One univerfal ruin spreads abroad;
Nothing is fafe beneath the throne of God.
Such, earth, thy fate: what then canft thou afford To comfort and fupport thy guilty lord? -Man, haughty lord of all beneath the moon, How muft he bend his foul's ambition down? Prostrate, the reptile own, and disavow
His boasted stature, and affuming brow? ·
Claim kindred with the clay, and curfe his form, 175
That speaks diftinction from his sister worm?
What dreadful pangs the trembling heart invade!
Lord, why doft thou forfake, whom thou haft made? :
Who can sustain thy anger? Who can stand
Beneath the terrors of thy lifted hand?
It flies the reach of thought; oh fave me, Power
Of powers fupreme, in that tremendous hour!
Thou who beneath the frown of fate haft stood,
And in thy dreadful agony fweat blood;
Thou, who for me, through every throbbing vein, 185
Haft felt the keeneft edge of mortal pain;
Whom death led captive through the realms below,
And taught those horrid mysteries of woe;
Defend me, O my God! Oh fave me, Power
Of powers fupreme, in that tremendous hour!
From east to weft they fly, from pole to line,
Imploring fhelter from the wrath divine;
Beg flames to wrap, or whelming seas to sweep,
Or rocks to yawn, compaffionately deep :
Seas caft the monster forth to meet his doom,
And rocks but prifon up for wrath to come.
So fares a traitor to an earthly crown;
While death fits threatening in his prince's frown,
His heart's difmay'd; and now his fears command,
To change his native for a diftant land:
Swift orders fly, the king's fevere decree
Stands in the channel, and locks up the fea;
The port he feeks, obedient to her lord,
Hurls back the rebel to his lifted fword.
But why this idle toil to paint that day?
This time elaborately thrown away?
Words all in vain pant after the diftrefs,
The height of eloquence would make it lefs;
Heavens! how the good man trembles !----
And is there a Last Day? and must there come
A fure, a fix'd, inexorable doom?
Ambition fwell, and, thy proud fails to fhow,
Take all the winds that Vanity can blow
Wealth on a golden mountain blazing ftand,
And reach an India forth in either hand;
Spread all thy purple clusters, tempting vine,
And thou, more dreaded foe, bright beauty, shine;
Shine all; in all your charms together rife;
That all, in all your charms, I may despise,
While I mount upward on a strong defire,
Borne, like Elijah, in a car of fire.
In hopes of glory to be quite involv'd!
To smile at death! to long to be diffolv'd!
From our decays a pleasure to receive!
And kindle into tranfport at a grave!
What equals this? And shall the victor now
Boaft the proud laurels on his loaded brow?
Religion! Oh thou cherub, heavenly bright!
Oh joys unmix'd, and fathomless delight!
Thou, Thou art all; nor find I in the whole
Creation aught, but God and my own foul,
For ever then, my foul, thy God adore,
Nor let the brute creation praise him more.
Shall things inanimate my conduct blame,
And flush my conscious cheek with spreading shame? 235
They all for him purfue, or quit, their end;
The mounting flames their burning power fufpend;
In folid heaps th' unfrozen billows stand,
To rest and filence aw'd by his command:
Nay, the dire monsters that infeft the flood,
By nature dreadful, and athirst for blood,
His will can calm, their favage tempers bind,
And turn to mild protectors of mankind.
Did not the prophet this great truth maintain
In the deep chambers of the gloomy main;
When darkness round him all her horrors spread,
And the loud ocean bellow'd o'er his head?
When now the thunder roars, the lightening flies,
And all the warring winds tumultuous rife,
When now the foaming furges, toft on high,
Difclofe the fands beneath, and touch the sky;
When death draws near, the mariners aghaft
Look back with terror on their actions past ;
Tixir courage fickens into deep dismay,
Their hearts; through fear and anguish, melt away; 253
Nor tears, nor prayers, the tempeft can appeafe;
Now they devote their treasure to the feas ;
Unload their shatter'd barque, though richly fraught,
And think the hopes of life are cheaply bought
With gems and gold; but oh, the storm so high! 260 Nor gems nor gold the hopes of life can buy.
The trembling prophet then, themselves to fave,
They headlong plunge into the briny wave;
Down he defcends, and, booming o'er his head,
The billows clofe; he 's number'd with the dead. 265
(Hear, O ye juft! attend, ye virtuous few!
And the bright paths of piety pursue)
Lo! the great Ruler of the world, from high,
Looks fmiling down with a propitious eye,
Covers his fervant with his gracious hand,
And bids tempestuous nature filent stand;
Commands the peaceful waters to give place,
Or kindly fold him in a soft embrace :
He bridles-in the monsters of the deep:
The bridled monfters awful distance keep:
Forget their hunger, while they view their
And guiltless gaze, and round the stranger play.
But ftill arife new wonders; nature's Lord Sends forth into the deep his powerful word,
And calls the great leviathan: the great
Leviathan attends in all his ftate;
Exults for joy, and, with a mighty bound,
Makes the sea shake, and heav'n and earth refound;
Blackens the waters with the rifing fand,
And drives vaft billows to the diftant land.
As yawns an earthquake, when imprison'd air
Struggles for vent, and lays the centre bare,
The whale expands his jaws enormous size;
The prophet views the cavern with furprize;
Measures his monftrous teeth, afar descry`d,
And rolls his wondering eyes from side to side:
Then takes poffeffion of the fpacious feat,
And fails fecure within the dark retreat.
Now is he pleas'd the northern blast to hear,
And hangs on liquid mountains, void of fear;
Or falls immers'd into the depths below;
Where the dead filent waters never flow;
To the foundations of the hills convey'd,
Dwells in the fhelving mountain's dreadful shade : Where plummet never reach'd, he draws his breath, 300 And glides ferenely through the paths of death.
Two wondrous days and nights through coral groves, Through labyrinths of rocks and fands, he roves : When the third morning with its level rays The mountains gilds, and on the billows plays, It fees the king of waters rife, and pour His facred gueft un-injur'd on the shore : A type of that great bleffing, which the Muse In her next labour ardently pursues.
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