No change fhall darken thy exalted name,
From everlasting ages ftill the fame !
If God, like man, his purpofe could renew,
His laws could vary, or his plans undo;
Defponding Faith would droop its chearless wing,
Religion deaden to a lifelefs thing!
Where could we, rational, repose our trust,
But in a Pow'r immutable as juft?
How judge of revelation's force divine,
If truth unerring gave not the defign;
Where, as in nature's fair according plan,
All fmiles benevolent and good to man.
Plac'd in this narrow clouded spot below,
Darkly we fee around, and darkly know!
Religion lends the falutary beam,
That guides our reafon thro' the dubious gleam;
Till founds the hour!-when he who rules the skies,
Shall bid the curtain of Omnifcience rife!
Shall diffipate the mifts that veil our fight,
And how his creatures- -all his ways are right!
Then when astonish'd nature feels its fate,
And fetter'd Time fhall know its lateft date!
When earth fhall in the mighty blaze expire,
Heav'n melt with heat, and worlds diffolve in fire!
The univerfal fyftem shrink away,
And ceafing orbs confefs th' Almighty sway!
Immortal He, amidst the wreck fecure,
Shall fit exalted, permanently pure!
As in the Sacred Bufh, fhall fhine the fame,
And from the ruin raise a fairer frame!
Far hence ye vifionary charming maids,
Ye fancy'd nymphs that haunt the Grecian fhades!
Your birth, who from conceiving fiction drew,
Yourselves producing phantoms as untrue;
But come, fuperior Mufe! divinely bright,
Daughter of heav'n, whofe offspring ftill are light;
Oh condescend, celeftial facred gueft!
To purge my fight, and confecrate my breaft:
While I prefume Omipotence to trace,
And fing that Pow'r, who peopl'd boundless space!
Thou prefent wert, when forth th' Almighty rode
While Chaos trembled at the voice of God!
Thou faw'ft, when o'er th' immenfe his line he drew,
When Nothing from his Word existence knew!
His Word, that wak'd to life the vaft profound,
While conscious light was kindl'd at the found!
Creation fair! furpriz'd th' angelic eyes,
And fov'reign Wisdom faw that all was wife!
Him, fole almighty Nature's book difplays,
Diftin&t the page, and legible the rays!
B 4
Let the wild fceptic his attention throw,
To the broad horizon, or earth below;
He finds thy foft impreffion touch his breaft,
He feels the God,-and owns him unconfefs'd!
Should the ftray-pilgrim, tir'd of fands and skies,
In Libya's wafte behold a palace rife,
Would he believe the charm from atoms wrought?
Go, atheist, hence, and mend thy jufter thought!
What hand, almighty architect! but thine
Could give the model of this vaft defign?
What hand but thine adjust th' amazing whole?
And bid confenting fyftems beauteous roll!
What hand but thine fupply the folar light
For ever wafting, yet for ever bright!
What hand but thine the ftarry train array,
Or give the moon to fhed her borrow'd ray?
What hand but thine the azure convex spread?
What hand but thine trace out the ocean's bed?
To the vaft main the fandy barrier throw,
And with that feeble curb reftrain the foe!
What hand but thine the wintry flood affwage,
Or ftop the tempeft in its wildest rage!
Thee infinite! what finite can explore?
Imagination finks beneath thy pow'r;
Thee could the ableft of thy creatures know,
were thy unity, for he were thou!
Yet prefent to all fenfe thy pow'r remains,
Reveal'd in nature, nature's author reigns!
In vain would error from conviction fly,
Thou every where art present to the eye!
The fenfe how ftupid, and the fight how blind,
That fails this univerfal truth to find?
Go!all the fightless realms of space farvey,
Returning trace the planetary way!
The fun, that in his central glory fhines,
While ev'ry planet round his orb inclines ;
Then at our intermediate globe repose,
And view yon lunar Satellite that glows!
Or caft along the azure vault thy eye,
When golden day enlightens all the fky;
Around behold earth's variegated scene,
The mingling prospects, and the flow'ry green;
The mountain's brow, the long extended wood,
Or the rude rock that threatens o'er the flood!
And fay are thefe the wild effects of chance?
Oh ftrange effect of reas'ning ignorance!
Nor pow'r alone confefs'd in grandeur lies,
The glittering planet, or the painted skies!
Equal the elephant's or emmet's dress
The wisdom of Omnipotence confefs;
Equal the cumb'rous whale's enormous mafs
With the fmall infect in the crouded grafs
The mite that gambols in its acid fea,
In fhape a porpus, tho' a fpeck to thee!
Ev'n the blue down the purple plumb furrounds,
A living world, thy failing fight confounds!
To him a peopled habitation fhows,
Where millions tafte the bounty God beftows!
Great Lord of life, whofe all-controling might
Thro' wide creation beams divinely bright,
Nor only does thy pow'r in forming shine,
But to annihilate, dread King! is thine.
Shouldft thou withdraw thy fill-fupporting hand,
How languid Nature would astonish'd stand!
Thy frown night's antient empire would restore,
And raise a blank- -where fyftems fmil'd before!
See in corruption, all-furprizing ftate,
How ftruggling life eludes the ftroke of fate;
Shock'd at the scene, tho' fenfe averts its eye,
Nor ftops the wond'rous procefs to defcry;
Yet jufter thought the myftic change pursues,
And with delight almighty wifdom views!
The brute, the vegetable world furveys,
Sees life fubfifting ev'n from life's decays!
Mark there, felf-taught, the penfive reptile come,
Spin his thin shroud, and living build his tomb!
With confcious care his former pleasures leave,
And drefs him for the bufinefs of the grave!
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