Seize my whole frame into thy hand;
Here all my powers I bring;
Manage the wheels by thy command,
And govern every spring.
Then shall my feet no more depart,
Nor wandering senses rove;
Devotion shall be all my heart,
And all my passions love.
Then not the sun shall more than I
His Maker's law perform,
Nor travel swifter through the sky,
Nor with a zeal so warm.
GOD SUPREME AND SELF-SUFFICIENT.
WHAT is our God, or what his name,
Nor men can learn, nor angels teach;
He dwells conceal'd in radiant flame,
Where neither eyes nor thoughts can reach.
The spacious worlds of heavenly light,
Compar'd with him, how short they fall!
They are too dark, and he too bright,
Nothing are they, and God is all.
He spoke the wondrous word, and, lo!
Creation rose at his command:
Whirlwinds and seas their limits know,
Bound in the hollow of his hand.
There rests the earth, there roll the spheres,
There nature leans, and feels her prop :
But his own self-sufficience bears
The weight of his own glories up.
The tide of creatures ebbs and flows,
Measuring their changes by the moon:
No ebb his sea of glory knows,
His age is one eternal noon.
Then fly, my song, an endless round,
The lofty tune let Michael raise;
All nature dwell upon the sound,
But we can ne'er fulfil the praise.
ADAM, our father and our head, Transgress'd, and justice doom'd us dead: The fiery law speaks all despair,
There's no reprieve, nor pardon there.
Call a bright council in the skies;
"Seraphs, the mighty and the wise,
"Say, what expedient can you give,
"That sin be damn'd, and sinners live?
"Speak, are you strong to bear the load,
"The weighty vengeance of a God?
"Which of you loves our wretched race,
"Or dares to venture in our place?"
In vain we ask for all around
Stands silence through the heavenly ground:
There's not a glorious mind above
Has half the strength, or half the love.
But, O unutterable grace!
The eternal Son takes Adam's place:
Down to our world the Saviour flies,
Stretches his naked arms, and dies.
Justice was pleas'd to bruise the God, And pay its wrongs with heavenly blood; What unknown racks and pangs he bore! Then rose: The law could ask no more.
Amazing work! look down, ye skies,
Wonder and gaze with all your eyes;
Ye heavenly thrones, stoop from above,
And bow to this mysterious love.
See, how they bend! See, how they look!
Long they had read the eternal book,
And studied dark decrees in vain,
The cross and Calvary makes them plain.
Now they are struck with deep amaze, Each with his wings conceals his face; Now clap their sounding plumes, and cry, "The wisdom of a Deity!"
Lo! they adore the Incarnate Son,
And sing the glories he hath won ;
Sing how he broke our iron chains,
How deep he sunk, how high he reigns.
Triumph and reign, victorious Lord,
By all thy flaming hosts ador'd:
And say, dear Conqueror, say, how long,
Ere we shall rise to join their song.
Lo, from afar the promis'd day
Shines with a well distinguish'd ray;
But my wing'd passion hardly bears
These lengths of slow delaying years.
Send down a chariot from above,
With fiery wheels, and pav'd with love;
Raise me beyond the ethereal blue,
To sing and love as angels do.
THE heavens invite mine eye, The stars salute me round; Father, I blush, I mourn to lie Thus grovelling on the ground.
My warmer spirits move,
And make attempts to fly;
I wish aloud for wings of love
To raise me swift and high,
Beyond those crystal vaults, And all their sparkling balls; They're but the porches to thy courts, And paintings on thy walls.
Vain world, farewell to you;
Heaven is my native air:
I bid my friends a short adieu,
Impatient to be there.
I feel my powers releas'd
From their old fleshly clod;
Fair guardian, bear me up in haste,
And set me near my God.
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