FIRE, AIR, EARTH, AND SEA, PRAISE YE THE LORD.

EARTH, thou great footstool of our God,
Who reigns on high; thou fruitful source
Of all our raiment, life and food;

Our house, our parent, and our nurse;
Mighty stage of mortal scenes,
Drest with strong and gay machines,
Hung with golden lamps around,
(And flowery carpets spread the ground)
Thou bulky globe, prodigious mass,
That hangs unpillar'd in an empty space!
While thy unwieldy weight rests on the feeble air,
Bless that Almighty Word that fix'd and holds
thee there.

Fire, thou swift herald of his face,
Whose glorious rage, at his command,

Levels a palace with the sand,

Blending the lofty spires in ruin with the base:
Ye heavenly flames, that singe the air,
Artillery of a jealous God,

Bright arrows that his sounding quivers bear
To scatter deaths abroad;

Lightnings, adore the sovereign arm that flings His vengeance, and your fires, upon the heads of kings.

Thou vital element, the air,

Whose boundless magazines of breath

Our fainting flame of life repair,

And save the bubble, man, from the cold arms of death.

And ye whose vital moisture yields

Life's purple stream a fresh supply;

Sweet waters, wand'ring through the flowery fields, Or dropping from the sky;

Confess the Power whose all-sufficient name Nor needs your aid to build, or to support our frame.

Now the rude air, with noisy force,
Beats up and swells the angry sea,
They join to make our lives a prey,

And sweep the sailors' hopes away,

Vain hopes, to reach their kindred on the shores!
Lo, the wild seas and surging waves
Gape hideous in a thousand graves:

Be still, ye floods, and know your bounds of sand,
Ye storms, adore your Master's hand:

The winds are in his fist, the waves at his command.

From the eternal emptiness

His fruitful word, by secret springs,

Drew the whole harmony of things
That form this noble universe:

Old Nothing knew his powerful hand,
Scarce had he spoke his full command,

Fire, air, and earth, and sea heard the creating call,

And leap'd from empty nothing to this beauteous all:

And still they dance, and still obey The orders they receiv'd the great creation day.

THE FAREWELL.

DEAD be my heart to all below,
To mortal joys and mortal cares;
To sensual bliss that charms us so,
Be dark, my eyes, and deaf, my ears.

Here I renounce my carnal taste
Of the fair fruit that sinners prize:
Their paradise shall never waste
One thought of mine, but to despise.

All earthly joys are overweigh'd
With mountains of vexatious care;
And where's the sweet that is not laid
A bait to some destructive snare?

Be gone for ever, mortal things!

Then mighty molehill, earth, farewell! Angels aspire on lofty wings,

And leave the globe for ants to dwell.

Come, heaven, and fill my vast desires, My soul pursues the sovereign good: She was all made of heavenly fires, Nor can she live on meaner food.

GOD ONLY KNOWN TO HIMSELF.

STAND, and adore! how glorious he
That dwells in bright eternity!

We

gaze, and we confound our sight Plung'd in the abyss of dazzling light.

Thus sacred One, almighty Three,
Great everlasting Mystery,

What lofty numbers shall we frame
Equal to thy tremendous name?

Seraphs, the nearest to the throne, Begin, and speak the great Unknown: Attempt the song, wind up your strings, To notes untry'd, and boundless things.

You whose capacious powers survey
Largely beyond our eyes of clay:
Yet what a narrow portion too

Is seen, or known, or thought, by you!

How flat your highest praises fall
Below the immense Original!

Weak creatures we, that strive in vain
To reach an uncreated strain!

Great God, forgive our feeble lays,
Sound out thine own eternal praise;
A song so vast, a theme so high,
Calls for the voice that tun'd the sky.

PARDON AND SANCTIFICATION.

My crimes awake; and hideous fear
Distracts my restless mind,

Guilt meets my eyes with horrid glare,
And hell pursues behind.

Almighty vengeance frowns on high,

And flames array the throne; While thunder murmurs round the sky, Impatient to be gone.