And Æthiopia fpreads abroad the hand
And worships. Her report has travell❜d forth
Into all lands. From ev'ry clime they come
To fee thy beauty and to fhare thy joy,
O Sion! an affembly such as earth
fuch as Heav'n stoops down to fee.
Thus heav'n-ward all things tend. For all were once Perfect, and all must be at length restor’d.
So God has greatly purpos'd; who would elfe
In his dishonor'd works himfelf endure
Dishonor, and be wrong'd without redress.
Haste then, and wheel away a fhatter'd world,
Ye flow-revolving feafons! we would fee,
(A fight to which our eyes are ftrangers yet)
A world that does not dread and hate his laws,
And fuffer for its crime; would learn how fair
The creature is that God pronounces good,
How pleasant in itself what pleases him.
Here ev'ry drop of honey hides a sting,
Worms wind themselves into our fweeteft flow'rs,
And ev❜n the joy that haply fome poor heart
Derives from heav'n, pure as the fountaini
Is fullied in the ftream; taking a taint
From touch of human lips, at beft impure.
Oh for a world in principle as chafte
As this is grofs and felfish! over which
Custom and prejudice fhall bear no fway,
That govern all things here, fhould'ring afide
The meek and modest truth, and forcing her
To feek a refuge from the tongue of ftrife
In nooks obfcure, far from the ways of men
Where violence fhall never lift the fword,
Nor cunning juftify the proud man's wrong,
Leaving the poor no remedy but tears:
Where he that fills an office, fhall esteem
Th' occafion it prefents of doing good
More than the perquifite: Where law fhall speak
Seldom, and never but as wifdom prompts
And equity; not jealous more to guard
A worthlefs form, than to decide aright:
Where fashion fhall not fanctify abufe,
Nor fmooth good-breeding (fupplemental grace)
With lean performance ape the work of love.
Come then, and, added to thy many crowns,
Receive yet one, the crown of all the earth,
Thou who alone art worthy! it was thine
By antient covenant, ere nature's birth,
And thou haft made it thine by purchase fince,
And overpaid its value with thy blood.
Thy faints proclaim thee king; and in their hearts
Thy title is engraven with a pen
Dipt in the fountain of eternal love.
Thy faints proclaim thee king; and thy delay
Gives courage to their foes, who, could they fee
The dawn of thy laft advent, long-defir'd,
Would creep into the bowels of the hills,
And flee for fafety to the falling rocks.
very spirit of the world is tir'd
Of its own taunting queftion, afk'd fo long,
"Where is the promise of your Lord's approach ?"
The infidel has fhot his bolts away,
'Till his exhaufted quiver yielding none,
He gleans the blunted fhafts that have recoil'd,
And aims them at the shield of truth again.
The veil is rent, rent too by priestly hands,
That hides divinity from mortal eyes,
And all the mysteries to faith propos'd,
Infulted and traduc'd, are caft afide
As useless, to the moles and to the bats.
They now are deem'd the faithful, and are prais'd,
Who, conftant only in rejecting thee,
Deny thy Godhead with a martyr's zeal,
And quit their office for their error's fake.
Blind and in love with darkness! yet ev❜n these
Worthy, compar'd with fycophants, who knee
Thy name, adoring, and then preach thee man.
So fares thy church. But how thy church may fare
The world takes little thought; who will may preach,
And what they will: All paftors are alike
To wand'ring fheep, refolv'd to follow none.
Two gods divide them all, Pleasure and Gain:
For these they live, they facrifice to thefe,
And in their fervice wage perpetual war
With confcience and with thee. Luft in their hearts,
And mischief in their hands, they roam the earth
To prey upon each other; ftubborn, fierce,
High-minded, foaming out their own disgrace.
Thy prophets fpeak of fuch; and, noting down
The features of the laft degen'rate times,
Exhibit ev'ry lineament of these.
Come then, and added to thy many crowns
Receive yet one, as radiant as the rest,
Due to thy last and most effectual work,
Thy word fulfill'd, the conqueft of a world.
He is the happy man, whofe life ev'n now Shows fomewhat of that happier life to come; Who, doom'd to an obfcure but tranquil state, Is pleas'd with it, and, were he free to chufe,
|