But, when a poet, or when one like me,
Happy to rove among poetic flow'rs,
Though poor in skill to rear them, lights at laft
On fome fair theme, fome theme divinely fair,
Such is the impulse and the spur he feels
To give it praise proportion'd to its worth,
That not t'attempt it, arduous as he deems
The labour, were a task more arduous still.
Oh fcenes furpaffing fable, and yet true,
Scenes of accomplish'd blifs! which who can see,
Though but in distant prospect, and not feel
His foul refresh'd with foretaste of the joy?
Rivers of gladness water all the earth,
And clothe all climes with beauty; the reproach
Of barrenness is past. The fruitful field
Laughs with abundance; and the land, once lean,
Or fertile only in its own difgrace,
Exults to fee its thiftly curse repeal'd.
The various feafons woven into one,
And that one feason an eternal spring,
The garden fears no blight, and needs no fence,
For there is none to covet, all are full.
l'he lion, and the libbard, and the bear
Graze, with the fearless flocks; all bask at noon
Together, or all gambol in the fhade
Of the fame grove, and drink one common stream.
Antipathies are none. No foe to man
Lurks in the ferpent now: the mother fees,
And fmiles to fee, her infant's playful hand
Stretch'd forth to dally with the crested worm,
To stroke his azure neck, or to receive
The lambent homage of his arrowy tongue.
All creatures worship man, and all mankind
One Lord, one Father. Error has no place :
That creeping peftilence is driven away;
The breath of Heav'n has chas'd it. In the heart
No paffion touches a difcordant string,
But all is harmony and love.
Is not the pure and uncontam'nate blood
Holds its due course, nor fears the frost of age.
One fong employs all nations; and all cry,
"Worthy the LAMB, for he was flain for us!"
The dwellers in the vales and on the rocks
Shout to each other, and the mountain tops
From diftant mountains catch the flying joy;
Till nation after nation caught the strain,
Earth rolls the rapturous hofanna round.
Behold the measure of the promise fill'd;
See Salem built, the labour of a God!
Bright as a fun the facred city fhines;
All kingdoms and all princes of the earth
Flock to that light; the glory of all lands
Flows into her; unbounded is her joy,
And endless her increafe. Thy rams are there,
*Nebaioth, and the flocks of Kedar there,
The looms of Ormus, and the mines of Ind,
And Saba's fpicy groves, pay tribute there.
Praife is in all her gates: upon her walls,
And in her streets, and in her spacious courts,
Is heard falvation. Eastern Java there
Kneels with the native of the farthest west;
And Ethiopia fpreads abroad the hand,
And worships. Her report has travell❜d forth
Into all lands. From ev'ry clime they come
To fee thy beauty and to fhare thy joy,
O Sion! an assembly such as earth
Saw never, fuch as Heav'n stoops down to fee.
Thus heav'n-ward all things tend. For all were once Perfect, and all must be at length restor'd. So God has greatly purpos'd; who would elfe In his dishonour'd works himself endure Dishonour, and be wrong'd without redrefs. Hafte, then, and wheel away a fhatter'd world,
Nebaioth and Kedar, the fons of Ishmael, and progenitors of the Arabs, in the prophetic fcripture here alluded to, may be reasonably confidered as reprefentatives of the Gentiles at large.
Ye flow revolving seasons! we would see
(A fight to which our eyes are ftrangers yet)
A world that does not dread and hate his laws,
And fuffer for its crime; would learn how fair
The creature is that God pronounces good,
How pleasant in itself what pleases him.
Here ev'ry drop of honey hides a fting;
Worms wind themselves into our sweetest flow'rs;
And ev'n the joy that haply fome poor heart.
Derives from heav'n, pure as the fountain is,
Is fullied in the stream, taking a taint
From touch of human lips, at best impure.
Oh for a world in principle as chaste
As this is grofs and felfish! over which
Custom and prejudice fhall bear no fway,
That govern all things here, fhould'ring afide
The meek and modeft truth, and forcing her
To feek a refuge from the tongue of strife
In nooks obfcure, far from the ways of men :-
Where violence fhall never lift the fword,
Nor cunning juftify the proud man's wrong,
Leaving the poor no remedy but tears :-
Where he that fills an office fhall efteem
Th' occafion it prefents of doing good
More than the perquifite:—where law shall speak
Seldom, and never but as wifdom prompts
And equity; not jealous more to guard
A worthlefs form, than to decide aright:
Where fashion fhall not fanctify abuse,
Nor smooth good-breeding (fupplemental grace)
With lean performance ape the work of love!
Come then, and, added to thy many crowns, Receive yet one, the crown of all the earth, Thou who alone art worthy! It was thine By ancient covenant, ere nature's birth; And thou haft made it thine by purchase since; And overpaid its value with thy blood.
Thy faints proclaim thee King; and in their hearts Thy title is engraven with a pen
Dipp'd in the fountain of eternal love.
Thy faints proclaim thee King; and thy delay
Gives courage to their foes, who, could they fee
The dawn of thy laft advent, long-defir'd,
Would creep into the bowels of the hills,
And flee for fafety to the falling rocks.
The very spirit of the world is tir'd
Of its own taunting question, afk'd fo long,
"Where is the promife of your Lord's approach?
The infidel has fhot his bolts away,
Till his exhaufted quiver yielding none,
He gleans the blunted fhafts that have recoil'd,
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