"A rebel 'midst the thunders of his throne! "Nor I alone! a rebel universe!

"My species up in arms! not one exempt! "Yet for the foulest of the foul he dies."

$179. Praise, bestowed on Men, due to Heaven.
FROM Courts and thrones return, apostate praise!
Thou prostitute! to thy first love return.
Thy first, thy greatest, once, unrivall'd theme.
Back to thy fountain! to that parent power,
Who gives the tongue to sound, the thought to

Myvoice (if tun'd); the nerve, that writes, sustains;

Bound every heart! and every bosom burn!
Oh what a scale of miracles is here!
Its lowest round, high-planted on the skies:
Its tow'ring suminit lost beyond the thought
Of man, or angel: Oh that I could climb
The wonderful ascent, with equal praise!
Praise ardent, cordial, constant, to high heaven | Her dissolution, his suspended smile;
More fragrant than Arabia sacrific'd;
And all her spicy mountains in a flame.

The great first last! pavilion'd high he sits
In darkness, from excessive splendor born.
His glory, to created glory, bright
As that to central horrors; he looks down
On all that soars, and spans immensity.

soar,

The soul to be. Men homage pay to men,
Thoughtless beneath whose dreadful eye they
In mutual awe profound of clay to clay, [bow,
Of guilt to guilt, and turn their backs on thee,
Great sire! whom thrones celestial ceaseless sing.
Oh the presumption, of man's awe for man!
Man's author! end! restorer! law! and judge!
Thine, all; day thine, and thine this gloom of
night;

With all her wealth, with all her radiant worlds:
What night eternal, but a frown from thee?
What heav'ns meridian glory, but thy smile?
And shall not praise be thine? not human praise,
While heaven's high host on Hallelujah's live?

Wrapp'd in his being, I resound his praise:
But tho' past all diffus'd, without a shore,
His essence: local is his throne (as meet),
To gather the disperst, to fix a point,
A central point, collective of his sons,
Since finite every nature but his own.

The naineless He, whose nod is nature's birth;
And nature's shield, the shadow of his hand :

$180. Magnificence and Omnipresence of the Deity.

§ 181. Inability of sufficiently praising God. Down to the centre should I send my thought Thro' beds of glittering ore, and glowing

gems,

I

Their beggar'd blaze wants lustre for my lay;
Goes out in darkness: if, on tow'ring wing,
send it thro' the boundless vault of stars;
The stars, tho' rich, what dross their gold to thee,
Great! good! wise! wonderful! eternal King?
If those conscious stars thy throne around,
Praise ever-pouring, and imbibing bliss,
I ask their strain; they want it, more they want;
Languid their energy, their ardor cold,
Indebted still, their highest rapture burns;
Short of its mark, defective, tho' divine

Still more-This theme is man's, and man's
alone :

Their vast appointments reach it not; they see
On earth a bounty, not indulg'd on high;
First-born of æther! high in fields of light!
And downward look for heaven's superior praise.
View man, to see the glory of your God!
You sung creation (for in that you shar'd),
How rose in melody, the child of love!
Thine is redemption; eternize the song!
Creation's great superior, man! is thine;
Redemption! 'twas creation more sublime;
Redemption! 'twas the labor of the skies;
Far more than labor-It was death in heaven,
Here pause and ponder; was there death in
heaven?
mid-What then on earth? on earth which struck the
[blow?
Who struck it? Who?-O how is man enlarg'd,
Seen thro' this medium! How the pigmy tow'rs!
How counterpois'd his origin from dust!
How counterpois'd, to dust his sad return!
How voided his vast distance from the skies!
How near he presses on the seraph's wing!
How this demonstrates thro' the thickest cloud
Of guilt, and clay condens'd, the son of heav'n!
And shall heaven's double property be lost?
The double son; the made, and the re-made!
Man's double madness only can destroy him,
To man the bleeding cross has promis'd all;
The bleeding cross has sworn eternal grace:
Who gave his life, what grace shall he deny?
O ye, who from this Rock of Ages leap

Disdainful,

On may I breathe no longer, than I breathe
My soul in praise to kim, who gave my soul,
And all her infinite of prospect fair,
Cut thro' the shades of hell, great love! by thee!
Where shall that praise begin, which ne'er should

end?
Where'er I turn, what claim on all applause!
How is night's sable mantle labor'd o'er,
How richly wrought, with attributes divine!
What wisdom shines! what love! This
night pomp,
This gorgeous arch, with golden worlds inlay'd,
Built with divine ambition! nought to thee:
For others this profusion: thou apart,
Above, beyond! oh tell me, mighty mind,
Where art thou? shall I dive into the deep?
Call to the sun, or ask the roaring winds,
For their Creator? shall I question loud
The thunder, if in that th' Almighty dwells?
Or holds the furious storms in streighten'd reins,
And bids fierce whirlwinds wheel his rapid car?
What mean these questions? — trembling I
retract;
My prostrate soul adores the present God :
Praise I a distant Deity? he tunes

Disdainful, plunging headlong in the abyss!
What cordial joy, what consolation strong,
Whatever winds arise, or billows roll,
Our interest in the master of the storm [smile;
Cling there, and in wreck'd nature's ruins
While vile apostates tremble in a calm.

§ 182. Man.

MAN! know thyself; all wisdom centres there.
To none man seems ignoble, but to man;
Angels that grandeur, men o'erlook, admire:
How long shall human nature be their book,
Degenerate mortal! and unread by thee?
The beam dim reason sheds shows wonders there;
What high contents! illustrious faculties !
But the grand comment which displays at full
Our human height, scarce sever'd from divine.
By heaven compos'd, was publish'd on the cross!
Who looks on that, and sees not in himself
An awful stranger, a terrestrial god?
A glorious partner with the Deity
In that high attribute, immortal life!
1 gaze, and as I gaze, my mounting soul
Catches strange fire! eternity! at thee.

He, the great father! kindled at one flame
The world of rationals; one spirit pour'd
From spirit's awful fountain: pour'd himself
Thro' all their souls; but not in equal stream
Profuse, or frugal of th' inspiring God,
As his wise plan demanded: and when past
Their various trials in their various spheres,
If they continue rational, as made,
Resorbs them all into himself again; [crown.
His throne their centre, and his smile their
Why doubt we then the glorious truth to
Angels are men of a superior kind;
Angels are men in lighter habit clad,
High o'er celestial mountains wing'd in flight:
And men are angels, loaded for an hour,
Who wade this miry vale, and climb with pain,
And slippery step, the bottom of the steep:
Yet summon'd to the glorious standard soon,
Which flames eternal crimson thro' the skies.

[sing?

§ 183. Religion.
RELIGION's all. Descending from its sire
To wretched man, the goddess in her left
Holds out this world, and in her right, the next:
Religion! the sole voucher man is man :
Supporter sole of man above himself.

Religion! providence! an after state!
Here is firm footing; here is solid rock;
This can support us; all is sea besides;
Sinks under us; bestorms, and then devours.
His hand the good man fastens on the skies,
And bids earth roll, nor feels her idle whirl.

His wrath inflam'd? his tenderness on fire?

Can prayer, can praise avert it?-Thou, my all!
My theme! my inspiration! and my crown!
My strength in age! my rise in low estate!
My soul's ambition, pleasure, wealth! my world!
My light in darkness! and my life in death!
My boast thro' time! bliss thro' eternity!
Eternity too short to speak thy praise,
Or fathom thy profound of love to man!

§ 184. God's Love to Man.
O HOW Omnipotence is lost in love!
Father of angels! but the friend of man!
Thou, who didst save him, snatch the smoking
brand

From out the flames, and quench it in thy blood!
How art thou pleas'd, by bounty to distress!
To make us groan beneath our gratitude,
To challenge, and to distance, all return!
Of lavish love stupendous heights to soar,
And leave praise panting in the distant vale!
But since the naked will obtains thy smile,
Beneath this monument of praise unpaid,
For ever lie entomb'd my fear of death,
And dread of ev'ry evil, but thy frown.

O for an humbler heart and loftier song!
Thou, my much-injur'd theme! with that softeye
Which melted o'er doom'd Salem, deign to look
Compassion to the coldness of my breast;
And pardon to the winter in my strain.

§ 186. Death, where is thy Sting?
OH when will death (now stingless), like a
friend,

Admit me of that choir? Oh when will death,
This mould'ring, old partition-wall thrown
Give beings, one in nature, one abode? [down,
Oh death divine that gives us to the skies,
Great future! glorious patron of the past,
And present, when shall I thy shrine adore?
From Nature's continent immensely wide,
Immensely blest, this little isle of life
Divides us. Happy day, that breaks our chain;
That re-admits us, thro' the guardian hand
Of elder brothers, to our Father's throne;
Who hears our Advocate, and thro' his wounds
Beholding man, allows that tender name.
"Tis this makes Christian triumph, a command :
"Tis this makes joy a duty to the wise.

Hast thou ne'er seen the comet's flamingflight?
Th' illustrious stranger passing, terror sheds

On.

They draw pride's curtain o'er the nood-tide ray
Spike up their inch of reason, on the point
Of philosophic wit, call'd argument,
And then exulting in their taper; cry,
"Behold the sun :" and, Indian-like, adore.

On gazing nations, from his fiery train
Of length enormous, takes his ample round
Thro' depths of ether, coasts unnumber'd worlds
Of more than solar glory; doubles wide
Heav'n's mighty cape, and then revisits earth,
From the long travel of a thousand years.
Thus, at the destin'd period, shall return
He, once on earth, who bids.the comet blaze;
And with him all our triumph o'er the tomb.

Talk they of morals? O thou bleeding Love;
Thou maker of new morals to mankind!
The grand morality is love of thee.
A Christian is the highest style of man.
And is there, who the blessed cross wipes off
As a foul blot from his dishonor'd brow?
If angels tremble, 'tis at such a sight:
The wretch they quit, desponding of their charge,
More struck with grief or wonder, who can tell?

$187. Faith enforced by our Reason.
NATURE is dumb on this important point:
Or hope precarious in low whisper breathes :
Faith speaks aloud, distinct; even adders hear,
But turn and dart into the dark again.
Faith builds a bridge across the bridge of death,
To break the shock blind nature cannot shun,
And lands thought smoothly on the farther shore.
Death's terror is the mountain Faith removes;
That mountain barrier between man and
peace:
Tis Faith disarms destruction; and absolves
From ev'ry clamorous charge the guiltless tomb.
Why shouldst thou disbelieve?'tis Reason"
bids,

"All sacred Reason."- Hold her sacred still;
Nor shalt thou want a rival in thy flame.
Reason! my heart is thine: Deep in its folds,
Live thou with life; live dearer of the two.
My reason rebaptis'd me, when adult;
Weigh'd true and false in her impartial scale;
And made that choice, which once was but my
fate.

$188. False Philosophy.

LEARN hence what honors due to those who
push

Our antidote aside; those friends to reason,
Whose fatal love stabs every joy, and leaves
Death's terror heighten'd gnawing on his heart.
Those pompous sons of reason idoliz'd,
Aud vilily'd at once; of reason dead,
Then deified, as monarchs were of old.
Whilelove of truth thro' all their camp resounds

§ 189. The mere Man of the World.
YE sold to sense, ye citizens of earth,
(For such alone the Christian banner fly)
Know ye how wise your choice, how great your
gain?

Behold the picture of earth's happiest man :
He calls his wish, it comes; he sends it back,
And says, he call'd another; that arrives,
"Meets the same welcome; yet he still calls on,
Till one calls on him, who varies not his call,
"But holds him fast, in chains of darknessbound,

Till nature dies, and judgement sets him free: "A freedom far less welcome than his chain."

But grant man happy; grant him happy long;
Add to life's highest prize her latest hour;
That hour so late, comes on in full career:
How swift the shuttle flies, that weaves thy
si.roud!

Where is the fable of thy former years! [thee
Thrown Gown the gulph of time; as far from

Reason pursu'd is faith and unpursu'd
Where proof invites, 'tis reason then no more;
And such our proof, that, or our faith is right,
Or Reason lies, and Heaven design'd it wrong:As they Lad ne'er been thine; the day in hand,
Absolve we this? What then is blasphemy? Like a bird struggling to get loose, is going;
be tre now jo sest, so suddenly 'is one;
And exwh metent fled, is death advanc'd
Bride as swith: Eternity is all;
Alho cenity? Who triumphs here?
Bo dng for ever in the font of bliss ?...
For ever bag in the Deita!

Fond as we are, and justly fond of faith,
Reason, we grant, demands our first regard,
The mother honor'd, as the daughter dear:
Reason the root, fair Faith is but the flow'r :
The fading flow'r shall die; but Reason lives
Inmortal, as her Father in the skies.
Wrong not the Christian, think not reason yours:
'Tis Reason our great Master holds so dear;
Tis Reason's injur'd rights his wrath resents.
Believe, and show the reason of a man';
Believe, and taste the pleasure of a God;
Believe, and look with triumph on the tomb :
Thro' Reason's wounds alone, thy faith can die;
Which dying, tenfold terrors gives to Death,
And dips in venom his twice-mortal sting.

Comdie we reply, O give it leave to speak;
For it will speak ere long. Oh hear it now.
While usil its advice, its accents mild.
Truth is deposited with man's last hour;
An honest hour, and faithful to her trust.
Truth, eldest daughter of the Deity;
Truth, of his council when he made the worlds,
Nor less when he shall judge the worlds he made,
Tho' silent long, and sleeping ne'er so sound,
Than from her cavern in the soul's abyss,
The goddess bursts in thunder and in flame,
"Men may live fools, but fools they cannot die."

$ 190. NIGHT v.

Darkness.
LET Indians, and the gay, like Indians, fond
Of feather'd fopperies, the sun adore:
Darkness has more divinity for me:

It strikes thought inward, it drives back the soul
To settle on herself, our point supreme!
There lies our theatre; there sits our judge.

Darkness

"Why men decline it; Suicide's foul birth;
" The various kinds of grief; the faults of age;
"And Death's dread character-invite mysong."
And first, th' importance of our end survey'd.
Friends counsel quick dismission of our grief;
Mistaken kindness! our hearts heal too soon.
Are they more kind than He who struck the blow?
Who bid it do his errand in our hearts,
And banish peace till nobler guests arrive,
And bring it back a true and endless peace?
Calamities are friends: as glaring day
Of these unnumber'd lustres robs our sight;
Prosperity puts our unnumber'd thoughts
Of import high, and light divine to man.
The man how blest, who, sick of gaudyscenes.
(Scenes apt to thrust between us and ourselves!)All
Is led by choice to take his favorite walk
Beneath Death's gloommy, silent cypress shades,
Unpierc'd by Vanity's fantastic ray;
To read his monuments, to weigh his dust,
Visit his vaults, and dwell among the tombs!
Lorenzo, read with me Narcissa's stone;
Few orators so tenderly can touch
The feeling heart. What pathos in the date!
Apt words can strike, and yet in them we see
Faint images of what we here enjoy.
What cause have we to build on length of life?
Temptations seise when fear is laid asleep ;
And ill-foreboding is our strongest guard.

See from her tomb, Truth sallies on my soul,
And puts Delusion's dusky train to flight;
Dispels the mists our sultry passions raise,
And shows the real estimate of things,
Which no man, unafflicted, ever saw;
Pulls off the veil from Virtue's rising charms;
Detects Temptation in a thousand lies.
Truth bids me look on men, as autumn's leaves,
And all they bleed for, as the summer's dust,
Driven by the whirlwind: lighted by her beams,
I widen iny horizon, gain new powers,
See things invisible, feel things remote,
Am present with futurities; think nought
To man so foreign, as the joys possest,
Nought so much his as those beyond the grave.

No folly keeps its color in her sight:
Pale worldly wisdom loses all her charms.
How differ worldly wisdom, and divine?
Just as the waning and the waxing moon.
More empty worldly wisdom every day;
And every day more fair her rival shines.
But soon our term for wisdom is expir'd,
And everlasting fool is writ in fire,
Or real wisdom wafts us to the skies.
What grave prescribes the best?—a friend's;
and yet

From a friend's grave how soon we disengage,
Even to the dearest, as his marble, cold!
Why are friends ravish'd from us! 't is to bind,
By soft Affection's ties, on human hearts,
The thought of death, which Reason, too supine,
Or misemploy'd, so rarely fastens there.
Nor Reason, nor Affection, no, nor both
Combin'd can break the witchcrafts of the world.
Behold th'inexorable hour at hand!

Behold th'inexorable hour forgot!
And to forget it, the chief aim of life;
Tho' well to ponder it is life's chief end.

§ 197. Little Attention paid to the Warnings of

Death.

Is Death, that ever threat'ning ne'er remote,
That all-important, and that only sure,
(Come when he will) an unexpected guest?
Nay, tho' invited by the loudest calls
Of blind imprudence, unexpected still?
Tho' numerous messengers are sent before
To warn his great arrival. What the cause,
The wond'rous cause, of this mysterious ill?

heaven looks down astonish'd at the sight.

§ 198. Life compared to a Stream.
Is it, that Life has sown her joys so thick,
We can't thrust in a single care between?
Is it, that life has such a swarm of cares,
The thought of death can't enter for the throng?
Is it that time steals on with downy feet,
Nor wakes indulgence from her golden dream?
To-day is so like yesterday, it cheats;
We take the lying sister for the same.
Life glides away, Lorenzo, like a brook;
For ever changing, unperceiv'd the change.
In the same brook none ever bath'd him twice:
To the same life none ever twice awoke.
We call the brook the same; the same we think
Our life, though still more rapid in its flow;
Nor mark the much irrevocably laps'd,
And mingled with the sea.
Or shall we say
(Retaining still the brook to bear us on)
That life is like a vessel on the stream?
In life embark'd, we smoothly down the tide
Of time descend, but not on time intent,
Amus'd, unconscious of the gliding wave;
Till on sudden we perceive a shock;
We start, awake, look out; our bark is burst.
Is this the cause death flies all human thought!
Or is it judgement by the will struck blind,
That domineering mistress of the soul!
Or is it fear turns startled reason back,
From looking down a precipice so steep?
"Tis dreadful; and the dread is wisely plac'd,
By nature conscious of the make of man.
A dreadful friend it is, a terror kind,

A flaming sword to guard the tree of life,
By that unaw'd, man on each pique of pride,
Or gloom of humor, would give rage the rein,
Bound o'er the barrier, rush into the dark,
And mar the schemes of Frovidence below.

§ 199. WHAT groan was that? flight,

Suicide.

There took his gloomy
On wing impetuous, a black sullen soul,
Blasted from hell, with horrid lust of death.
Thy friend, the brave, the gallant Altamont
So call'd, so thought-and then he fled the field.
Less base the fear of death, than fear of life.
O Britain !