Thunder and hail, and fires and storms, The troops of his command, Appear in all your dreadful forms, And speak his awful hand. Shout to the Lord, ye surging seas, Let wave to wave resound his praise, While monsters sporting on the flood, But gentler things shall tune his name Young zephyrs breathing o'er the stream, Wave your tall heads, ye lofty pines, Let the shrill birds his honour raise, While grovelling beasts attempt his praise Thus while the meaner creatures sing, Ye mortals, take the sound, Echo the glories of your king Through all the nations round. The eternal name must fly abroad From Britain to Japan; And the whole race shall bow to God, THE ATHEIST'S MISTAKE. LAUGH, ye profane, and swell and burst Yet shall ye live for ever curs'd, The gasp of your expiring breath By the last agonies of death Ye stand upon a dreadful steep, Your weighty guilt will sink you deep, When iron slumbers bind your flesh, And tortures wake the mind! Then you'll confess the frightful names No more shall look like idle dreams, Then shall ye curse that fatal day, Behold the saints rejoice to die, For Heaven shines round their heads; And angel-guards, prepar'd to fly, Attend their fainting beds. Their longing spirits part, and rise They make their last retreat. Hence, ye profane, I hate your ways, THE LAW GIVEN AT SINAI. ARM thee with thunder, heavenly Muse, Inhuman bondage! the hard galling load Now had they pass'd the' Arabian bay, 9 [way, The rising waves stood guardians of their wondrous But fell with most impetuous force, On the pursuing swarms, And buried Egypt all in arms, Blending in watry death the rider and his horse, O'er struggling Pharoah roll'd the mighty tide, Apis and Ore in vain he cries, He swallows fate with swimming eyes, Ah foolish Israel to comply With Memphian idolatry! And bow to brutes (a stupid slave) To idols impotent to save! Behold thy God, the Sovereign of the sky, Hark! the shrill echoes of the trumpet roar, Slow and unwilling they appear, Now from the rails their fear: 'Twas the same herald, and the trump the same, Which shall be blown by high command, Thus while the labouring angel swell'd the sound, The lesser powers at distance dwell, And cast their glories down successive at his feet: Gabriel the great prepares his way, 'Lift up your heads, eternal doors,' he cries; The' eternal doors his word obey, Open and shoot celestial day Upon the lower skies. Heaven's mighty pillars bow'd their head, As their Creator bade, And down Jehovah rode from the superior sphere, A thousand guards before, and myriads in the rear. His chariot was a pitchy cloud, The wheels beset with burning gems, |