Thus Thee they always worship, all
Thee God of facred fabbath call.
For Thou hast been of holy reft,
From vaft eternity, poffeft.
When all in yon created mass
Does but appear, and move,
All moves, all fluctuates without end,
But fpirits that on thee depend.
Yon glorious worlds that floating lye
In the profound abyfs of sky,
In matter's ftormy gulph are toft,
Till in a flaming wreck they're lost.
We that fo far with angels ken can trace
Thy godlike works along the boundless space,
See nought from endless agitation free,
But Thee, the great, th' eternal mover, Thee.
Even we are mov'd, even we are tost
In blisful rapture almost loft;
Even we sometimes almost complain
Of tranfports that are near to pain,
Which without Thee we never cou'd fuftain.
'Thou mov'ft us all, yet ever bleft
Alone enjoy'ft perpetual rest :
Thy great all-feeing eyes ne'er fleep;
And yet for everlasting days,
They fabbath, facred fabbath, keep;
The wond'rous fubject of our praise.
But who, tho' mounted on an angel's wing,
Can ever hope to raise his flight
To fuch a tow'ring, fuch a godlike height,
As Thee with equal fong to fing?
Thee over all the worlds fupreme,
Who must not flag beneath th' almighty theme.
Where e'er at utmost stretch we caft our eyes,
Thro' the vast frightful spaces of the skies,
Even there we find thy glory, there we gaze
On thy bright Majefty's unbounded blaze:
Ten thousand funs, prodigious globes of light,
At once in broad dimenfions ftrike our fight.
Millions behind, in the remoter skies,
Appear but spangles to our wearied eyes:
And when our wearied eyes want farther ftrength,
To pierce the void's immeasurable length,
Our vigorous tow'ring thoughts ftill further fly,
And still remoter flaming worlds descry:
But even an angel's comprehenfive thought
Cannot extend fo far as thou haft wrought;
Our vaft conceptions are by fwelling brought,
Swallow'd and loft in infinite to nought.
The MESSIAH. A facred ECLOGUE, compofed of feveral Paffages of Ifaiah the Prophet. By Mr. Pope.
Written in Imitation of Virgil's POLLIO.
E nymphs of Solyma, begin the fong:
To heav'nly themes fublimer strains belong..
The moffy fountains and the filvan fhades,
The dreams of Pindus, and th' Aonian maids-
Delight no more. O thou my voice inspire-
Who touch'd Ifaiah's hallow'd lips with fire!
Rapt into future times the bard begun,
A virgin fhall conceive, a virgin bear a fon..
From Jee's root behold a branch arife
Whofe facred flow'r with fragrance fills the fkies,
Th' etherial spirit o'er its leaves fhall move,
And on its top descends the mystic dove.
Ye heav'ns ! from high the dewy nectar pour,
And in foft filence shed the kindly show'r :
The fick, the weak, the healing Plant fhall aid,
From storms a shelter, and from heat a fhade.
All crimes fhall cease, and ancient fraud shall fail,
Returning juftice lift aloft her scale ;
Peace o'er the world her olive wand extend,
And white-rob'd innocence from heav'n defcend.
Swift fly the years, and rife th' expected morn;
O fpring to light! aufpicious babe be born.
See nature haftes her earliest wreaths to bring,
With all the incenfe of the breathing fpring
See lofty Lebanon his head advance;
See nodding forests on the mountains dance :
See fpicy clouds from lovely Saron rise,
And Carmel's flow'ry top perfumes the skies!
Hark! a glad voice the lonely defart chears ;
Prepare the way, a God, a God appears ;
A God, a God, the vocal hills reply,
The rocks proclaim th' approaching Deity.
Lo earth receives him from the bending skies !
Sink down ye mountains, and ye valleys rife :
With heads declin'd, ye cedars homage pay ;.
Be fmooth ye rocks, ye rapid floods give way;
The Saviour comes! by ancient bards foretold;
Hear him ye deaf, and all ye blind behold!
He from thick films fhall
the visual ray,
And on the fightlefs eye-ball pour the day.
'Tis he th' obftructed paths of found shall clear,
And bid new mufic charm th' unfolding ear.
The dumb fhall fing, the lame his crutch forego,
And leap exulting like the bounding roe.
No figh, no murmur the wide world shall hear,
From ev'ry face h'll wipe off ev'ry tear.
In adamantine chains fhall death be bound,
And hell's grim tyrant feel th' eternal wound.
As the good fhepherd tends his fleecy care,
Seeks freshest pasture and the pureft air,
Explores the loft, the wand'ring fheep directs,
By day o'erfees them, and by night protects :
The tender lambs he raises In his arms,
Feeds from his hand, and in his bofom warms.
Thus shall mankind his guardian care engage,
The promis'd father of the future age.
No more fhall nation against nation rife,
Nor ardent warriors meet with hateful eyes,
Nor fields with gleaming fteel be cover❜d o'er,
The brazen trumpets kindle rage no more ;
But useless lances into scythes fhall bend,
And the broad faulchion in a plow-fhear end.
Then palaces fhall rife; the joyful fon
Shall finish what his short-liv'd fire begun;
Their vines a shadow to their race fhall yield,
And the fame hand that fow'd fhall reap the field.
The fwains in barren defarts with furprise,
See lillies fpring, and fudden verdure rise,
And start amidst the thirsty wilds, to hear
New falls of water murm'ring in his ear;
On rifted rocks, the dragons late abodes,
The green reed trembles, and the bulrush nods.
Waste fandy vallies, once perplext with thorn,
The fpiry fir, and shapely box adorn;
To leaflefs fhrubs the flow'ring palms fucceed,
And od❜rous myrtle to the noisome weed.
The lambs with wolves fhali graze the verdant mead,
And boys in flow'ry bands the tyger lead;
The fteer and lion at one crib fhall meet,
And harmless ferpents lick the pilgrim's feet.
The fmiling infant in his hand shall take
The crefted bafilifk and speckled fnake,
Pleas'd, the green luftre of the scales furvey,
And with their forky tongue and pointless fting fhall play,
Rife, crown'd with light, imperial Salem rise,
Exalt thy tow'ry head, and lift thine eyes!
See a long race thy fpacious courts adorn !
See future fons and daughters yet unborn,
In crouding ranks on every fide arise,
Demanding life, impatient for the skies!
See barb'rous nations at thy gates attend,
Walk in thy light, and in thy temple bend!
See thy bright altars throng'd with proftrate kings,
And heap'd with products of Sabaan springs !
For Thee Idume's spicy forests blow,
And feed of gold in Ophir's mountains glow.
See heav'n its sparkling portals wide display,
And break upon Thee in a flood of day!
No more the rifing fun fhall gild the morn,
Nor ev'ning Cynthia fill her filver horn;
D 3
But loft, diffolv'd in thy fuperior rays,
One tide of glory, one unclouded blaze
O'erflow thy courts: the light himself shall shine
Reveal'd, and God's eternal day be thine!
The feas fhall waste, the skies in finoke decay,
Rocks fall to dust, and mountains melt away;
But fix'd his word, his faving pow'r remains,
Thy realm for ever lafts, thy own Meffiah reigns.
T must be done, my foul, but 'tis a strange,
A difmal, and mysterious change!
When thou fhalt leave this tenement of clay,
And to an unknown somewhere wing away;
When time shall be eternity, and thou
Shalt be thou know'ft not what, and live thou know'st not
Amazing state! no wonder that we dread
To think of death, or view the dead;
Thou'rt all wrapt up in shades, as if to thee
Our very knowledge had antipathy:
Death could not a more fad retinue find,
Sickness and pain before, and darkness all behind.
Some courteous ghoft tell this great fecrefy,
What 'tis you are, and we must be.
You warn us of approaching death, and why?
May we not know from you what 'tis to die?
But you having fhot the gulph, delight to fee
Succeeding fouls plunge in with like uncertainty.
When life's close knot, by writ from destiny,
Difeafe fhall cut, or age untye;
When after fome delays, fome dying ftrife,
The foul stands fhiv'ring on the verge of life,
With what a dreadful curiofity
Does the launch out into the fea of vast eternity.
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