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Celestial mufic (fuch Jeffides' lyre,

Such Miriam's timbrel would in vain require)
Strikes to my thought thro' my admiring ear,
With ecstacy too fine, and pleasure hard to bear :
And lo! what fees my ravifh'd eye? what feels.
My wond'ring foul? an opening cloud reveals
An heav'nly form embody'd, and array'd
With robes of light, I heard: the angel faid ::
Ceafe, man of woman born, to hope relief.
From daily trouble, and continu'd grief.
Thy hope of joy deliver to the wind:
Supprefs thy paffions; and prepare thy mind.
Free and familiar with misfortune grow:
Be us'd to forrow, and inur'd to woe.
By weak'ning toil, and hoary age o'ercome,.
See thy decrease; and hasten to thy tomb.
Leave to thy children tumult, ftrife, and war,.
Portions of toil, and legacies of care.
Send the fucceffive ills thro' ages down;.
And let each weeping father tell his fon,
That deeper ftruck, and more distinctly griev❜d,
He muft augment the forrows he receiv'd.

The child to whofe fuccefs thy hope is bound,
Ere thou art fcarce interr'd, or he is crown'd;
To luft of arbitrary fway inclin'd
(That curfed poifon to the prince's mind!)
Shall from thy dictates and his duty rove,
And lofe his great defence, his people's love.
Ill counsell'd, vanquish'd, fugitive, disgrac❜d,
Shall mourn the fame of Jacob's ftrength effac'd.
Shall figh, the king diminish'd, and the crown
With leffen'd rays defcending to his fon.

Shall fee the wreaths, his grandfire knew to reap

By active toil, and military sweat,

Pining incline their fickly leaves, and shed
Their falling honours from his giddy head.
By arms, or pray'r unable to affuage
Domestic honour, and inteftine rage,

Shall from the victor and the vanquish'd fear,
From Ifrael's arrow, and from Judah's fpear:
Shall caft his weary'd limbs on Jordan's flood,
By brother's arms difturb'd, and ftain'd with kindred
blood..

Hence lab'ring years fhall weep their deftin'd race
Charg'd with ill omens, fully'd with disgrace.
Time by neceffity compell'd, fhall go
Through fcenes of war, and epochas of woe.
The empire leffen'd by a parted stream,
Shall lofe its courfe-

Indulge thy tears: the heathen shall blafpheme;
Judah fhall fall, opprefs'd by grief and thame;
And men fhall from her ruins know her fame.
New Egypts yet, and fecond bounds remain,
A harfher Pharaoh, and a heavier chain.
Again obedient to a dire command,

Thy captive fons fhall leave the promis'd land.
Their name more low, their fervitude more vile,
Shall on Euphrates' banks renew the grief of Nile.

These pointed fpires that wound the ambient fky, Inglorious change! fhall in deftruction lie Low, levell'd with the duft: their heights unknown, Or meafur'd by their ruin. Yonder throne, For lafting glory built, defign'd the feat Of kings for ever bleft, for ever great,

.

Remov'd by the invader's barb'rous hand,
Shall grace his triumph in a foreign land.
The tyrant fhall demand yon' facred load
Of gold and veffels fet apart to GOD,

Then by vile hands to common use debas'd;

Shall fend them flowing round his drunken feaft,
With facrilegious taunt, and impious jeft.

Twice fourteen ages fhall their way complete:
Empires by various turns fhall rise and set;
While thy abandon'd tribes fhall only know
A diff'rent mafter, and a change of woe:
With downcaft eyelids, and with looks aghaft,
Shall dread the future, or bewail the past.
Afflicted Ifreal fhall fit weeping down,

}

Faft by the ftreams, where Babel's waters run;
Their harps upon the neighb'ring willows hung,
Nor joyous hymn encouraging their tongue,
Nor chearful dance their feet; with toil opprefs'd,
Their weary'd limbs aspiring but to reft.
In the reflective ftream the fighing bride,
Viewing her charms impair'd, abafh'd fhall hide
Her penfive head; and in her languid face
The bridegroom fhall foresee his fickly race:
While pond'rous fetters vex their clofe embrace.
With irkfome anguish then your priests shall mourn
Their long neglected feasts despair'd return,
And fad oblivion of their folemn days.

Thenceforth their voices they fhall only raife,
Louder to weep. By day your frighted Seers
Shall call for fountains to exprefs their tears;
And wish their eyes were floods: by night from dreams.
Of opening gulphs, black ftorms, and raging flames,

Starting amaz'd, fhall to the people show
Emblems of heav'nly wrath, and myftic types of woe.
The captives, as their tyrant shall require,

That they should breathe the fong, and touch the lyre,.
Shall fay Can Jacob's fervile race rejoice,
Untun'd the mufic, and difus'd the voice?
What can we play (they fhall discourse) how fing.
In foreign lands, and to a barb'rous king?
We and our fathers from our childhood bred
To watch the cruel victor's eye, to dread
The arbitrary lafh, to bend, to grieve
(Outcast of mortal race!) can we conceive
Image of ought delightful, foft, or gay?
Alas! when we have toil'd the longfome day;-
The fulleft blifs our hearts afpire to know,
Is but fome interval from active woe;
In broken reft, and ftartling fleep to mourn,
'Till morn, the tyrant, and the scourge return.
Bred up in grief, can pleasure be our theme?
Our endless anguish. does not nature claim?
Reason, and forrow are to us the fame.
Alas! with wild amazement we require,
If idle folly was not pleafure's fire:
Madness, we fancy, gaye an ill-tim❜d birth
To grinning laughter, and to frantic mirth.
This is the feries of perpetual woe,

Which thou alas! and thine are born to know.
Illuftrious wretch! repine not, nor reply:
View not, what Heav'n ordains, with reafon's eye;}
Too bright the object is: the distance is too high.
The man who would refolve the work of fate,
May limit number, and make crooked straight:

}

Stop the enquiry then; and curb the fenfe:
Nor let duft argue with Omnipotence.
'Tis GoD who muft difpofe, and man fuftain,
Born to endure, forbidden to complain.
Thy fum of life muft his decrees fulfil;
What derogates from his command, is ill;
And that alone is good, which centers in his will.
Yet that thy lab'ring senses may not droop,
Loft to delight, and destitute of hope;
Remark what I, God's meffenger, aver

From him, who neither can deceive, nor err.
The land at length redeem'd, fhall cease to mourn;
Shall from her fad captivity return.

Sion fhall raife her long-dejected head:
And in her courts the law again be read.
Again the glorious temple fhall arife,

And with new-luftre pierce the neighb'ring skies.
The promis'd feat of empire fhall again
Cover the mountain, and command the plain;
And from thy race diftinguish'd, One shall spring
Greater in act than victor, more than king
In dignity and pow'r, fent down from heav'n,
To fuccour earth. To Him, to Him, 'tis giv'n,
Paffion, and care, and anguish to destroy.
Through Him foft peace, and plenitude of joy
Perpetual o'er the world redeem'd fhall flow,
No more may man enquire, nor angel know.

Now, Solomon, rememb'ring who thou art,
Act through thy remnant life the decent part.
Go forth be ftrong with patience, and with care
Perform, and fuffer: to thyself severe,

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