And thiopia 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 fhare 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 reftor'd.
So God has greatly purpos'd; who would elfe
In his dishonor'd works himself endure
Dishonor, and be wrong'd without redress. 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 sweetest flow'rs,
And ev❜n the joy that haply fome poor heart Derives from heav'n, pure as the fountain. Is fullied in the stream; taking a taint From touch of human lips, at best impure. Oh for a world in principle as chaste
As this is grofs and selfish! over which Custom and prejudice shall bear no sway, That govern all things here, fhould'ring afide The meek and modest truth, and forcing her To feek a refuge from the tongue of strife 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 esteem Th' occafion it prefents of doing good
More than the perquifite: Where law shall speak Seldom, and never but as wisdom prompts And equity; not jealous more to guard
A worthlefs form, than to decide aright:
Where fashion shall not sanctify 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 antient 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 spirit of the world is tir'd
Of its own taunting question, ask'd so long,
"Where is the promife 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 fhield 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 caft afide
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 fheep, refolv'd to follow none. Two gods divide them all, Pleasure and Gain: For thefe they live, they facrifice to thefe,
And in their fervice wage perpetuał 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 difgrace. Thy prophets speak of fuch; and, noting down The features of the laft degen'rate times, Exhibit ev'ry lineament of thefe.
Come then, and added to thy many crowns Receive yet one, as radiant as the rest, Due to thy last and most effectual work, Thy word fulfill'd, the conqueft 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 obfcure but tranquil ftate, Is pleas'd with it, and, were he free to chufe,
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