Of barrenness is past. The fruitful field
Laughs with abundance; and the land, once lean, Or fertile only in its own disgrace,
Exults to see its thistly curse repeal'd. The various seasons woven into one, And that one season an eternal spring, The garden fears no blight, and needs no fence, For there is none to covet, all are full. The lion, and the libbard, and the bear Graze with the fearless flocks; all bask at noon Together, or all gambol in the shade
Of the same grove, and drink one common stream. Antipathies are none. No foe to man
Lurks in the serpent now: the mother sees, And smiles to see, her infant's playful hand Stretch'd forth to dally with the crested worm, To stroke his azure neck, or to receive The lambent homage of his arrowy tongue. All creatures worship man, and all mankind One Lord, one Father. Error has no place;
That creeping pestilence is driven away;
The breath of heaven has chased it. In the heart No passion touches a discordant string,
But all is harmony and love. Disease Is not the pure and uncontaminate blood Holds its due course, nor fears the frost of age, One song employs all nations; and all cry, "Worthy the Lamb, for he was slain for us!" The dwellers in the vales and on the rocks Shout to each other, and the mountain tops
From distant mountains catch the flying joy; Till, nation after nation taught the strain, Earth rolls the rapturous Hosanna round. Behold the measure of the promise fill'd; See Salem built, the labour of a God! Bright as a sun, the sacred city shines; All kingdoms and all princes of the earth Flock to that light; the glory of all lands Flows into her; unbounded is her joy, And endless her increase. Thy rams are there, Nebaioth, and the flocks of Kedar there; * The looms of Ormus, and the mines of Ind, And Saba's spicy groves, pay tribute there. Praise is in all her gates: upon her walls, And in her streets, and in her spacious courts, Is heard salvation. Eastern Java there Kneels with the native of the farthest west; And Ethiopia spreads abroad the hand, And worships. Her report has travell❜d forth Into all lands. From every clime they come To see thy beauty, and to share thy joy, O Sion! an assembly such as earth
Saw never, such as Heaven stoops down to see. Thus heavenward all things tend. For all were
Perfect, and all must be at length restored.
* Nebaioth and Kedar, the sons of Ishmael, and progenitors of the Arabs, in the prophetic scripture here alluded to, may be reasonably considered as representatives of the Gentiles at large.
So God has greatly purposed; who would else In his dishonour'd works himself endure Dishonour, and be wrong'd without redress. Haste, then, and wheel away a shatter'd world, Ye slow-revolving seasons! we would see (A sight to which our eyes are strangers yet) A world that does not dread and hate his law And suffer for its crime; would learn how fair The creature is that God pronounces good, How pleasant in itself what pleases him. Here every drop of honey hides a sting;
Worms wind themselves into our sweetest flowers; And e'en the joy that haply some poor heart Derives from heaven, pure as the fountain is,
Is sullied in the stream, taking a taint From touch of human lips, at best impure. O for a world in principle as chaste As this is gross and selfish! over which Custom and prejudice shall bear no sway, That govern all things here, shouldering aside The meek and modest Truth, and forcing her To seek a refuge from the tongue of Strife In nooks obscure, far from the ways of men: Where Violence shall never lift the sword, Nor Cunning justify the proud man's wrong, Leaving the poor no remedy but tears: Where he, that fills an office, shall esteem The occasion it presents of doing good
More than the perquisite: where Law shall speak Seldom, and never but as Wisdom prompts
And Equity; not jealous more to guard A worthless form, than to decide aright: Where Fashion shall not sanctify abuse, Nor smooth Good-breeding (supplemental 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 ancient covenant, ere Nature's birth; And thou hast made it thine by purchase since, And overpaid its value with thy blood.
Thy saints proclaim thee king; and in their hearts Thy title is engraven with a pen
Dipp'd in the fountain of eternal love.
Thy saints proclaim thee king; and thy delay Gives courage to their foes, who, could they see The dawn of thy last advent, long desired, Would creep into the bowels of the hills, And flee for safety to the falling rocks. The very spirit of the world is tired
Of its own taunting question, ask'd so long, "Where is the promise of your Lord's approach?" The infidel has shot his bolts away,
Till, his exhausted quiver yielding none,
He gleans the blunted shafts that have recoil'd, And aims them at the shield of Truth again. The veil is rent, rent too by priestly hands, That hides divinity from mortal eyes; And all the mysteries to faith proposed, Insulted and traduced, are cast aside,
As useless, to the moles and to the bats.
They now are deem'd the faithful, and are praised, Who, constant only in rejecting thee,
Deny thy Godhead with a martyr's zeal, And quit their office for their error's sake. Blind, and in love with darkness! yet e'en these Worthy, compared with sycophants, 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
And what they will. All pastors are alike To wandering sheep, resolved to follow none. Two gods divide them all-Pleasure and Gain : For these they live, they sacrifice to these, And in their service wage perpetual war With Conscience and with thee.
And mischief in their hands, they roam the earth To prey upon each other: stubborn, fierce, High-minded, foaming out their own disgrace. Thy prophets speak of such; and, noting down The features of the last degenerate times, Exhibit every lineament of these.
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 conquest of a world! He is the happy man whose life e’en now
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