And Æthiopia 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 share thy joy,

O Sion! an affembly fuch as earth

Saw never, fuch as Heav'n ftoops 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 difhonour'd works himself endure

Dishonour, and be wrong'd without redrefs.
Haste, then, and wheel away a fhatter'd world,
Ye flow-revolving feafons! we would fee
(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 sweeteft flow'rs;

And ev❜n the joy that haply some 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 beft impure,
Oh for a world in principle as chafte
As this is gross and selfish! over which
Custom and prejudice fhall bear no sway,
That govern all things here, fhould'ring afide
The meek and modeft truth, and forcing her
To feek a refuge from the tongue of ftrife

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 shall 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 worthless form, than to decide aright:

Where fashion fhall not fanctify abuse,

Nor fmooth 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 fince, And overpaid its value with thy blood.

Thy faints proclaim thee king; and in their hearts

Thy title is engraven with a pen

Dipt 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 fpirit of the world is tir'd

Of its own taunting question, afk'd so long,

"Where is the promise of your

Lord's approach?”

The infidel has fhot his bolts away,

Till, his exhaufted quiver yielding none,

He gleans the blunted shafts that have recoil'd,
And aims them at the shield of truth again.

The veil is rent, rent too by priestly hands,
That hides divinity from mortal eyes;

And all the mysteries to faith propos'd,
Infulted and traduc'd, are cast aside,

As useless, to the moles and to the bats.

They now are deem'd the faithful, and are prais'd,

Who, conftant only in rejecting thee,

Deny thy Godhead with a martyr's zeal,

And quit their office for their error's fake.
Blind, and in love with darkness! yet ev❜n these
Worthy, compar'd with fycophants, who knee
Thy name adoring, and then preach thee man!
So fares thy church. But how thy church may fare
The world takes little thought. Who will may preach,
And what they will. All paftors are alike

To wand'ring sheep, refolv'd to follow none.

Two gods divide them all-Pleasure and Gain:
For these they live, they facrifice to these,

And in their service wage perpetual war

With confcience and with thee. Luft in their hearts,
And mischief in their hands, they roam the earth
To prey upon each other; ftubborn, fierce,
High-minded, foaming out their own disgrace.
Thy prophets speak of fuch; and, noting down
The features of the laft degen'rate times,
Exhibit ev'ry lineament of these.

Come then, and, added to thy many crowns,

Receive yet one, as radiant as the reft,
Due to thy last and most effectual work,
Thy word fulfill'd, the conquest of a world!

He is the happy man, whofe life ev'n now Shows fomewhat of that happier life to come; Who, doom'd to an obscure but tranquil state, Is pleas'd with it, and, were he free to choose,