Impetuous of this life: let thy command • Direct my courfe, and bring me safe to land. If, while this weary'd flesh draws fleeting breath, Not fatisfy'd with life, afraid of death, It haply be thy will that I should know • Glimpfe of delight, or pause from anxious woe; • From now, from inftant now, great Sire! difpel • The clouds that prefs my foul; from now reveal • A gracious beam of light; from now inspire & My tongue to fing, my hand to touch the lyre; • Some new hereafter, and a future ftate, Permit me ftrength my weight of woe to bear, Let me, howe'er unable to explain The fecret labyrinths of thy ways to man, • With humble zeal confefs thy awful pow'r ; And for thy juftice be thy name rever'd.' An awful filence and religious dread. Sudden breaks forth a more than common day; Untouch'd, unlighted glows Ambrofial odour, fuch as never flows From Arab's gum or the Sabæan rose, Such Miriam's timbrel, would in vain require) } Strikes Strikes to my thought thro' my admiring ear, Thy hope of joy deliver to the wind; Supprefs thy paffions, and prepare thy mind. • Free and familiar with misfortune grow; Be us'd to forrow, and inur'd to woe. By weak'ning toil and hoary age o'ercome, See thy decrease, and haften to thy tomb. Leave to thy children tumult, ftrife, and war, • Portions of toil, and legacies of care: • Send the fucceffive ills thro' ages down, And let each weeping father tell his son, • That, deeper ftruck, and more distinctly griev'd, • The child, to whose success thy hope is bound, ⚫ (That cursed poison to the prince's mind!) And lofe his great defence, his people's love; Ill-counfell'd, vanquish'd, fugitive, disgrac'd, • Shall mourn the fame of Jacob's strength effac'd; • Shall figh the king diminish'd, and the crown With leffen'd rays defcending to his fon; Shall fee the wreaths his grandfire knew to reap, Pining incline their fickly leaves, and shed • Their falling honours from his giddy head; By arms or pray'r unable to affuage • Domestick horror; and inteftine rage R Shall from the victor and the vanquish'd fear, • From Ifrael's arrow, and from Judah's fpear; • Shall caft his weary'd limbs on Jordan's flood, By brothers arms disturb'd, and ftain'd with kindred blood. • Hence lab'ring years shall weep their deftin'd race, Charg'd with ill omens, fully'd with difgrace. Time, by neceffity compell'd, fhall go • Thro' scenes of war, and epochas of woe: Indulge thy tears: the heathen fhall blaspheme; New Egypts yet, and fecond bonds remain; · A harsher Pharaoh, and a heavier chain. Again, obedient to a dire command, Thy captive fons fhall leave the Promis'd Land; • Shall on Euphrates' bank renew the grief of Nile. Low, levell'd with the duft; their heights unknown, For lafting glory built, defign'd the feat • Of gold and veffels fet apart to God; Then, by vile hands to common use debas'd, Shall fend them flowing round his drunken fealt, Twice fourteen ages fhall their way compleat; } • With With downcaft eye-lids, and with looks aghaft, • Shall dread the future, or bewail the past. • Afflicted Ifrael fhall fit weeping down, Faft by the streams where Babel's waters run; Their harps upon the neighb'ring willows hung, Nor joyous hymn encouraging their tongue, Nor chearful dance their feet; with toil opprefs'd, • Their weary'd limbs aspiring but to reft. • In the reflective stream the fighing bride, Viewing her charms impair'd, abash'd shall hide Her penfive head; and in her languid face The bridegroom fhall foresee his fickly race; • While pond'rous fetters vex their close embrace. • With irksome anguish then your priests shall mourn Their long-neglected feafts defpair'd return, And fad oblivion of their folemn days: • Thenceforth their voices they shall only raife, Louder to weep. By day, your frighted feers • Shall call for fountains to exprefs their tears, And wish their eyes were floods: by night, from dreams • Of opening gulphs, black ftorms, and raging flames, Starting amaz'd, fhall to the people fhew • Emblems of heav'nly wrath, and mystick types of woe. The captives, as their tyrant fhall require That they should breathe the fong, and touch the lyre, Shall fay, "Can Jacob's fervile race rejoice, "Untun'd the mufick, and difus'd the voice? "What can we play?" they fhall difcourfe; "how fing "We and our fathers, from our childhood bred R 2 } "The "The fulleft blifs our hearts afpire to know, Which thou, alas! and thine, are born to know. Born to endure, forbidden to complain : Thy fum of life must his decrees fulfil ; • What derogates from his command, is ill, And that alone is good which centres in his will. Yet that thy lab'ring fenfes may not droop, Loft to delight, and deftitute of hope; • Remark what I, God's meffenger, aver, From him who neither can deceive nor err. The land, at length redeem'd, fhall cease to mourn; • Shall from her fad captivity return. Sion fhall raife her long-dejected head, And in her courts the law again be read. Again the glorious Temple fhall arise, And with new luftre pierce the neighb'ring fkies. } } The |