Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

Let none henceforth of providence complain,

night;

As if the world of spirits lay unknown, Fenc'd round with black impenetrable [thence What tho' no shining angel darts from With leave to publish things conceal'd from sense, 「told,

In language bright as theirs, we are here When life its narrow round of years hath roll'd,

What 'tis employs the bless'd, what makes their bliss;

Songs such as WATTS's are, and love like his.

But then, dear Sir, be cautious how you use [muse, To transports so intensely rais'd your Lest, whilst th' ecstatic impulse you obey, The soul leapout, and drop the dullerclay.

Sept. 4, 1706.

HENRY GROVE.

ww

TO DR. WATTS.

On the fifth Edition of his Horæ Lyrica. "SOVEREIGN of sacred verse; accept the lays [praise, Of a young bard that dares attempt thy A muse, the meanest of the vocal throng, New to the bays, nor equal to the song, Fir'd with the growing glories of thyfame, Joins all her powersto celebrate thyname.

No vulgar themes thy pious muse engage,

No scenes of lust pollute thy sacred page. You in majestic numbers mount the skies, And meet descending angels as you rise, Whose just applauses charm the crowded

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

Sic spirat, sic optat

Tui amantissimus

BRITANNICUS.

[blocks in formation]

BOOK 1.-Sacred to Devotion and Piety.

Worshipping with Fear.

1 WHO dares attempt th' eternal name

With notes of mortal sound?

Whilst the young notes and vent'rous

Dangers and glories guard the theme, 2 If thou my daring flight forbid

And spread despair around.

2 Destruction waits t' obey his frown,
And heav'n attends his smile:
A wreath of lightning arms his crown,
But love adorns it still.

Celestial King, our spirits lie,
Trembling beneath thy feet,
And wish, and cast a longing eye,
To reach thy lofty seat.

4 When shall we see the Great Unknown,
And in thy presence stand?
Reveal the splendors of thy throne,
But shield us with thy hand.
4 In thee what endless wonders meet!
What various glory shines!
The crossing rays too fiercely beat
Upon our fainting minds.

6 Angels are lost in sweet surprise
If thou unveil thy grace;
And humble awe runs thro' the skies,
When wrath arrays thy face.

7 When mercy joins with majesty
To spread their beams abroad,
Not all their fairest minds on high
Are shadows of a God.

• Thy works the strongest seraph sings
In a too feeble strain,
And labours hard on all his strings
To reach thy thoughts in vain.

9 Created powers, how weak they be!
How short our praises fall !
So much a-kin to nothing we,
And thou th' eternal All.

Asking Leave to Sing.

1 YET, mighty God, indulge my tongue, Nor let thy thunders roar,

song

To worlds of glory soar.

The muse folds up her wings; Or at thy word her slender reed Attempts almighty things.

3 Her slender reed inspir'd by thee Bids a new Eden grow,

With blooming life on every tree, And spreads a heav'n below.

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

Dress thee in steel to meet his wrath; His sharp artillery from the north Shall pierce thee to the soul, and shake thy mortal frame.

Sublime on winter's rugged wings
He rides in arms along the sky,

And scatters fate on swains and kings;
And flocks and herds, and nations die;
While impious lips, profanely bold,

[blocks in formation]

So roses grow on thorns, and honey wears a sting.

Grow pale; and, quivering at his 2 In vain we seek a heaven below the

dreadful cold,

Give their own blasphemies the lie.

sky;

The world has false, but flatt'ring charms;

Its distant joys show big in our esteem,

When the hot dog-star fires the realms on high,

4 The mischiefs that infest the earth,

Drought and disease, and cruel
dearth,

Are but the flashes of a wrathful eye
From the incens'd divinity.

In vain our parching palates thirst,

For vital food in vain we cry,
And pant for vital breath;

The verdant fields are burnt to dust,
The sun has drunk the channels dry,
And all the air is death.
Ye scourges of our Maker's rod,
'Tis at his dread command, at his im-
perial nod,

You deal yourvarious plagues abroad.

• Hail, whirlwinds, hurricanes and floods That all the leafy standards strip, And bear down with a mighty sweep The riches of the fields, and honours

of the woods;

Storms, that ravage o'er the deep, And bury millions in the waves; Earthquakes, that in midnight-sleep Turn cities into heaps, and make our beds our graves! While you dispense your mortal harms,

'Tis the Creator's voice that sounds your loud alarms,

When guilt with louder cries provokes a God to arms.

O for a message from above

To bear my spirits up!

But lessen still as they draw near the

eye;

In our embrace the visions die,
And when we grasp the airy forms
We lose the pleasing dream.

3 Earth, with her scenes of gay delight,
Is but a landscape rudely drawn,
With glaring colours and false light;
Distance commends it to the sight,

For fools to gaze upon;
But bring the nauseous daubing

nigh,

Coarse and confus'd the hideous figures lie,

Dissolve the pleasure, and offend the eye.

4 Look up, my soul, pant toward th' eternal hills;

Those heav'ns are fairer than they

seem;

There pleasures all sincere glide on in crystal rills,

There not a dreg of guilt defiles, Nor grief disturbs the stream. ThatCanaan knows no noxious thing, No curs'd soil, no tainted spring, Nor roses grow on thorns, nor honey wearsa sting.

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

Or round this dusty clod; Nothing, mysoul, that's worth thy joys, • Or lovely as thy God.

3 'Tis heav'n on earth to taste his love,
To feel his quickning grace;
And all the heav'n I hope above
Is but to see his face.

4 Why move my years in slow delay? O God of ages! why?

Let the spherescleave, and makemyway
To the superior sky.

5 Dear sov'reign, break these vital strings
That bind me to my clay;
Take me, Uriel, on thy wings,
And stretch and soar away.

God's Dominion and Decrees.

1 KEEP silence, all created things, And wait your Maker's nod: The muse stands trembling while she

sings

The honours of her God.

2 Life, death, and hell, and worlds un

known

Hang on his firm decree :

. He sits on no precarious throne,
Nor borrows leave to be.

3 'Th' almighty voice bid ancient night
Her endless realms resign,
And lo, ten thousand globes of light
In fields of azure shine.

4 Now wisdom with superior sway
Guides the vast moving frame,
Whilst all the ranks of beings pay
Deep rev'rence to his name.

5 He spake: The sun obedient stood,
And held the falling day.
Old Jordan backward drives his flood,
And disappoints the sea.

6 Lord of the armies of the sky,
He marshals all the stars;
Red comets lift their banners high,
And wide proclaim his wars.

7 Chain'd to his throne a volume lies,
With all the fates of men,
With ev'ry angel's form and size
Drawn by th' eternal pen.

8 His providence unfolds the book,
And makes his counsels shine:
Each opening leaf, and ev'ry stroke,
Fulfils some deep design.

9 Here he exalts neglected worms
To sceptres and a crown;
Anon the following page he turns,
And treads the monarch down.

10 Not Gabriel asks the reason why,
Nor God the reason gives;
Nor dares the fav'rite-angel pry
Between the folded leaves,

11 My God, I never long'd to see
My fate with curious eyes,

What gloomy lines are writ for me, Or what bright scenes shall rise.

12 In thy fair book of life and grace May I but find my name, Recorded in some humble place Beneath my Lord the Lamb.

Self-Consecration.

1 IT grieves me, Lord, it grieves me sore, That I have lived to thee no more, And wasted half my days; Myinward pow'rs shall burn and flame, With zeal and passion for thy name, I would not speak, but for my God, nor move, but to his praise.

2 What are my eyes but aids to see The glories of the deity

Inscrib'd with beams of light
On flow'rs and stars? Lord I behold
The shining azure, green and gold;
But when I try to read thy name,
a dimness veils my sight.

3 Mine ears are rais'd when Virgil sings
Sicilian swains, or Trojan Kings,
And drink the music in;
Whyshouldthe trumpet's brazen voice,
Or oaten reed awake my joys

And yet my heart so stupid lie when
sacred hymns begin.

4 Change me, O God; my flesh shall be
An instrument of song to thee,
And thou the notes inspire:
My tongue shall keep the heav'nly

chime,

My cheerful pulse shall beat the time, And sweet variety of sound shall in thy praise conspire.

5 The dearest nerve about my heart, Should it refuse to bear a part, With my melodious breath, I'd tear away the vital cord, A bloody victim to my Lord, And live without that impious string, or shew my zeal in death.

The Creator and Creatures.

1 GOD is a name my soul adores,
Th' almighty Three, th' eternal One;
Nature and grace, with all their pow'rs,
Confess the infinite Unknown.

2 From thy great self thy being springs:
Thou art thy own original,
Made up of uncreated things,
And self-sufficience bears them all.

3 Thyvoice produc'd the seas and spheres,
Bid the waves roar, and planets shine;
But nothing like thy self appears,
Thro' all these spacious works of thine.

4 Still restless nature dies and grows; From change to change the creatures

run:

Thy being no succession knows,
And all thy vast designs are one.

5 A glance of thine runs thro' the globes,
Rules the bright world, and moves their
frame:

Broad sheets of light composethyrobes;
Thy guards are form'd of living flame.

• Thrones and dominions round theefall,
And worship in submissive forms;
Thy presence shakes this lower ball,
This little dwelling-place of worms.
How shall affrighted mortals dare
To sing thy glory or thy grace,
Beneath thy feet we lie so far,
And see but shadows of thy face?
8 Who can behold the blazing light;

2 Those mighty orbs proclaim thy pow'r,
Their motions speak thy skill;
And on the wings of ev'ry hour,
We read thy patience still.
3 Part of thy name divinely stands
On all thy creatures writ,
They shew the labour of thine hands,
Or impress of thy feet.

4 But when we view thy strange design
To save rebellious worms,
Where vengeance and compassion join
In their divinest forms;

5 Our thoughts are lost in reverend awe;
We love and we adore;
The first arch-angel never saw
So much of God before.

Who can approach consuming flame? 6 Here the whole Deity is known,
None but thy wisdom knows thymight;
None but thy word can speak thyname.

The Nativity of Christ.

1 " SHEPHERDS, rejoice, lift up your

eyes,

And send your fears away;
News from the region of the skies,
Salvation's born to-day.

2 Jesus, the God whom angels fear,
Comes down to dwell with you:
To-day he makes his entrance here,
But not as monarchs do.

a No gold, nor purple swaddling bands,
Nor royal shining things;
A manger for his cradle stands
And holds the King of kings.

4 Go, shepherds, where the infant lies,
And see his humble throne;
With tears of joy in all your eyes,
Go, shepherds, kiss the Son."

5 Thus Gabriel sang, and straight around
The heav'nly armies throng;
They tune their harps to lofty sound,
And thus conclude the song:

6 "Glory to God that reigns above,
Let peace surround the earth;
Mortals shall know their Maker's love,
At their Redeemer's birth."

Lord! and shall angels have theirsongs,
And men no tunes to raise?
O may we lose these useless tongues
When they forget to praise!

• Glory to God that reigns above,
That pitied us forlorn,

We join to sing our Maker's love,
For there's a Saviour born.

God glorious, and sinners saved.

Nor dares a creature guess
Which of the glories brightest shone,
The justice or the grace.

7 When sinners broke the Father's laws,
The dying Son atones;
Oh the dear mysteries of his cross!
The triumph of his groans!
8 Now the full glories ries of the Lamb
Adorn the heav'nly plains;
Sweet cherubs learn Immanuel's name,
And try their choicest strains.

9 O may I bear some humble part
In that immortal song!
Wonder and joys shall tune my heart,
And love command my tongue.

The humble enquiry.

A French sonnet imitated, 1695.
Grand Dieu, tes Jugemens. &c.

1 GRACE rules below, and sits enthron'd
above,
How few the sparks of wrath! how slow
they move,

And drop and die in boundless seas of
love!

2 But me, vile wretch! should pitying
love embrace
Deep in its ocean, hell itself would
blaze,

And flash and burn me thro' the
boundless seas.

3 Yea, Lord, my guilt to such a vastness
grown
[alone,
Seems to confine thy choice to wrath
And calls thy pow'r to vindicate thy

throne.

4 Thine honour bids, "Avenge thy in-
jur'd name,"
Thy slighted loves a dreadful glory
claim,
While mymoist tears might but incense
[thy flame.

1 FATHER, how wide thy glory shines! 5 Should heav'n grow black, almighty

How high thy wonders rise! Known thro' the earth by thousand signs,

By thousand thro' the skies.

thunder roar,

And vengeance blast me, I could plead no more,

But own thy justice dying, and adore.

« AnteriorContinuar »