Two independent causes to admit,
Deftroys religion, and debafes wit;
The firft by fuch an anarchy undone,
The laft acknowledges its fource but one.
As from the main the mountain rills are drawn,
That wind irriguous thro' the flowery lawn ;
So, mindful of their spring, one course they keep,
Exploring, till they find their native deep!
Exalted power! invifible, fupreme,
Thou fovereign fole unutterable name!
As round thy throne thy flaming seraphs stand,
And as they touch the lyre with trembling hand,
Too weak thy pure effulgence to behold,
With their rich plumes their dazzled eyes infold:
Transported with the ardors of thy praise,
The holy holy! holy! anthem raife!
To them, refponfive, let creation fing,
Thee, indivifible eternal king!
O fay, celestial muse! whose purer birth,
Difdains the low material ties of earth!
By what bright images fhall be defin'd
The myftic nature of th' eternal mind?
Or how fhall thought the dazzling height explore, Where all that reafon can is to adore!
That God's an immaterial effence pure,
Whom figure can't defcribe, nor parts immure;
Incapable of paffions, impulfe, fear,
In good pre-eminent, in truth fevere:
Unmix'd his nature, and fublim'd his powers,
From all the grofs allay which tempers ours;
In whofe clear eye the bright angelic train
Appear fuffus'd with imperfection's stain !
Impervious to the man's-or feraph's eye,
Beyond the ken of each, exalted high!
Him would in vain material semblance feign,
Or figur'd fhrines the boundless God coutain;
Object of faith!-he fhuns the view of sense,
Loft in the blaze of fightless excellence!
Moft perfect, moft intelligent, most wise,
In whom the fanctity of pureness lies;
In whofe adjusting mind the whole is wrought,
Whofe form is fpirit! and whofe effence, thought!
Are truths infcrib'd by wisdom's brightest ray,
In characters that gild the face of day!
Reafon confefs'd, (howe'er we may dispute)
Fix'd boundary! discovers man from brute;
But dim to us, exerts its fainter ray,
Deprefs'd in matter. and allied to clay!
In forms fuperior kindles lefs confin'd,
Whofe dress is æther, and whose substance mind;
Yet all from him, fupreme of causes, flow,
To him their powers and their existence owe;
From the bright cherub of the nobleft birth,
To the poor reafoning glow-worm plac'd on earth;
From matter then to spirit still ascend,
Thro' spirit still refining, higher tend;
Pursue, on knowledge bent, the pathless road,
Pierce thro' infinitude in queft of God!
Still from thy fearch, the centre still shall fly,
Approaching ftill-thou never fhalt come nigh!
So its bright orb, th' aspiring flame would join,
But the vast distance mocks the fond defign.
If he almighty! whofe decree is fate,
Could, to display his power, fubvert his state;
Bid from his plastic hand a greater rise,
Produce a master! and refign his skies!
Impart his incommunicable flame,
The mystic number of th' eternal name!
Then might revolting reason's feeble ray,
Afpire to queftion God's all-perfect day!
Vain tafk! the clay in the directing hand,
The reason of its form might fo demand,
As man prefume to question his dispose,
From whom the power, he thus abuses, flows.
Here point, fair mufe! the worship God requires,
The foul inflam'd with chafte and holy fires!
Where love celestial warms the happy breast,
Where from fincerity the thought's exprefs'd;
Where genuine piety and truth refin'd,
Reconfecrate the temple of the mind:
With grateful flames, the living altars glow,
And God defcends to visit man below.
Thro' the unmeafurable tracts of space, Go, mufe divine! and prefent godhead trace; See where by place, uncircumfcrib'd as time, He reigns extended, and he shines fublime! Should't thou above the heaven of heavens afcend, Could'ft thou below the depth of depths defcend; Could thy fond flight beyond the starry sphere, The radiant morning's lucid pinions bear; There should his brighter prefence shine confefs'd, There his almighty arm thy course arrest: Could't thou the thickeft veil of night affume, Or think to hide thee in the central gloom; Yet there, all patient to his piercing fight, Darkness itself would kindle into light: Not the black manfions of the filent grave, Nor darker hell from his perception fave; What power, alas! thy footsteps can convey Beyond the reach of omniprefent day? In his wide grafp, and comprehensive eye, Immediate, worlds on worlds unnumber'd lie: Systems inclos'd in his idea roll,
Whose all-informing mind directs the whole:
Lodg'd in his view, their certain ways they know; Plac'd in that fight from whence can nothing go. On earth his footftool fix'd, in heaven his feat; Enthron'd he dictates and his word is fate.
Nor want his fhining images below,
In ftreams that murmur, or in winds that blow;
His fpirit broods along the boundless flood,
Smiles in the plain, and whispers in the wood;
Warms in the genial fun's enlivening ray,
Breathes in the air, and beautifies the day;
Steals on our footsteps wherefoe'er we go,
And yields the pureft joys we taste below.
Should man his great immenfity deny,
Man might as well ufurp the vacant sky:
For were he limited in date, or view,
Thence were his attributes imperfect too;
His knowledge, power, his goodness, all confin'd,
And loft the notion of a ruling mind:
Feeble the trust, and comfortless the sense,
Of a defective partial providence :
Boldly might then his arm injuftice brave,
Or innocence in vain his
Dejected virtue lift its hopeless eye,
And deep distress pour out the heartless figh;
An abfent God no abler to defend,
Protect, or punish, than an absent friend;
Distant alike our wants or griefs to know,
To ease the anguish, or prevent the blow;
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