweetly turn the soul's enlivening food,
So fill and cherish hopeful seeds of good,
For now my numbers to the world abroad
Will loudly celebrate the name of God.

"Ascribe, thou nation, every favour'd tribe,
Excelling greatness to the Lord ascribe,
The Lord! the rock on whom we safely trust,
Whose work is perfect, and whose ways are just;
The Lord! whose promise stands for ever true;
The Lord! most righteous, and most holy too.

"Ah, worse election! Ah, the bonds of sin!
They choose themselves, to take corruption in.
They stain their souls with Vice's deepest blots,
When only frailties are his children's spots.
Their thoughts, words, actions, all are run astray,
And none more crooked, more perverse, than they.
"Say, rebel nation, and unwisely light,
Say, will thy folly thus the Lord requite?
Or is he not the God who made thee free,
Whose mercy purchas'd and establish'd thee?
Remember well the wondrous days of old,
The years of ages long before thee told,
Ask all thy fathers, who the truth will show,
Or ask thine elders, for thine elders know.
"When the Most High with sceptre pointed
down,

Describ'd the realms of each beginning crown,
When Adam's offspring, providential care,
To peopic countries, scatter'd here and there,
He to the limits of their lands confin'd,
That favour'd Israel has its part assign'd,
For Israel is the Lord's, and gains the place
Reserv'd for those, whom he would choose to grace.
"Him in the desert, him his mercy found,
Where Famine dwells and howling deafs the
ground,

Where dread is felt by savage noise increast,
Where Solitude crects its seat on waste:
And there he led him, and he taught him there,
And safely kept him with a watchful care;
The tender apples of our heedful eye,
Not more in guard, nor more securely lie.

"And as an eagle, that attempts to bring
Her unexperienc'd young to trust the wing,
Stirs up her nest, and flutters o'er their heads,
And all the forces of her pinions spreads,
And takes and bears them on her plumes above,
To give peculiar proof of royal love;
'Twas so the Lord, the gracious Lord alone,
With kindness most peculiar, led his own;
As no strange god concurr'd to make hiin free,
So none hau power to lead him through but he.
To lands excelling lands and planted high,
That boasts the kindest influencing sky,
He brought, he bore him, on the wings of Grace,
To taste the plenties of the ground's increase;
Sweet dropping honey from the rocky soil,
From flinty rocks the smoothly flowing oil,
The gilded butter from the stately kine,
The milk with which the duggs of sheep decline,
The marrow fatness of the tender lambs,
The bulky breed of Basan's goats and rams:
The finest flowery wheat that crowns the plain
Distends its husk, and loads the blade with grain,
And still he drank, from ripe delicious heaps
Of clusters press'd, the purest blood of grapes.

But thou art wanton, fat, and kickest now,
Oh, well directed, oh, Jeshuron thou:
Thou soon wert fat, thy sides were thickly grown,
Thy fatness deeply cover'd every bone;
Then wanton fulness vain oblivion brought,
And God, that made and sav'd thee, was forgot;
While gods of foreign lands, and rites abhorr'd,
To jealousies and anger mov'd the Lord;
While gods thy fathers never knew were own'd,
And fiends themselves with sacrifice aton'd.
Oh! fools, unmindful whence your order'd frame,
And whence your life-infusing spirit came;
Such strange corruptions could his hate provoke,
And thus their fate his indignation spole:

"It is decreed, P'il hide my face, and see,
When I forsake them, what their end shall be;
For they're a froward, very froward train,
They promise duty, but return disdain.
Within my soul they 've rais'd a jealous flame,
By new-nam'd gods, and only gods in name;
They make the burnings of my anger glow,
By guilty vanity's displeasing show;
I'll also teach their jealousy to fret,
At such as are not form'd a people yet,

I'll make their anger vex their inward breast,
When such as have not known my laws are blest.
A fire, a fire that nothing can assuage,
Is kindled in the fierceness of my rage,
To burn the depths, consume the land's increase,
And on the mountains' strong foundations seize.
Thick heaps of mischief on their heads I send,
And all mine arrows, wing'd with fury, spend;
Slow-parching death, and pestilential heat,
Shall bring the bitter pangs of lingering fate.
The teeth of beasts shall swift destruction bring,
The serpents wound them with invenom'd sting,
The sword without, and dread within, consume
The youth and virgin, in their lovely bloom,
Weak tender infancy, by suckling fed,
And helpless age, with hoary frosted head.
I said I'd scatter all the sinful race,

I said I'd make its mere remembrance cease,
But that I fear'd the foe's unruly pride,
Their glory vaunted, and their power deny'd,
While thus they boast our arm has shown us brave,
And God did nothing, for he could not save.
So fond their thoughts are, so remote of sense,
And blind in every course of Providence.
O did they know to what my judgments tend!
O would they ponder on their latter end!
They soon would find, that when upon the field
One makes a thousand, two, ten thousand yield.
The Lord of Hosts has sold a rebel state
And sure inclos'd it in the nets of Fate,
For what's another's rock compar'd with ours,
Let them be judges that have prov'd their powers,
That on their own have vainly call'd for aid,
While ours to freedom and to glory led.
Their vine, indeed, may seem to flourish fair,
But yet it grows in Sodom's tainted air,
It sucks corruption from Gomorrah's fields,
And galls for grapes in bitter clusters yields,
And poison sheds for wine, like that which comes
From asps, and dragons death-infected gums.
And are not these their hateful sins reveal'd,
And in my treasures for my justice seal'd?
To me the province of revenge belongs,
To me the certain recompense of wrongs.
Their feet shall totter in appointed time,
And threatening danger overtake their crime;

For, wing'd with feather'd haste, the minutes fly
To bring those things that must afflict them nigh.
The Lord will judge his own, and bring them low,
And then repent, and turn upon the foe.
And when the judgments from his own remove
Will thus the foe convincingly reprove:
Where are the gods, the rock, to whom in vain
Your offerings have been made, your victims slain?
Let them arise, let them afford their aid,
And with protection's shield surround your head,
Know then your Maker, I the Lord am be,
Nor ever was there any god with me,
And death, or life, or wounds, or health, I give,
Nor can another from my power reprieve.
With solemn state I lift my arm on high,
Above the glories of the lofty sky:
And by myself majestically swear,
I live for ever, and for ever there.

If in my rage the glittering sword I whet;
And, sternly sitting, take the judgment-seat,
My just awarding sentence dooms my foe,
And vengeance wields the blade, and gives the
And deep in flesh the blade of fury bites,
And deadly deep my bearded arrow lights,
And both grow drunk with blood defil'd in sin,
When executions of revenge begin.

[blow,

"Then let his nation in a common voice, And with his nation let the world rejoice: For whether he for crimes or trials spill His servants blood, he will avenge it still; He'll break the troops, he 'll scatter them afar, Who vex our realm with desolating war, And on the favour'd tribes, and on the land, Shed victories and peace, from Mercy's hand." Here ceas'd the song, and Israel look'd behind, And gaz'd before, with unconfining mind, And fix'd in silence and amazement saw The strokes of all their state beneath the law. Their recollection does its light present To show the mountain bless'd by God's descent, To show their wanderings, their unfix'd abode, And all their guidance in the desert road. Then where the beams of recollection go To leave the fancy dispossess'd of show, The fairer light of prophecy's begun, Which, opening future days, supplies their Sun, By such a Sun (and fancy needs no more) They see the coming times, and walk them o'er, And now they gain that rest their travail sought, Now milk and honey stream along the thought. Anon they feel their souls the blessing cloy, And God's forgot in full excess of joy. And oft they sin, and oft his anger burns, And every nation's made their scourge by turns, Till, oft repenting, they convert to God, And he, repenting too, destroys the rod.

O nation timely warn'd in sacred strain,

O never let thy Moses sing in vain!
Dare to be good, and happiness prolong,
Or, if thy folly will fulfil the song,
At least be found the seldomer in ill,
And still repent, and soon repent thee still;
When such fair paths thou shalt avoid to tread,
Thy blood will rest upon thy sinful head;
Thy crime, by lasting, will secure thy foe,
The gracious warning to the Gentiles go,
And all the world, that's call'd to witness here,
Convinc'd by thine example, learn to fear.
The Gentile world, a mystic Israel grown,
Will in thy first condition find their own,

A God's descent, a pilgrimage below,
And promis'd rest where living waters flow.
They'll see the pen describe in every trace
The frowns of Anger, or the smiles of Grace;
Why Mercy turns aside, and leaves to shine,
What cause provokes the Jealousy divine!
Why Justice kindles dire avenging flames,
What endless Power the lifted arm proclaims;
Why Mercy shines again with cheerful ray,
And Glory double-gilds the lightsome day.
Though nations change, and Israel's empire dies,
Yet still the case on Earth again may rise;
Eternal Providence its rule retains,

And still preserves, and still applies the strains.
'Twas such a gift, the prophet's sacred pen,
On his departure, left the sons of men;
Thus he, and thus the swan her breath resigns,
(Within the beauty of poetic lines,)
He white with innocence, his figure she,
And both harmonious, but the sweeter he.
Death learns to charm, and, while it leads to bliss,
Has found a lovely circumstance in this,
To suit the meekest turn of easy mind,
And actions cheerful in an air resign'd.

Thou flock, whom Moses to thy freedom led,
How wilt thou lay the venerable dead?
Go (if thy fathers taught a work they knew)
Go build a pyramid to Glory due,
Square the broad base, with sloping sides arise,
And let the point diminish in the skies.
There leave the corpse, impending o'er his head
The wand whose motion winds and waves obcy'd,
On sable banners to the sight describe
The painted arms of every mourning tribe.
And thus may public grief adorn the tomb,
Deep-streaming downwards through the vaulted
On the black stone a fair inscription raise, [room.
That sums his government to speak his praise,
And may the style as brightly worth proclaim
As if affection, with a pointed beam,
Engrav'd or fir'd the words, or honour due
Had with itself inlaid the tablet through,

But stop the pomp that is not man's to pay,
For God will grace him in a nobler way.
Mine eyes perceive an orb of heavenly state,
With splendid forms and light serene replete;
I hear the sound of fluttering wings in air,
I hear the tuneful tongues of angels there:
They fly, they bear, they rest on Nebo's head,
And in thick glory wrap the reverend dead;
This errand crowns his songs, and tends to prove
His near communion with the quire above.
Now swiftly down the steepy mount they go,
Now swiftly glides their shining orb below,
And now moves off, where rising grounds deny
To spread their valley to the distant eye.
Ye bless'd inhabitants of glittering air,
You've borne the prophet, but we know not where.
Perhaps, lest Israel, over-fondly led,

In rating worth when envy leaves the dead,
Might plant a grove, invent new rites divine,
Make him their idol, and his grave their shrine.
But what disorder? what repels the light?
And ere its season forces on the night?
Why sweep the spectres o'er the blasted ground?
What shakes the mount with hollow-roaring
Hell rolls beneath it, Terrour stalks before [sound?
With shrieks and groans, and Horrour bursts a
And Satan rises in infernal state,
[door;
Drawn up by Malice, Envy, Rage, and Hate,