Whom should we fear, while he, Heaven's awful
Unsheaths for Israel his avenging sword? [Lord,
His outstretch'd arm, and tutelary care,
Guarded and sav'd us in the last despair:
His mercy eas'd us from our circling pains,
Unbound our shackles, and unlock'd our chains.
To him, our God, our father's God, we'll rear
A sacred temple, and adore him there
With vows and incense, sacrifice and prayer.
The Lord commands in war: his matchless
might
Hangs out and guides the balance of the fight:
By him the war the mighty leaders form,
And teach the hovering tumult where to storm.
His name, O Israel, Heaven's eternal Lord,
For ever honour'd, reverenc'd, and ador'd.
When to the fight, from Egypt's fruitful soil, Pour'd forth in myriads all the sons of Nile The Lord o'erthrew the courser and the car, Sunk Pharaoh's pride, and overwhelm'd his war. Beneath th' encumber'd deeps his legions lay, For many a league impurpling all the sea: The chiefs, and steeds, and warriors whirl'd around,
Lay midst the roarings of the surges drown'd. Who shall thy power, thou mighty God, with stand,
And check the force of thy victorious hand?
Thy hand, which, red with wrath, in terror rose,
To crush that day thy proud Egyptian foes.
Struck by that hand, their drooping squadrons fall,
Crowding in death; one fate o'erwhelms them all.
Soon as thy anger charg'd with vengeance came, They sunk like stubble crackling in the flame.
At thy dread voice the summon'd billows crowd,
And a still silence lulls the wondering flood:
Roll'd up, the crystal ridges strike the skies,
Waves peep o'er waves, and seas o'er seas arise.
Around in heaps the listening surges stand,
Mute and observant of the high command.
Congeal'd with fear attends the wat❜ry train,
Rous'd from the secret chambers of the main.
With savage joy the sons of Egypt cried,
(Vast were their hopes, and boundless was their
Let us pursue those fugitives of Nile, [pride)
This servile nation, and divide the spoil;
And spread so wide the slaughter, till their blood
Dyes with a stronger red the blushing flood.
Oh! what a copious prey their hosts afford,
To glut and fatten the devouring sword!
As thus the yawning gulf the boasters pass'd,
At thy command rush'd forth the rapid blast,
Then, at the signal given, with dreadful sway,
In one huge head roll'd down the roaring sea ;
And now the disentangled waves divide,
Unlock their folds, and thaw thy frozen tide.
The deeps, alarm'd, call terribly from far
The loud embattled surges to the war,
Till her proud sons astonish'd Egypt found
Cover'd with billows, and in tempests drown'd.
What god can emulate thy power divine,
Or who oppose his miracles to thine?
When joyful we adore thy glorious name,
Thy trembling foes confess their fear and shame;
The world attends thy absolute command,
And Nature waits the wonders of thine hand;
That hand, extended o'er the swelling sea,
The conscious billows reverence and obey,
O'er the devoted race the surges sweep,
And whelm the guilty nation in the deep.
That hand redeem'd us from our servile toil,
And each insulting tyrant of the Nile:
Our nation came beneath that mighty hand,
From Egypt's realnis, to Canaan's sacred land.
Thou wert their guide, their Saviour, and their
To smooth the way, and clear their dreadful road.
The distant kingdoms shall thy wonders hear,
The fierce Philistines shall confess their fear;
Thy fame shall over Edom's princes spread,
And Moab's kings, the universal dread;
While the vast scenes of miracles impart
A thrilling horror to the bravest heart.
As through the world the gathering terror runs,
Canaan shall shrink, and tremble for his sons:
Till thou hast Jacob from his bondage brought,
At such a vast expense of wonders bought,
To Canaan's promis'd realms and bless'd abodes,
Led through the dark recesses of the floods.
Crown'd with their tribes shall proud Moriah rise,
And rear his summit nearer to the skies.
Through ages, Lord, shall stretch thy boundless
Thy throne shall stand when time shall be no more:
For Pharaoh's steeds and cars, and warlike train,
Leap'd in, and boldly rang'd the sandy plain:
While in the dreadful road, and desert way,
The shining crowds of gasping fishes lay;
Till, all around with liquid toils beset,
The Lord swept o'er their heads the wat❜ry net,
He freed the ocean from his secret chain,
And on each hand discharg'd the thund'ring main.
The loosen'd billows burst from every side,
And whelm the war and warriors in the tide;
But on each hand the solid billows stood,
Like lofty mounds to check the raging flood;
Till the bless'd race to promis'd Canaan pass'd,
O'er the dry path, and trod the watery waste.
Pitt.
THE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-NINTH PSALM
O DREAD Jehovah! thy all-piercing eyes
Explore the motions of this mortal frame,
This tenement of dust: thy stretching sight
Surveys the harmonious principles, that move
In beauteous rank and order, to inform
This cask, and animated mass of clay.
Nor are the prospects of thy wond'rous sight
To this terrestrial part of man confin'd;
But shoot into his soul, and there discern
The first materials of unfashion'd thought,
Yet dim and undigested, till the mind,
Big with the tender images, expands,
And, swelling, labours with th' ideal birth.
Where'er I move, thy cares pursue my feet
Attendant. When I drink the dews of sleep,
Stretch'd on my downy bed, and there enjoy
A sweet forgetfulness of all my toils,
Unseen, thy sov'reign presence guards my sleep,-
Wafts all the terrors of my dreams away,
Sooths all my soul, and softens my repose.
Before conception can employ the tongue,
And mould the ductile images to sound;
Before imagination stands display'd,
Thine eye the future eloquence can read,
Yet unarray'd with speech. Thou, mighty Lord!
Hast moulded man from his congenial dust,
And spoke him into being; while the clay,
Beneath thy forming hand, leap'd forth, inspir'd,
And started into life: through every part,
At thy command, the wheels of motion play'd.
But such exalted knowledge leaves below,
And drops poor man from its superior sphere.
In vain, with reason's ballast, would he try
To stem th' unfathomable depth: his bark
O'ersets and founders in the vast abyss.
Then whither shall the rapid fancy run,
Though in its full career, to speed my flight
From thy unbounded presence? which, alone,
Fills all the regions and extended space
Beyond the bounds of nature! Whither, Lord!
Shall my unrein'd imagination rove,
To leave behind thy Spirit, and out-fly
[spread,
Its influence, which, with brooding wings out-
Hatch'd unfledg'd Nature from the dark profound?
If mounted on my tow'ring thoughts I climb
Into the Heaven of Heavens, I there behold
The blaze of thy unclouded majesty!
In the pure empyrean thee I view,
High thron'd above all height, thy radiant shrine
Throng'd with the prostrate seraphs, who receive
Beatitude past utterance! If I plunge
Down to the gloom of Tartarus profound,
There too I find thee, in the lowest bounds
Of Erebus, and read thee in the scenes
Of complicated wrath: I see thee clad
In all the majesty of darkness there.
If, on the ruddy morning's purple wings
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