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Yet there thy majesty 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!

WISDO M.

O Thou, who when th' almighty form'd this all, Upheld the scale, and weigh'd each ballanc'd ball; And as his hand completed each defign, 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 universal store,

Appear the wonders of almighty pow'r!
Pow'r unattended, terror would inspire,
Aw'd must 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 sphere.
Mark how the moon our flying orb pursues,
While from the fun her monthly light renews;

Breathes

Breathes her wide infl'ence on the world below,
And bids the tides alternate ebb and flow.
View how in courfe the constant seasons rife,
Deform the earth, or beautify the skies:

Firft 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 grass:
The chain of animated beings scale,

From the small reptile to th' enormons whale ;
From the ftrong eagle ftooping from the skies,
To the low infect that escapes thy eyes!

And fee, if fee thou can'ft, in ev'ry frame,
Eternal Wisdom shine confefs'd the fame :

As

As

proper organs to the least affign'd,

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 strikes 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

His steady eye the mental birth perceives,

Ere yet to us the new idea' lives!

Knows what we fay-ere yet the words proceed,

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And ere we form th' intention, marks the deed!
But Conscience, fair vicegerent-light within,
Afferts its author, and restores the scene!
Points out the beauty of the govern'd plan,
"And vindicates the ways of God to man.
Then facred Muse, by the vast prospect fir'd,
From heav'n defcended, as by heav'n infpir'd;
His all-enlight'ning Omniprefence own,
Whence first thou feel'ft thy dwindling prefence known;
His wide Omniscience, juftly grateful fing,
Whence thy weak science prunes its callow wing!
And bless th' eternal-all-informing foul,

Whofe fight pervades, whofe knowledge fills the whole!

IMMUTABILITY.

As the Eternal and Omniscient Mind,
By laws not limited, nor bounds confin'd;
Is always independent, always free,
Hence fhines confefs'd Immutability!
Change, whether the fpontaneous child of will,
Or birth of force,-is imperfection ftill.

But he, all-perfect, in himself contains
Pow'r felf-deriv'd, for from himself he reigns!
If, alter'd by constraint, we could fuppofe,
That God his fix'd ftability should lose ;

How

How startles reafon at a thought so strange!

What pow'r can force Omnipotence to change?
If from his own divine productive thought,
Were the yet-stranger alteration wrought;
Could excellence fupreme, new rays acquire?
Or strong perfection raise its glories higher!
Abfurd!—his high meridian brightness glows,
Never decreases, never overflows!

Knows no addition, yields to no decay,
The facred blaze of inexhaustless day!
Below, thro' different forms does matter range,
And life fubfifts from elemental change,
Liquids condenfing fhapes terreftrial wear,
Earth mounts in fire, and fire diffolves in air;
While we, enquiring phantoms of a day,
Inconftant as the shadows we survey!

With them, along Time's rapid current pass,
And hafte to mingle with the parent mass;
But Thou, Eternal Lord of life divine!

In youth immortal shalt for ever shine!
No change shall darken thy exalted name,
From everlasting ages ftill the fame!

If God, like man, his purpose could renew,
His laws could vary, or his plans undo;
Defponding Faith would droop its chearless wing,
Religion deaden to a lifeless thing!

Where could we, rational, repose our trust,

But in a pow'r immutable as just?

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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 see around, and darkly know!
Religion lends the falutary beam,

That guides our reason thro' the dubious gleam;
Till founds the hour!-when he who rules the skies,
Shall bid the curtain of Omniscience rife!

Shall diffipate the mists that veil our fight,
And fhow his creatures- -all his ways are right!
Then when aftonish'd nature feels its fate,
And fetter'd Time shall know its latest 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 raife a fairer frame!

OMNIPOTENCE.

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

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