Man's mind is in a pit, and nothing fees: Emerge from thy profound; erect thine eye; See thy diftrefs! how clofe art thou befieg'd! Befieg'd by nature, the proud fceptic's foe ! Inclos'd by thefe innumerable worlds, Sparkling conviction on the darkest mind, As in a golden net of providence, How art thou caught! fure captive of belief! From this thy bleft captivity, what art, What blafphemy to reafon fets thee free? This fcene is heaven's indulgeat violence: Canst thou bear up against this tide of glory? What is earth botom`d in the ambient orbs, But faith in God impos'd, and prefs'd on man? God is a fpirit; fpirit cannot ftrike Thefe grofs, material, organs; God by man As much is feen, as man a God can fee, In thefe aftonishing exploits of power: What order, beauty, motion, distance, size ! Apt means! great ends! confent to general good! Each attribute of thefe material gods, A feparate conqueft gains o'er rebel thought; And leads in triumph the whole mind of man.
$296. Reafons for Belief.
"WHAT am I? and from whence ?--I nothing know,
That granted, all is folv`d.-But, granti Draw I not o'er me ftill a darker cloud Grant I not that which I can ne'er con A being without origin, or end! Hail, human liberty! There is no God Yet why? on either scheme the knot i Subfift it muft, in God, or human race If in the laft, how many knots befide, Indiffoluble all-why choofe it there, Where, chofen, fill fubfift ten thoufar Reject it; where that chofen, all the Difpers'd, leave reason's whole horizon What vaft preponderance is here! Can With louder voice exclaim-Believe a What things impoflible muft man think On any other fyftem? and how ftrange To difbelieve, through mere credulity!
$297. The Power of God infinite CAN man conceive beyond what God c Nothing, but quite-impoffible, is hard, He fummons into being, with like eate A whole creation, and a single grain. [ Speaks he the word? a thousand wo A thoufand worlds? there's space for n And in what space can his great fiat fail: Still feems my thought enormous?
Experience felf fhall aid thy lame beli Glaffes (that revelation to the fight!) Have they not led us deep in the difc Of fine-fpun nature, exquifitely small; And, tho' demonftrated, ftill ill-conce If, then, on the reverfe, the mind would In magnitude, what mind can mount to To keep the balance, and creation poik Stupendous Archite&! Thou, Thou art My foul flies up and down in thoughts o And finds herself but at the centre itill I Am, thy name! exiftence all thine ow Creation's nothing; flatter'd much, if y The thin, the fleeting atmosphere of
But that I am; and, fince I am, conclude Something eternal: had there e'er been nought, Nought ftill had been: eternal there must be: But what eternal?-Why not human race; And Adam's ancestors without an end? That's hard to be conceiv'd; fince every link Of that long-chain'd succession is fo frail; Can every part depend, and not the whole? Yet grant it true; new difficulties rife; [too? Whence earth, and thefe bright orbs ?-eternal Grant matter was eternal; ftill these orbs Would want fome other father:-much defign] Is feen in all their motions, all their makes: Defign implies intelligence, and art: That can't be from themfelves, orman: that art" Man fcarce can comprehend, could man beftow? And nothing greater, yet allow'd, than man.- Who, motion, foreign to the fmalleft grain, Shot thro' vaft maffes of enormous weight? Who bid brute matter's reftive lump aflume Such various forms, and gave it wings to fly? Has matter innate motion? Then each atom, Aflerting its indisputable right
To dance, would form an univerfe of duft: Has matter none? Then whence thefe glorious forms,
[pos'd And boundicis flights, from fhapelefs, and re Has matter more than motion? has it thought, Judgment, and genius? Is it deeply learn'd I: mthematics? Has it fram'd fuch laws, Which, but to gueís, a Newton made immortal? I to, how each fage atom laughs at me, Who think a clod inferior to a man! If art, to form; and council, to conduct; And that with greater far than human skill; Rades not in each block,-a Godhead reigns. Caut then, invifible, etcrnal, mind;
$298. The World fufficient for Man.
templation of the Heavens. YET why drown fancy in fuch depths as Return, prefumptuous rover! and cont The bounds of man; nor blame them, as to Enjoy we not full fcope in what is feen Full ample the dominions of the fun! Full glorious to behold! how far, how w The matchlefs monarch from his flamingt Lavish of luftre, throws his beams about Farther, and failer, than a thought can f And feeds his planets with eternal fires Beyond this city, why ftrays human tha One wonderful, enough for man to kno One firmament, enough for man to read Nor is inftruction, here, our only gain; There dwells a nobler pathos in the kic Which warms our paffions, profelytes our How eloquently fhines the glowing pac With what authority it gives its cheg Remonftrating great truths in ftyle tuol
loud! heard earth around; above epices heard; and not unheard in hell; has wonder, tho' too proud to praife. De aftruftor! thy firit volume, this,
perutal; all in capitals!
, and tars (heaven's golden alphabet !) toicize the fight; who runs, may read; as, can understand: 'tis unconfin'd, ian land, or Jewry; fairly writ ge uriverfal, to mankind:
ofty to the learn'd: yet plain, feed the flock, or guide the plough. astuk ftrike out the bounding grain! worthy the great mind that speaks! and comment, to the facred page!. book of wisdom, to the wife! book! and open'd, Night! by thee. much open'd, I confefs, O Night! Ih; fay, gentle Night! whole beams new creation, and prefent great picture, foften'd to the fight; , whofe mild dominion's filver key ar hemifphere, and fets to view and number; worlds conceal'd by day Be proud, and envious, ftar of noon! but draw a deeper fcene?-and fhew 147 potentate, to whom belong
Without, or ftar, or angel, for their guide, Who worship God, fhall find him: humble love, And not proud reafon, keeps the door of heaven; Love finds admiffion, where proud fcience fails. Man's fcience is the culture of his heart; And not to lose his plummet in the depths Of nature, or the more profound of God: To fathom nature; (ill attempted here!) Paft doubt, is deep philofophy above; Higher degrees in blifs archangels take, As deeper learn'd; the deepest, learning ftill: For, what a thunder of omnipotence Is feen in all! in man! in earth! in skies! Teaching this leffon, pride is loth to learn- "Not deeply to difcern, not much to know, "Mankind was born to wonder and adore."
alia, pompously difplay'd? pe of him my foul adores! bart, amid the defert waite, [her, the living ftream; for him who made the thirty foul, amid the blank joys: fay,goddefs! where? [throne? This bright court? where burns his , for thou art near him; by thee, arion, facred fame reports, [round n's drawn, if not, can none Gghter-train, fo swift of wing, Wat difcover where he dwells? Aling pointed out below:
#ade the wilder'd in the waves, muft I bend my courfe to find
mers keep the fecret of their king; nights, in vain, to steal it from t contemplation's rapid car, [them. Fah, as from my barrier, I fet out:
«O WHAT a root! O what a branch is here! § 300. The Greatness of God inexpressible. O what a father! what a family! Worlds! fyftems! and creations!—and creations, In one agglomerated clutter, hung, I he filial clufter! infinitely spread Great Vine! on thee: on thee the clufter hangs;. In glowing globes, with various being fraught ; Or, fhall I fay (for who can fay enough?) A conftellation of ten thousand gems, Set in one fignet, flames on the right-hand That deeply ftamps, on all created mind, Of majesty divine! the blazing feal, Indelible, his fovereign attributes For want of power in God, but thought in man. Omnipotence and love: nor ftop we here, If greater aught, that greater all is thine, Dread Sire!-Accept this miniature of thee; And pardon an attempt from mortal thought, In whicharchangels might have fail'd,unblam'd.”
timount! diminish'd earth recedes; Na samoon; and, from her further fide, Frizblue curtain; pause at everyplanet,|| Achim, who gives their orbs to roll. he's ring, I take my bolder flight,
overeign glories of the skies, ant, native luftre, proud, fyftem!-What behold I now?
As of wonders burning round; funs inherit higher spheres;
Are; my toil is but begun; Tax threfhold of the Deity; Goth it, I am grovelling till.
§ 301. The Mifery of Sin. O THOU, ambitious of difgrace alone? Rank coward to the fashionable world! Art thou afham'd to bend thy knee to heaven? Not all thefe luminaries, quench'd at once, which gropes for happiness, and meets defpair. Were half fo fad, as one benighted mind, How, like a widow in her weeds, the night, How forrowful, how defolate, the weeps Amid her glimmering tapers, filent fits! Perpetual dews, and faddens nature's fcene! A fcene more fad fin makes the darken'd foul; All comfort kills, nor leaves one spark alive.
THO' blind of heart, ftill open is thine eye; Why fuch magnificence in all thou fecit ? Of matter's grandeur, know, one end is this, To tell the rational, who gazes on it— Tho' that immenfely great, ftill greater he, Whofe breaft, capacious, can embrace, and lodge, Unburthen'd, nature's univerfal fcheme; Can grafp creation with a fingle thought;
Man's Science the Culture of his Heart.Creation grafp; and not exclude its fire
the curious, but the pious path,
me to my point: Lorenzo! know,
To tell him farther-It behoves him much To guard the important, yet depending, fate
By filence, death's peculiar attribute! By darkness, guilt's inevitable doom: By darkness, and by filence, fifters dread! That draw the curtain round night's ebon throne, And raife ideas, folemn as the fcene: By night, and all of awful, night presents To thought, or fenfe, by thefe her trembling fires, By thefe bright orators, that prove and praife, And prefs thee to revere, the Deity: Perhaps, too, aid thee, when rever`d a while, To reach his throne; as itages of the foul, Thro' which, at different periods, the fhail pafs, Refining gradual, for her final height; And purging off fome drofs at every sphere: By this dark pall thrown o'er the filent world: By the world's kings, and kingdoms, moft
From fhort ambition's zenith fet for ever; By the long lift of fwift mortality, From Adam downward to this evening's knell, Which midnight waves in fancy's ftartled eye; And fhocks her with a hundred centuries Round death's black banner throng`d, in human thought:
By thoufinds, now, refigning their laft breath, And calling thee-wert thou fo wife to hear: By tombs o'er tombs arifing, human earth; Ejected, to make room for-human earth; By pompous obfequies, that fhun the day, The torch funereal, and the nodding plume, Boaft of our ruin! triumph of our duft! By the damp vault that weeps o'er royal bones; And the pale lamp, that thews the ghaftly dead, More ghaftly thro' the thick-incumbent gloom! By vitits (if there are) from darker scenes, The gliding spectre and the groaning grove! By groans and graves, and miferies that groan For the grave's shelter: by defponding men, Senfelets to pains of death, from pangs of guilt: By guilt's last audit: by yon moon in blood, The rocking firmament, the falling ftars, And thunder's laft difcharge, great nature's By fecond chaos; and eternal night (knell! Be wife-nor let Philander blame my charm; But own not ill-difcharg'd my double debt, Love to the living; duty to the dead.
$305. Reflections on Sleep. BUT oh-my fpirits fail-fleep's dewy wand His ftrok'd my drooping lids to foft repose:
Hafte,halte,fweet stranger! from the peasant's The fhip-boy's hammock, or the foldier's ft Whenceforrow never chas'd thee: with theeb Not hideous vifions, as of late; but draugh Delicious of well-tafted, cordial, rest; Man's rich reitorative; his balmy bath, That fupplies, lubricates, and keeps in play The various movements of this nice machi Sleep winds us up for the fucceeding dawn; Fresh we fpin on, till fickness clogs our whe Or death quite breaks the fpring, and mo When will it end with me ? [er
-Thou only know'ft, Thou, whofe broad eye the future and the p Joins to the prefent; thou, and thou alone, All-knowing!-all unknown! and yet v Thee, tho' invifible, for ever feen! [knov And feen in all the great, and the minute, Each globe above, with its gigantic race, Each flower, each leaf, with its fmall pec fwarm'd, [decl
To the first thought, that afks, from when Their common fource, thou fountain runni In rivers of communicated joy! Who gav'ft us fpeech for far, far humblerthem Say, by what name fhall I prefume to call Him I fee burning in these countless funs, As Mofes in the bufh? illuftrious mind! How fhall I name Thee?-how my labouring fa Heaves underneath the thought, too big for birt
306. Addrefs to the Trinity.
GREAT fyftem of perfections! mighty caule Of nature, that luxuriant growth of God, Father of this immeafurable mafs Of matter multiform: mov'd, or at reft: Father of thefe bright millions of the night! Of which the leaft full Godhead had proclaim" Father of matter's temporary lords! Father of fpirits! nobler offspring 1 fparks Of high paternal glory; rich-endow'd With various measures, and with various mod Of instinct, reafon, intuition; beams More pale, or bright from day divine, that rail Each over other in fuperior light, Till the laft ripens into luftre trong Of next approach to Godhead: Father kind Of intellectual beings! beings bleft With powers to pleafe thee: not of paffive ply To laws they know not; beings lodg'd in feat Of well adapted joys; in different domes Of this imperial palace for thy fons. Or, oh! indulge, immortal King! indulge A title, lefs auguft indeed, but more Endearing; ah! how fweet in human ears! Father of immortality to man! And thou the next! yet equal! thou, by whom That bleifing was convey'd; far more! was bought;
Ineffable the price! by whom all worlds Were made; and one redeem'd! illuftrious light From light illuftrious! Thou, whofe regal power, On more than adamantine bafis fix'd, O'er more, far more, than diadems and thrones
Leigns; beneath whose foot Asce mandate of whofe awful nod, A revolutions, fortunes, fates, Catlow, of mind, and matter roll
the short channels of expiring time, > breits ocean of eternity,
fbjection '-and, O Thou Texas third! diftinct, not separate, Bagan both! incorporate with dust! Beton, as thy glory, great; Laman! of human hearts, if pure, Dviem tant! the tie divine Ch dilantearth!-myfterious pow'r! -yet unreveal'd! darkness in light! unity! our joy! our dread! utterable, unconceiv'd, ing yet demonftrable, great God!
greatest with foft pity's eye, bright home,fromthat high firmament, Where the, from ail-eternity, halt dwelt; Bed archangels unassisted ken; Tant ranks of effences unknown; Techies from hierarchies detach'd, Bus banners of omnipotence,
change of rapturous duties fir'd; us beings interpofing fwarms; Aat the call, to dwell in thee;
Joy breaks, fhines, triumphs; tis eternal day! Shall that which rifes out of nought complain, Of a tew evils, pay'd with endlefs joys? My foul! henceforth, in sweetest union join The two fupports of human happiness, Which fome, erroneous, think can never meet; True taste of life, and conftant thought of death; Thy patron, he, whofe diadem has dropp'd Yon gems of heav'n; eternity thy prize. How must a spirit, late efcap'd from earth, The truth of things new-blazing in its eye, Look back, aftonifh'd, on the ways of men, Whofe life's whole drift is to forget their graves And when our prefent privilege is pait, The fame aftonishment will feize us all. What then must pain us, would preferveus now! Seize wifdom, ere 'tis torment to be wise; That is, feize wildom, ere the feizes thee: For, what is hell? full knowledge of the truth, When truth, refifted long, is fworn our foe; And calls eternity to do her right.
Thus, darkness aiding intellectual light. And facred filence whispering truths divine, And truths divine converting pain to peace,
ide waste of worlds-look down-My fong the midnight raven has outwing'd,
breathing particle in duft, (., immortal in his crimes: forgive! forgive his virtues too! faults; half-converts to the right. eyes, which never more then (tho night's defcending scale dwells eternal pain; on) unpity'd and unbleft!
And all is terrible to man, Geely me in my bed, by nature, now, fo near! helter of thy wing implor'd) Etat, fhall fink in foft repofe; truth fill deeper in my foul,
tho' turn'd,and tofs'd for ever, de, can reft on nought but thee,, ful truf; hereafter, in full joy. Galand mortal! thence more God to man! fcape uninjur'd from our praife, m our praife can he escape, fom'd from the Father, bows en heavens, to kifs the diftant earth! t in agonies a finless foul ! crofs, death's iron fceptre breaks! ke the gates celeftial to his foes! ade, for fuch a boundless debt, er tuttering brothers to receive! *ts our duty, to rejoice! Poole all) omnipotently kind, **** de lights among the fons of men. _t words are those?—And did they come for heav'n?
And fhot, ambitious of unbounded scenes, Beyond the flaming limits of the world, Her gloomy flight. But what avails the flight Of fancy, when our hearts remain below? Virtue abounds in flatterers and foes; Lorenzo! rife, at this aufpicious hour; An hour, when heaven'smoft intimate with man; When, like a falling ftar, the ray divine Glides fwift into the bofom of the juft; And just are all, determin'd to reclaim; Which fets that title high within thy reach, Awake, then, thy Philander calls, awake,
Tiwere they spoke to man? to guilty man?! real mytteries to love like this? Aa prelibation of confummate joy !
Thou who fhalt wake, when the creation neeps When, like a taper, all thefe funs expire: When time, like him of Gaza, in his wrath Plucking the pillars that fupport the world, In nature's ample ruins lies entomb'd; And midnight, univerfal midnight! reigns.
$308. Sclitude. Young,
O SACRED folitude! divine retreat! Choice of the Prudent! envy of the Great! By thy pure ftream, or in thy waving fhade, We court fair wisdom, that celestial maid: The genuine offspring of her lov d eml race (Stranges on earth) are innocence and peace: There, from the ways of men laid fafe athore, We fmile to hear the diftant tempelt roar; There, bleft with health, with us nefs unper This life we relith, and enfure the next. [plex'd, There too the Mules fport, the e numbers free, Pierian Eastbury! I owe to thee.
At Heaven's all-powerful edict is prepar'd, And fenc'd around with an immortal guard. Tribes, provinces, dominions, worlds, o'erflow The might plain, and deluge all below: And every age and nation pours along; Nimrod and Bourbon mingle in the throng; Adam falutes his youngest fon; no fign Of all thofe ages which their births disjoin.
How empty learning, and how vain is art, But as it mends the life, and guides the heart! What volumes have been fwell'd, what time been To fix a hero's birthday, or descent? [fpent, What joy must it now yield, what rapture raife, To fee the glorious race of ancient days?
greet thofe worthies who perhaps have ftood Illuftrious on record before the flood? Alas! a nearer care your foul demands: Cæfar unnoted in your prefence ftands.
How vaft the concourfe! not in number more] The waves that break on the refounding fhore, The leaves that tremble in the fhady grove, The lamps that gild the spangled vaults above; Thofe overwhelming armies, whofe command Said to one empire, fall; another, stand; Whofe rear lay wrapt in night, while breaking
Rous'd the broad front, and call'dthe battle on; Great Xerxes'worldin arms,proud Canna's field, Where Carthagetaught victorious Rome to yield, (Another blow had broke the Fates decree, And earth had wanted her fourth monarchy.) Immortal Blenheim, fam'd Ramillia's hoft, They all are here, and here they all are loft: Their millions fwell to be difcern'd in vain, Loft as a billow in th' unbounded main.
I fee, on an empyreal flying throne Sublimely rais'd, Heaven's everlasting Son Crown'dwiththat majeftywhich form'dthew And the grand rebel flaming downward h Virtue, dominion, praife, omnipotence, Support the train of their triumphant Prin A zone, beyond the thought of angels bri Around him, like the zodiac, winds its lig Night fhades the folemn arches of his brow And in his cheek the purple morning glov Where'er ferene he turns propitious eyes, Or we expect, or find, a paradife: But if refentment reddens their mild beam The Eden kindles, and the world's in fla On one hand, knowledge thines in pureft On one, the fword of juftice, fiercely brigh Now bend the knee in fport, prefent the re Now tell the fcourg`d Impoftor he fhall ble
Thus glorious, thro' the courts of heaver Of life and death eternal bends hiscourfe; [fo Loudthunders roundhimroll,andlightnings Th' angelic hoft is rang'd in bright array; Some touch the ftring, fome ftrike the four And mingling voices in rich concert fwell; [ Voices feraphic! bieft with fuch a strain, Could Satan hear, he were a god again.
Triumphant King of Glory! Soul of bi What a ftupendous turn of fate is this! O! whither art thou rais'd above the fcorn And indigence of him in Bethlem born; A needlefs, helplefs, unaccounted guest, And but a fecond to the fodder'd beaft! Howchang'dfrom him, who meekly proftrate Vouchfaf'd to wash the feet himfelf had m From him who was betray'd, forfook, den Wept,languifh'd, pray'd, bled, thirsted, gro and died;
And was 't enough to bid the Sun retire Why did not Nature at thy groan expire? I fee, I hear, I feel, the pangs divine; The world is vanith'd-I am wholly thine.
This echoing voice now rends the yielding air: "Forjudgment,judgment, fonsof men,prepare!,` Earth thakes anew; I hear her groans profound, Hung, pierc'd and bare, infulted by the for And hell thro' all her trembling realms refound. Allheavenintearsabove,earthunconcern'dbe Whoe'erthou art, thou greatest pow'r of earth. Bleft with most equal planets at thy birth, Whofe valour drew the moft fuccessful fword, Moft realms united in one common lord; Who on the day of triumph, faid'ft, Be thine The fkies, Jehovah, all this world is mine; Dare not to lift thine eye-Alas, my mufe! Howart thouloft! what numberscanftthouchoofe?
A fudden blush inflames the waving sky, And now the crimson curtains open fly; Lo! far within, and far above all height, Where heaven's great Sov`reign reigns in worlds of light,
Miftaken Caiaphas! ah! which blafphem Thou or thypris'ner? which shall be condemn Well might it thou rend thy garments, weli Deep are the horrors of eternal flame! [cla But God is good! 'tis wond'rous all! ev'n Thou gav'ft todeath,fhame,torture, diedfor t
Now the defcending triumph ftops its flig From earth full twice a planetary height. There all the clouds condens'd two column:" Whence nature He informs, and with one ray Distinct with orient veins and golden blaze Shot from his eye, does all her works furvey, One fix'd on earth, and one in fea; and rou Creates,fupports.confounds!wheretineandplace, Its ample foot the fwelling billows found.
Matter, and form, and fortune, life, and grace, Wait humbly at the footstool of their God, And move obedient at his awful nod; Whence he beholds us vagrant emmets crawl At random on this air-fufpended ball (Speck of creation!): if he pour one breath, The bubble breaks, and 'tis eternal death.
Thence iffuitg I behold (but mortal fight Sultains not fuch a rushing fea of light!
Thefe an immeafurable arch fupport, The grand tribunal of this awful court. Sheets of bright azure form the purest sky, Stream from the crystal arch, and round the lumns fly. Death, wrapt in chains, low at the bafis lies, And on the piont of his own arrow dies.
Here high enthron'dth'eternal Judge is pla With all the grandeur of his Godhead grac
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