So its bright orb, th' aspiring flame would join,
But the vaft diftance mocks the fond design.
If he almighty! whose decree is fate,
Could, to difplay his power, fubvert his ftate;
Bid from his plaftic hand a greater rife,
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 task! the clay in the directing hand,
The reason of its form might fo demand,
As man prefume to question his difpofe,
From whom the power, he thus abuses, flows.
Here point, fair muse! the worship God requires,
The foul inflam'd with chafte and holy fires!
Where love celeftial warms the happy breaft,
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 vifit man below.
Thro' the unmeasurable tracts of space,
Go, muse divine! and present godhead trace;
See where by place, uncircumfcrib'd as time,
He reigns extended, and he fhines fublime!
Should't thou above the heaven of heavens afcend,
Could't 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'ft thou the thickest 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 foot@eps can convey
Beyond the reach of omnipresent day?
In his wide grafp, and comprehensive eye,
Immediate, worlds on worlds unnumber'd lie:
Systems inclos'd in his idea roll,
Whofe 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 footstool 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 immensity deny,
Man might as well ufurp the vacant sky:
For were he limited in date, or view,
Thence were his atttibutes imperfect too;
His knowledge, power, his goodness, all confin'd,
And loft the notion of a ruling mind :
Feeble the truft, and comfortless the fenfe,
Of a defective partial providence:
Boldly might then his arm injuftice brave,
Or innocence in vain his mercy crave;
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;
If he, fupreme director, were not near,
Vain were our hope, and empty were our fear;
Unpunish'd vice would o'er the world prevail,
And unrewarded virtue toil-to fail!
The moral world a second chaos turn,
And nature for her great fupporter mourn !
Even the weak embryo, ere to life it breaks,
From his high power its flender texture takes ;
While in his book the various parts inroll'd
Increafing, own eternal wisdom's mould.
Nor views he only the material whole,
But pierces thought, and penetrates the foul!
Ere from the lips the vocal accents part,
Or the faint purpose dawns within the heart,
His fteady eye the mental birth perceives,
Ere yet to us the new idea lives:
Knows what we say-ere yet the words proceed,
And ere we form th' intention, marks the deed.
But confcience, fair vicegerent-light within,
Afferts its author, and reftores the scene;
Points out the beauty of the govern'd plan,
"And vindicates the ways of God to man."
Then, facred mufe, by the vaft profpect fir'd,
From heaven defcended, as by heaven infpir'd;
His all-enlightening omniprefence own,
Whence first thou feel'ft thy dwindling presence
His wide omniscience, juftly grateful, fing, [known;
Whence thy weak fcience prunes its callow wing!
And blefs th' eternal, all-informing foul,
Whofe fight pervades, whose knowledge fills the whole.
As the eternal and omnifcient mind,
By laws not limited, nor bounds confin'd,
Is always independent, always free,
Hence shines confefs'd immutability!
Change, whether the fpontaneous child of will,
Or birth of force,--is imperfection still.
But he, all-perfect, in himfelf contains
Power felf-deriv'd, for from himself he reigns!
If, alter'd by constraint, we could fuppofe,
That God his fix'd ftability should lofe;
How startles reason at a thought so strange!
What power can force omnipotence to change?
If from his own divine productive thought,
Were the yet stranger alteration wrought;
Could excellence fupreme new rays acquire?
Or ftrong perfection raife its glories higher?
Abfurd!-his high meridian brightnefs glows,
Never decreases, never overflows!
Knows no addition, yields to no decay,
The facred blaze of inexhaustless day!
Below, thro' different forms does matter range,
And life fubfifts from elemental change,
Liquids condenfing, fhapes terrestrial wear,
Earth mounts in fire, and fire diffolves in air;
While we, enquiring phantoms of a day,
Inconftant as the fhadows we furvey,
With them, along time's rapid current pass,
And hafte to mingle with the parent mass;
But thou, eternal Lord of life divine!
In youth immortal fhalt for ever shine!
No change shall darken thy exalted name,
From everlasting ages ftill the fame.
If God, like man, his purpose could renew,
His laws could vary, or his plans undo;
Defponding faith would droop its cheerless wing,
Religion deaden to a lifeless thing:
Where could we, rational, repofe our trust,
But in a power immutable as just?
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