Thence pafs'd the fhort-liv'd change, renew'd he fprings,
Admires the fkies, and tries his painted wings!
With airy flight the infect roves abroad,
And fcorns the meaner earth he lately trod!
Thee, potent, let deliver'd Ifrael praise,
And to thy Name their grateful homage raise!
Thee potent God! let Egypt's land declare,
Which felt thy juftice, awfully fevere !
How did thy frown benight the fhadow'd land?
Nature revers'd, how own thy high command?
When jarring elements their ufe forgot,
And the fun felt thy overcafting blot!
When earth produc'd the peftilential brood,
And the foul ftream was crimson'd into blood!
How deep the horrors of that awful night!
How ftrong the terror, and how wild the fright!
When o'er the land thy fword vindictive past,
And men and infants breath'd at once their laft!
How did thy arm thy favour'd tribes convey!
Thy light conducting, point th' amazing way!
Obedient ocean to their march divide,
The wat'ry wall distinct on either fide;
While thro' the deep the long proceffion led,
And faw the wonders of the oozy bed!
Nur long they march'd, till black'ning in the rear,
The vengeful tyrant and his hoft appear;
Plunge down the deep,-the waves thy nod obey,
And whelm the threat'ning ftorm beneath the fea!
Nor yet thy pow'r thy chosen train forfook,
When thro' Arabia's fands their way they took;
By day thy cloud was prefent to the fight,
Thy fiery pillar led the march by night;
Thy hand amidst the wafte their table spread,
With feather'd viands, and with Heav'nly bread :
When the dry wilderness no ftreams supply'd,
Gufi'd from the yielding rock the vital tide!
What limits can Omnipotence confine!
What obftacles refrain thy arm divine!
Since ftones and waves their fettled laws forego,
Since feas can harden, and fince rocks can flow?
On Sinai's top the Muse, with ardent wing,
The triumphs of Omnipotence would fing,
When o'er its airy brow thy cloud difplay'd,
Involv'd the nations in its awful fhade!
When gloomy darkness fill'd its midmoft fpace,
And the rock trembled to its rooted base;
Yet there thy majefty divine appear'd,
There fhone thy glory, and thy voice was heard ;
Ev'n in the blaze of that tremendous day,
Idolatry its impious rites could pay !
Oh fhame to thought!-Thy facred throne invade, And brave the bolt that linger'd round its head!
O Thou, who when th' almighty form'd this all,
Upheld the fcale, and weigh'd each ballane'd ball;
And as his hand compleated each design,
Number'd the work, and fix'd the feal divine;
O Wisdom infinite! creation's foul,
Whofe rays diffufe new luftre o'er the whole;
What tongue shall make thy charms celeftial known!
What hand, fair Goddefs! paint thee but thy own!
What tho' in nature's univeríal store,
Appear the wonders of almighty pow'r!
Pow'r unattended, terror would inspire,
Aw'd muft we gaze, and comfortless admire.
But when fair Wisdom joins in the defign,
The beauty of the whole refult's divine!
See, how affociate round their central fun,
Their faithful rings the circling planets run;
Still equi-diftant, never yet too near,
Exactly tracing their appointed fphere.
Mark how the moon our flying orb pursues,
While from the fun her monthly light renews;
Breathes her wide infl'ence on the world below,
And bids the tides alternate ebb and flow.
View how in courfe the conftant feafons rife,
Deform the earth, or beautify the fkies a
First Spring advancing, with her flow'ry train,
Next Summer's hand that spreads the fylvan fcene,
Then Autumn with her yellow harvests crown'd,
And trembling Winter close the annual round.
The vegetable tribes obfervant trace,
From the tall cedar to the creeping grafs :
The chain of animated beings fcale,
From the fmall reptile to th' enormous whale ;
From the ftrong eagle ftooping from the skies,
To the low infect that escapes thy eyes!
And fee, if fee thou can't, in ev'ry frame,
Eternal Wisdom fhine confefs'd the fame:
As proper organs to the leaft affign'd,
As proper means to propagate their kind;
As juft the ftructure, and as wife the plan,
As in this lord of all-debating man!
Hence, reas'ning creature, thy distinction find,
Nor longer to the ways of heav'n be blind.
Wisdom in outward beauty ftrikes the mind,
But outward beauty points a charm behind.
What gives the earth, the ambient air or feas,
The plain, the river, or the wood to please?
Oh fay, in whom does beauty's felf refide,
The Beautifier, or the beautify'd ?
There dwells the Godhead in the bright difguife,
Beyond the ken of all created eyes!
His works our love, and our attention steal,
His works (furprizing thought!) the maker veil;
Too weak our fight to pierce the radiant cloud,
Where Wisdom fhines, in all her charms avow'd!
O gracious God! omnipotent and wife,
Unerring Lord, and ruler of the skies;
All condescending to my feeble heart,
One beam of thy celeftial light impart ;
I feek not fordid wealth, or glitt'ring pow'r,
O grant me Wisdom-and I ask no more!
As from fome level country's fhelter'd ground,
With towns replete, with green inclofures bound,
Where the eye, kept within the verdant maze,
But gets a tranfient vifta as it strays!
The pilgrim to fome rising summit tends,
Whence opens all the scene as he ascends :
So Providence the friendly point fupplies,
Where all the charms of Deity furprize;
Here Goodness, Power and Wisdom all unite,
And dazzling Glories whelm the ravish'd fight!
Almighty Caufe! 'tis thy preferving care,
That keeps thy works for ever fresh and fair!
The fun from thy fuperior radiance bright,
Eternal fheds his delegated light,
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