To nature's God your first devotions pay,
Ere you falute the rifing day,
'Tis he calls up the fun, and gives him every ray.
Serpents, who o'er the meadows flide, And wear upon your fhining back Numerous ranks of gaudy pride,
Which thousand mingling colours make ; Let the fierce glances of your eyes
Rebate their baleful fire:
In harmless play twist and unfold The volumes of your fcaly gold: That rich embroidery of your gay attire, Proclaims your Maker kind and wife.
Infects and mites, of mean degree, That fwarm in myriads o'er the land, Moulded by Wisdom's artful hand, And curl'd and painted with a various die ;. In your innumerable forms
Praife him that wears th' etherial crown,
And bend his lofty counfels down
To defpicable worms.
The COMPARISON and COMPLAINT.
INFINITE Power, Eternal Lord,
How fovereign is thy hand!
All nature rofe t' obey thy word,
And moves at thy command.
With fteady course thy fhining fun
Keeps his appointed way ;
And all the hours obedient run The circle of the day.
But ah! how wide my spirit flies, And wanders from her God! My foul forgets the heavenly prize, And treads the downward-road.
The raging fire, and stormy sea, Perform thine awful will,
And every beaft and every tree, Thy great designs fulfil:
While my wild paffions rage within,
Nor thy commands obey;
And flesh and fenfe, enflav'd to fin, Draw my best thoughts away.
Shall creatures of a meaner frame Pay all their dues to thee; Creatures, that never knew thy name,
That never lov'd like me?
Great God, create my foul anew,
Melt down my will, and let it flow,
And take the mould divine.
Seize my whole frame into thy hand; Here all my powers I bring; Manage the wheels by thy command, And govern every spring.
Then shall my feet no more depart,
Nor wandering fenfes rove; Devotion fhall be all my heart, And all my paffions love.
Than not the fun fhall more than I His Maker's law perform, Nor travel swifter through the sky, Nor with a zeal fo warm.
GOD Supreme and Self-fufficient.
HAT is our God, or what his name,
Nor men can learn, nor angels teach : He dwells conceal'd in radiant flame, Where neither eyes nor thoughts can reach. The fpacious worlds of heavenly light, Compar'd with him, how short they fall? They are too dark, and He too bright. Nothing are they, and God is All.
He spoke the wondrous word, and lo Creation rofe at his command: Whirlwinds and feas their limits know, Bound in the hollow of his hand.
There refts the earth, there roll the spheres, There nature leans, and feels her prop: But his own Self-fufficience bears
The weight of his own glories up.
The tide of creatures ebbs and flows, Measuring their changes by the moon : No ebb his fea of glory knows, His age is one eternal noon.
Then fly, my fong, an endless round, The lofty tune let Michael raife; All nature dwell upon the found, But we can ne'er fulfil the praise.
DAM, our father and our head,
Tranfgreft; and justice doom'd us dead :
The fiery law fpeaks all defpair,
There's no reprieve, nor pardon there.
Call a bright council in the skies; "Seraphs the mighty and the wife, "Say, what expedient can you give? "That fin be damn'd, and finners live?
"Speak, are you ftrong to bear the load, "The weighty vengeance of a God? "Which of you loves our wretched race, " Or dares to venture in our place ?" In vain we ask for all around
Stands filence through the heavenly ground: 'There's not a glorious mind above Has half the ftrength, or half the love.
But, O unutterable grace!
Th' Eternal Son takes Adam's place: Down to our world the Saviour flies, Stretches his naked arms, and dies.
Juftice was pleas'd to bruife the God, And pay its wrongs with heavenly blood; What unknown racks and pangs he bore! Then rofe: The law could ask no more. Amazing work! look down, ye skies, Wonder and gaze with all your eyes; Ye heavenly thrones, ftcop from above, And bow to this myfterious love.
See, how they bend! Sec, how they look! Long they had read th' eternal book, And ftudied dark decrees in vain,
The cross and Calvary makes them plain. Now they are ftruck with deep amaze, Each with his wings conceals his face : Now clap their founding plumes, and cry, "The wisdom of a Deity !"
Low they adore th' Incarnate Son, And fing the glories he hath won;
Sing how he broke our iron chains, How deep he funk, how high he reigns.
Triumph and reign, victorious Lord, By all thy flaming hofts ador'd: And fay, dear Conqueror, fay, how long, Ere we shall rife to join their fong.
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