Thus shall our mouldering members teach What now our senses learn: For dust and ashes loudest preach A SIGHT OF HEAVEN IN SICKNESS. OFT have I sat in secret sighs, To feel my flesh decay, Then groan'd aloud with frighted eyes, But I forbid my sorrows now, My cheerful soul now all the day Faith almost changes into sight, While from afar she spies, Her fair inheritance, in light, Above created skies. Had but the prison walls been strong, In darkness she had dwelt too long, But now the everlasting hills The shines of heaven rush sweetly in O may these walls stand tottering still, Or rather let this flesh decay, Till glad to see the enlarged way, I stretch my pinions through. THE UNIVERSAL HALLELUJAH. PSALM CXLVIII. PARAPHRASED. PRAISE ye the Lord with joyful tongue, Gabriel, and all the immortal choir Shine to his praise, ye crystal skies, Or veil your little twinkling eyes Thou restless globe of golden light, Blush and refund the honours paid To your inferior names: Tell the blind world, your orbs are fed Winds, ye shall hear his name aloud Thunder and hail, and fires and storms, Shout to the Lord, ye surging seas, In your eternal roar; Let wave to wave resound his praise, While monsters sporting on the flood, And lash the foaming brine. But gentler things shall tune his name Young zephyrs breathing o'er the stream, Wave your tall heads, ye lofty pines, Sweet clusters, bend the fruitful vines Let the shrill birds his honour raise, While grovelling beasts attempt his praise, Thus while the meaner creatures sing, The eternal name must fly abroad, And the whole race shall bow to God THE ATHEIST'S MISTAKE. LAUGH, ye profane, and swell and burst With bold impiety; Yet shall ye live for ever curs'd, And seek in vain to die. |