DEVOTIONAL AND MORAL. PART I.
REFLECTIONS ON THE BEING OF A GOD,
RETIRE ;-the world shut out ;-thy thoughts call
Imagination's airy wing repress- [home;
Lock up thy senses; let no passion stir ;—
Wake all to Reason ;-let her reign alone :-
Then in thy soul's deep silence, and the depth
Of Nature's silence, midnight, thus inquire
'What am I? and from whence?-I nothing know
But that I am; and since I am, conclude
Something eternal: had there e'er been nought,
Nought still had been; eternal there must be.-
But what eternal? Why not human race?
And Adam's ancestors without an end ?-
That's hard to be conceiv'd, since every link
Of that long-chain'd succession is so frail.
Can every part depend, and not the whole ?
Yet grant it true, new difficulties rise;
I'm still quite out at sea, nor see the shore.
Whence earth, and these bright orbs ?--Eternal
Grant matter was eternal, still these orbs [too?—
Would want some other father ;--much design
Is seen in all their motions, all their makes.
Design implies intelligence and art;
That can't be from themselves--or man that art
Man scarce can comprehend, could man bestow ?
And nothing greater yet allow'd than man.
Who motion, foreign to the smallest grain,
Shot through vast masses of enormous weight?
Who bid brute matter's restive lump assume
Such various forms, and gave it wings to fly ?
Has matter innate motion? then each atom,
Asserting its indisputable right
To dance, would form an universe of dust:
Has matter none? Then whence these glorious
forms
And boundless flights, from shapeless and repos'd?
Has matter more than motion ? has it thought,
Judgment, and genius ? is it deeply learn'd
In mathematics? has it fram'd such laws,
Which but to guess a Newton made immortal ?-
If art to form, and counsel to conduct,
And that with greater far than human skill,
Resides not in each block,- -a Godhead reigns.-
And, if a God there is, that God how great!'
CREATION OF THE EARTH, THE HEAVENS, AND
On his great expedition now appear'd,
Girt with Omnipotence, with radiance crown'd
Of Majesty Divine: sapience and love
Immense, and all his Father in him shone.
About his chariot numberless were pour'd
Cherub, and Seraph, Potentates, and Thrones,
And Virtues, winged Spirits, and chariots wing'd
From th' armoury of God; where stand of old
Myriads, between two brazen mountains lodg'd
Against a solemn day, harness'd at hand,
Celestial equipage; and now came forth
Spontaneous, for within them spirit liv'd
Attendant on their Lord: Heaven open'd wide
Her ever-during gates, harmonious sound
On golden hinges moving, to let forth
The King of Glory, in his powerful Word
And Spirit, coming to create new worlds.
On heavenly ground they stood; and from the shore
They view'd the vast immeasurable abyss
Outrageous as a sea, dark, wasteful, wild,
Up from the bottom turn'd by furious winds
And surging waves, as mountains, to assault
Heaven's height, and with the centre mix the pole.
'Silence, ye troubled Waves, and thou Deep,
Said then th' Omnific Word; your discord end!'
Nor staid; but on the wings of Cherubim
Uplifted, in paternal glory rode
Far into Chaos, and the world unborn;
For Chaos heard his voice: Him all his train
Follow'd in bright procession, to behold
Creation, and the wonders of his might.
Then staid the fervid wheels, and in his hand
He took the golden compasses, prepar'd
In God's eternal store, to circumscribe
This universe, and all created things:
One foot he center'd, and the other turn'd
Round through the vast profundity obscure;
And said, 'Thus far extend, thus far thy bounds,
This be thy just circumference, O World!'
Thus God the Heaven created, thus the Earth,
Matter unform'd and void : darkness profound
Cover'd the abyss: but on the watery calm
His brooding wings the Spirit of God outspread,
And vital virtue infus'd, and vital warmth
Throughout the fluid mass; but downward purg'a
The black tartareous cold infernal dregs,
Adverse to life: then founded, then conglob'd
Like things to like; the rest to several place
Disparted, and between spun out the air;
And Earth self-balanc'd on her centre hung. [use
And God made two great lights, great for their
To man, the greater to have rule by day,
The less by night, altern; and made the stars,
And set them in the firmament of Heaven,
T'illuminate the Earth, and rule the day
In their vicissitude, and rule the night,
And light from darkness to divide.
First in his east the glorious lamp was seen,
Regent of day, and all the horizon round
Invested with bright rays, jocund to run
His longitude through Heaven's high road; the gray
Dawn, and the Pleiades before him danc'd
Shedding sweet influence: less bright the Moon
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