HORÆ LYRICÆ.

BOOK I.

Sacred to DEVOTION and PIETY.

WORSHIPPING WITH FEAR.

WHO

HO dares attempt th' eternal Name,
With notes of mortal found?
Dangers and glories guard the theme,
And spread despair around.

Destruction waits t' obey his frown,
And Heaven attends his fmile;
A wreath of lightning arms his crown,
But love adorns it ftill."

Celestial king, our spirits lie,
Trembling beneath thy feet,

And wish, and cast a longing eye,

To reach thy lofty feat.

When shall we see the Great Unknown,

And in thy presence stand?
Reveal the splendors of thy throne,
But shield us with thy hand.

In thee what endless wonders meet!
What various glory shines!
The croffing rays too fiercely beat
Upon our fainting minds.

Angels are loft in fweet furprize
If thou unvail thy grace;

And humble awe runs through the skies,
When wrath arrays thy face.

When mercy joins with majesty
To fpread their beams abroad,
Not all their faireft minds on high
Are fhadows of a God.

Thy works the ftrongeft feraph fings
In a too feeble strain,

And labours hard on all his ftrings
To reach thy thoughts in vain.

Created powers, how weak they be!
How fhort our praises fall!

So much akin to nothing we,
And thou th' eternal All.

ASK

ASKING LEAVE TO SING.

YET, mighty God, indulge my tongue,
Nor let thy thunders roar,

Whilft the young notes and venturous fong
To worlds of glory foar.

If thou my daring flight forbid,
The Mufe folds-up her wings;
Or at thy word her flender reed
Attempts almighty things.

Her flender reed, infpir'd by thee,
Bids a new Eden grow,

With blooming life on every tree,
And spreads a Heaven below.

She mocks the trumpet's loud alarms,
Fill'd with thy dreadful breath:
And calls th' angelic hosts to arms,
To give the nations death.

But when he taftes her Saviour's love,

And feels the rapture ftrong, Scarce the divinest harp above

Aims at a fweeter fong.

DIVINE

DIVINE JUDGMENT S.

от

NOT from the duft my forrows spring,

Nor drop my comforts from the lower skies!
Let all the baneful planets shed

Their mingled curfes on my head,

How vain their curfes, if th' Eternal King
Look through the clouds and bless me with his eyes!
Creatures with all their boafted fway

Are but his flaves, and muft obey;
They wait their orders from above,
And execute his word, the vengeance, or the love.

'Tis by a warrant from his hand

The gentler gales are bound to fleep:
The North wind blufters, and affumes command
Over the defert and the deep;

Old Boreas with his freezing powers

Turns the earth iron, makes the ocean glass,
Arrefts the dancing rivulets as they pass,

And chains them movelefs to their fhores;

The grazing ox lows to the gelid skies,

Walks o'er the marble meads with withering eyes, Walks o'er the folid lakes, fnuffs up the wind, and dies.

Fly to the polar world, my fong,

And mourn the pilgrims there, (a wretched throng!)
Seiz'd and bound in rigid chains,

A troop of statues on the Ruffian plains,
And life stands frozen in the purple veins.

Atheist, forbear; no more blafpheme:

God

God has a thousand terrors in his name,

A thoufand armies at command,

Waiting the fignal of his hand,

And magazines of froft, and magazines of flame.
Dress thee in steel to meet his wrath;

His fharp artillery from the North

Shall pierce thee to the foul, and shake thy mortal frame. Sublime on Winter's rugged wings

He rides in arms along the sky,
And scatters fate on swains and kings;

And flocks and herds, and nations die;
While impious lips, profanely bold,
Grow pale; and, quivering at his dreadful cold,
Give their own blafphemies the lie.

The mifchiefs that infest the earth,
When the hot dog-ftar fires the realms on high,
Drought and difeafe, and cruel dearth,

Are but the flashes of a wrathful eye
From the incens'd Divinity.

In vain our parching palates thirst,

For vital food in vain we cry,

And pant for vital breath;

The verdant fields are burnt to duft,
The Sun has drunk the channels dry,

And all the air is death.

Ye fcourges of our Maker's rod,

'Tis at his dread command, at his imperial nod, You deal your various plagues abroad.

5

Hail,