PARNELL'S POEMS.

"I'll sing to God, I'll sing the songs of praise,
To God, triumphant in his wondrous ways,
To God, whose glories in the seas excel,
Where the proud horse, and prouder rider fell.
The Lord, in mercy kind, in justice strong,
Is now my strength; this strength be now my song.
This sure salvation such he proves to me,
From danger rescued, and from bondage free;
The Lord's my God, and I'll prepare his seat,
My father's God, and I'll proclaim him great;
Him Lord of battles, him renown'd in name,
Him ever-faithful, evermore the same.
His gracious aids avenge his people's thrall,
They make the pride of boasting Pharaoh fall.
Within the seas his stately chariots lie,
Within the seas his chosen captains die.
The rolling deeps have cover'd o'er the foe,
They sunk like stones, they swiftly sunk below:
Thine hand,my God! thine hand confess'd thy care,
Thine hand was glorious in thy power there,
It broke their troops, unequal for the fight,
In all the greatness of excelling might:
Thy wrath sent forward o'er the raging stream,
Swift, sure, and sudden, their destruction came.
They fell as stubble burns, while driving skies
Provoke and whirl a flame, and ruin flies.

"When blasts, dispatch'd with wonderful intent,
On sovereign orders from thy nostrils went,
For our accounts, the waters were afraid,
Perceiv'd thy presence, and together fled;
In heaps uprightly plac'd, they learn to stand,
Like banks of crystal, by the paths of sand. [pride,
Then, fondly flush'd with hope, and swell'd with
And fill'd with rage, the foe profanely cry'd,

Secure of conquest, I'll pursue their way,
I'll overtake them, I'll divide the prey,
My lust I'll satisfy, mine anger cloy,
My sword I'll brandish, and their name destroy.
How wildly threats their anger, hark! above,
New blasts of wind on new commission move,
To loose the fetters that confin'd the main,
And make its mighty waters rage again.
Then, overwhelm'd with their resistless sway,
They sunk like lead, they sunk beneath the sea.
"Oh, who's like thee, thou dreaded Lord of Host!
Among the gods, whom all the nations boast,
Such acts of wonder and of strength displays?
Oh great, Oh glorious in thine holy ways!
Deserving praise, and that thy praise appear
In signs of reverence, and sense of fear.
With justice arm'd, thou stretchedst out thine
[hand,
And Earth between its gaping jaws of land
Receiv'd its waters of the parted main,
And swallow'd up the dark Egyptian train.
With mercy rising on the weaker side,
Thyself became the rescued people's guide!
And in thy strength they pass'd th' amazing road
To reach thine Holy Mount, thy bless'd abode.
"What thou hast done the neighbouring realms
shall hear,

And feel the strange report excite their fear.
What thou hast done shall Edom's duke amaze,
And make despair on Palestina seize;
Shall make the warlike sons of Moab shake,
And all the melting hearts of Canaan weak.
In heavy damps, diffus'd on every breast,
Shall cold distrust and hopeless terrour rest,[shown,
The matchless greatness, which thine hand has
Shall keep their kingdoms as unmov'd as stone,
While Jordan stops above, and fails below,
And all thy flock across the chanuel go.

[bring,

Thus on thy Mercy's silver-shining wing,
Through seas and streams thou wilt the nation
And as the rooted trees securely stand,
So firmly plant it in the promis'd land;
Where for thyself thou wilt a place prepare,
And after-ages will thine altar rear,
Their reign victorious in thy sacred seat,
Oh, Lord! for ever and for ever great.

"Look where the tyrant was but lately seen,
The seas gave backward, and he ventured in:
In yonder gulph with haughty pomp he show'd,
Here march'd his horsemen, there his chariots rode,
And when our God restor'd the floods again,
Ah, vainly strong! they perish'd in the main;
But Israel went a dry surprising way,
Made safe by miracles, amidst the sea."

Here ceas'd the song, though not the Prophet's
joy,

Which others hands and others tongues employ;
For still the lays, with warmth divine exprest,
Inflam'd his bearers to their inmost breast.
Then Miriam's notes the chorus sweetly raise,
And Miriam's timbrel gives new life to praise.
The moving sounds, like soft delicious wind,
That breath'd from Paradise, a passage find,
And fan the risings of enkindled love.
Shed sympathies for odours as they rove,

O'er all the crowd the thought inspiring flew,
The women follow'd, with their timbrels too,
And thus from Moses, where his strains arose,
They catch'd a rapture, to perform the close.

"We'll sing to God, we'll sing the song of praise,
To God triumphant in his wondrous ways.
To God, whose glories in the seas excel,
Where the proud horse and prouder rider fell."

Thus Israel, raptur'd with the pleasing thought,
Of freedom wish'd, and wonderfully got,
Made cheerful thanks from every bank resound,
Express'd by songs, improv'd in joy by sound.
Oh, sacred Moses, each infusing line,
That mov'd their gratitude, was part of thine;
And still the Christians in thy numbers view,
The type of baptism, and of Heaven too.
So saints from toil to praise and glory go.
So souls from water rise to grace below,

Oh, grateful Miriam, in thy temper wrought,
Too warm for silence, or inventing thought;
Thy part of anthem was to warble o'er,
In sweet response what Moses sung before.
And words redoubling, well-redoubled praise.
Thou ledst the public voice to join his lays,
Receive thy title, prophetess was thine,
When here thy practice show'd thy form divine
The spirit thus approv'd, resign'd in will,
The church bows down, and hears responses still.
Nor slightly suffer tuneful Jubal's name
To miss his place among the sons of fame;
The breathing organs, and the trembling lyre.
Whose sweet infusions could of old inspire
Father of these on Earth, whose gentle soul,
By such engagements, could the mind controul,
If holy verses aught to music owe,

Be that thy large account of thanks below:
Whilst, then, the timbrels lively pleasure gave,
And, now, whilst organs sound sedately grave.

Now, Fancy, flag not, as that subject ends,
My first attempt the finish'd course commends,
But, charm'd with beauties which attend thy way,
Ascend harmonious in the next essay.
So flies the lark, and learn from her to fly;
She mounts, she warbles on the wind on high,

She falls from thence, and seems to drop her wing,
But, ere she lights to rest, remounts to sing.

It is not far the days have roll'd their years
Before the second brighten'd work appears,
It is not far, alas! the faulty cause,
Which, from the prophet, sad reflection draws;
Alas! that blessings in possession cloy,
And peevish murmurs are preferr'd to joy;
That favour'd Israel could be faithless still,
Or question God's protecting power or will,
Or dread devoted Canaan's warlike men,
And long for Egypt and their bonds again.
Scarce thrice the Sun, since harden'd Pharaoh dy'd,
As bridegrooms issue forth with glittering pride,
Rejoicing rose, and let the nation see
Three shining days of easy liberty,
Ere the mean fears of want, produc'd within,
Vain thought, replenish'd, with rebellious sin.
Oh look not, Israel, to thy former way;
God cannot fail; and either wait or pray.
Within the borders of thy promis'd lands,
Lot's hapless wife a strange example stands,
She turn'd her eyes, and felt her change begin,
And wrath as fierce may meet resembling sin.
Then forward move thy camp, and forward still,
And let sweet Mercy bend thy stubborn will.

At thy complaint, a branch in Marah cast,
With sweetening virtue mends the water's taste.
At thy complaint, the labouring tempest sails,
And drives before a wondrous shower of quails.
In tender grass the falling manna lies,
And Heaven itself the want of bread supplies.
The rock divided, flows upon the plain
At thy complaint, and still thou wilt complain.
As, thus employ'd, thou went the desert through,
Lo! Sinai Mount uprear'd its head to view.
Thine eyes perceiv'd the darkly-rolling cloud,
Thine ears the trumpet shrill, the thunder loud,
The forky lightning shot in livid gleam,
The smoke arose, the mountain all a flame
Quak'd to the depths, and work'd with signs of
While God descended to dispense the law. [awe,
Yet neither Mercy, manifest in might,
Nor Power in terrours could preserve thee right.

Provok'd with crimes of such an heinous kind,
Almighty Justice sware the doom design'd.
That they should never reach the promis'd seat,
And Moses greatly mourns their hasten'd fate.

I'll think him now retir'd to public care,
While night in pitchy plumes slides soft in air,
I'll think him giving what the guilty sleep, [weep.
To thoughts where sorrow glides, and numbers
Sad thoughts of woes that reign where such prevail,
And man's short life, though not so short as frail.
Within this circle for his inward eyes,
He bids the fading low creation rise,
And straight the train of mimic senses brings
The dusky shapes of transitory things,
Through pensive shades, the visions seem to range,
They seem to flourish, and they seem to change;
A Moon decreasing runs the silen sky,
And sickly birds on moulting feathers fly;
Men walking count their days of blessing o'er,
The blessings vanish, and the tale's no more,
Still hours of nightly watches steal away,
Big waters roll, green blades of grass decay,
Then all the pensive shades, by just degrees,
Grow faint in prospect, and go off with these:
But while th' affecting notions pass along,
He chooses such as best adorn his song;

And thus with God the rising lays began,
God ever reigning, God compar'd with man:
And thus they move to man beneath his rod,
Man deeply sinning, man chastis'd by God.

"Oh Lord! oh Saviour! though thy chosen band
Have stay'd like strangers, in a foreign land,
Through number'd ages, which have run their race,
Still has thy mercy been our dwelling-place,
Before the most exalted dust of earth,
The stately mountains had receiv'd a birth,
Before the pillars of the world were laid,
Before the habitable parts were made;
[drew,
Thou wert their God, from thee their rise they
Thou great for ages, great for ever too.

"Man (mortal creature) fram'd to feel decays,
Thine unresisted power at pleasure sways;
Thou say'st return, and parting souls obey,
Thou say'st return, and bodies fall to clay.
For what's a thousand fleeting years with thee?
Or time, compar'd with long eternity,
Whose wings expanding infinitely vast
O'erstretch its utmost ends of first and last;
'Tis like those hours that lately saw the Sun;
He rose, and set, and all the day was done :
Or like the watches which dread night divide,
And while we slumber unregarded glide,
When all the present seems a thing of nought,
And past and future close to waking thought.
As raging floods, when rivers swell with rain,
Bear down the groves, and overflow the plain,
So swift and strong thy wondrous might appears,
So life is carried down the rolling years.
As heavy sleep pursues the day's retreat,
With dark, with silent, and unactive state,
So life's attended-on by certain doom,

[fall;

And death's their rest; their resting-place, a tomb.
It quickly rises, and it quickly goes,
And youth its morning, age its evening shows.
Thus tender blades of grass, when beams diffuse,
Rise from the pressure of their early dews,
Point tow'rds the skies their elevated spires,
And proudly flourish in their green attires.
But soon (ah fading state of things below!)
The scythe destructive mows the lovely show.
The rising Sun thus saw their glories high;
That Sun descended, sees their glories die.
"We still with more than common haste of fate
Are doom'd to perish, in thy kindled hate.
Our public sins for public justice call,
And stand like marks, on which thy judgments
Our secret sins, that folly thought conceal'd,
Are in thy light for punishment reveal'd.
Beneath the terrours of thy wrath divine
Our days unmix'd with happiness decline,
Like empty stories, tedious, short, and vain,
And never, never more recall'd again.
Yet what were life, if to the longest date,
Which we have nam'd a life, we backen'd fate,
Alas, its most computed length appears
To reach the limits but of seventy years,
And if by strength to fourscore years we go,
That strength is labour, and that labour woe.
Then will thy term expire, and thou must fly,
Oh man! oh creature surely born to die!
But who regards a truth so throughly known?
Who dreads a wrath so manifestly shown?
Who seems to fear it, though the danger vies
With any pitch to which our fear can rise:
O teach us so to number all our days,
That these reflections may correct our ways,

PARNELL'S POEMS.

That these may lead us from delusive dreams
To walk in heavenly wisdom's golden beams.

"Return, oh Lord: how long shall Israel sin?
How long thine anger be preserv'd within?
Before our time's irrevocably past,
Be kind, be gracious, and return at last,
Let favour soon dispens'd our souls employ,
And still remember'd favour live in joy.
Send years of comforts for our years of woes,
Send these at least of equal length with those,
Shine on thy flock, and on their offspring shine,
With tender mercy (sweetest act divine)
Bright rays of majesty serenely shed
To rest in glories on the nation's head.
Our future deeds with approbation bless,
And in the giving them give us success."
Thus with forgiveness earnestly desir'd,
Thus in the raptures of a bliss requir'd,
The man of God concludes his sacred strain.
Now sit and see the subject once again;
See ghastly Death, where deserts all around
Spread forth the barren undelightful ground:
There stalks the silent melancholy shade,
His naked bones reclining on a spade;
And thrice the spade with solemn sadness heaves,
And thrice earth opens in the form of graves,
His gates of darkness gape, to take him in;
And where he soon would sink, he's push'd by sin.
Poor mortals! here your common picture know,
And with yourselves in this acquainted grow,
Through life, with airy, thoughtless pride you
And vainly glitter in the sphere of change, [range,
A sphere where all things but for time remain,
Where no fix'd stars with endless glory reign,
But metcors only, short-liv'd meteors rise,
To shine, shoot down, and die beneath the skies.
There is an hour, ah! who that hour attends?
When man, the gilded vanity, descends;
When foreign force, or waste of inward heat,
Constrain the soul to leave its ancient seat;
When banish'd beauty from her empire flies,
And with a languish leaves the sparkling eyes;
When softening music and persuasion fail,
And all the charms that in the tongue prevail;
When spirits stop their course, when nerves un-
And outward action and perception cease; [brace,
"Tis then the poor deform'd remains shall be
That naked skeleton we seem'd to see.

[bliss,

Make this thy mirror, if thou would'st have
No flattering image shows itself in this;
But such as lays the lofty looks of pride,
And makes cool thought in humble channel glide;
But such as clears the cheats of Errour's den,
Whence magic mists surround the souls of men;
Whence self-delusion's trains adorn their flight,
As snow's fair feathers fleet to darken sight;
Then rest, and in the work of fancy spread,
To gay-wav'd plumes for every mortal's head.
These empty forms, when death appears, disperse,
Or melt in tears, upon its mournful hearse;
The sad reflection forces men to know,
Life surely sails and swiftly flies below.
Oh, lest thy folly lose the profit sought,
Oh never touch it with a glancing thought,
As men to glasses come, and straight withdraw,
And straight forget what sort of face they saw:
But fix, intently fix, thine inward eyes,
And in the strength of this great truth be wise.
If on the globe's dim side our senses stray,
Not us'd to perfect light, we think it day:

Death seems long sleep; and hopes of heavenly
Deceitful wishes, big with distant dreams; [beams,
But if our reason purge the carnal sight,
And place its objects in their juster light, [move,
We change the side, from dreams on Earth we
And wake through death, to rising life above.

Here o'er my soul a solemn silence reigns,
Preparing thought for new celestial strains,
The former vanish off, the new begin,
The solemn silence stands like night between,
In whose dark bosom day departing lies,
And day succeeding takes a lovely rise.
But though the song be chang'd, be still the flame,
And still the prophet, in my lines the same;
With care renew'd, upon the children dwell,
Whose sinful fathers in the desert fell,
With care renew'd, if any care can do,
Ah! lest they sin, and lest they perish too.
Go seek for Moses at yon sacred tent,
On which the Presence makes a bright descent.
Behold the cloud, with radiant glory fair,
Like a wreath'd pillar, curl itself in air!
Behold it hovering just above the door,
And Moses meekly kneeling on the floor.
But if the gazing turn thy edge of sight,
And darkness spring from unsupported light,
Then change the sense, be sight in hearing drown'd,
While these strange accents from the vision sound:

"The time, my servant, is approaching nigh,
When thou shalt gather'd with thy fathers lie,
Of all the glories which mine arm has shown,
And soon thy nation, quite forgetful grown
Shall through my covenant perversely break,
Despise my worship, and my name forsake,
By customs conquer'd, where to rule they go,
And serving gods that can't protect their foe.
Displeas'd at this, I'll turn my face aside
Till sharp Affliction's rod reduce their pride;
Till, brought to better mind, they seek relief,
By good confessions in the midst of grief.
Then write thy song, to stand a witness still
Of favours past, and of my future will,
For I their vain conceits before discern,
Then write thy song which Israel's sons shall learn."
The prophet musing deep within repeats,
As thus the wondrous voice its charge repeats,
He seems to feel it on a streaming ray,
And much obedient will, and free desire,
Pierce through the soul enlightening all its way.
And inuch his love of Jacob's seed inspire;
The sacred spirit in his bosom glows,
And much, oh! much above the warmth of those,
Majestic Notion seems decrees to nod,
And holy Transport speaks the words of God.
He now returns, the finish'd roll he brings,
Enrich'd with strains of past and future things;
The priests in order to the tent repair,
Oh! sacred Mercy's inexhausted store!
The gather'd Tribes attend the elders there:
Shall these have warning of their faults before,
Shall these be told the recompenses due,
Shall Heaven and Earth be call'd to witness too!
Then still the tumult, if it will be so,
Let fear, to lose a word, its caution show;
Let close attention in dead calm appear,
And softly, softly steal with silence near;
While Moses, rais'd above the listening throng,
Pronounces thus in all their ears the song:

"Hear, oh ye Heavens, Creation's lofty show,
Hear, oh thou Heaven-encompass'd Earth below,

THE GIFT OF POETRY.

As silver showers of gently dropping rain,
As honey dews distilling on the plain,
As rain, as dews, for tender grass design'd,
So shall my speeches sink within the mind,
So sweetly turn the soul's enlivening food,
So fill and cherish hopeful seeds of good,
For now my numbers to the world abroad
Will loudly celebrate the name of God.

"Ascribe, thou nation, every favour'd tribe,
Excelling greatness to the Lord ascribe,
The Lord! the rock on whom we safely trust,
Whose work is perfect, and whose ways are just;
The Lord! whose promise stands for ever true;
The Lord! most righteous, and most holy too.

66

Ah, worse election! Ah, the bonds of sin!
They choose themselves, to take corruption in.
They stain their souls with Vice's deepest blots,
When only frailties are his children's spots.
Their thoughts, words, actions, all are run astray,
And none more crooked, more perverse, than they.
"Say, rebel nation, and unwisely light,
Say, will thy folly thus the Lord requite?
Or is he not the God who made thee free,
Whose mercy purchas'd and establish'd thee?
Remember well the wondrous days of old,
The years of ages long before thee told,
Ask all thy fathers, who the truth will show,
Or ask thine elders, for thine elders know.
"When the Most High with sceptre pointed
down,

Describ'd the realms of each beginning crown,
When Adam's offspring, providential care,
To people countries, scatter'd here and there,
He to the limits of their lands confin'd,
That favour'd Israel has its part assign'd,
For Israel is the Lord's, and gains the place
Reserv'd for those, whom he would choose to grace.
"Him in the desert, him his mercy found,
Where Famine dwells and howling deafs the
ground,

Where dread is felt by savage noise increast,
Where Solitude erects its seat on waste:
And there he led him, and he taught him there,
And safely kept him with a watchful care;
The tender apples of our heedful eye,
Not more in guard, nor more securely lie.

"And as an eagle, that attempts to bring
Her unexperienc'd young to trust the wing,
Stirs up her nest, and flutters o'er their heads,
And all the forces of her pinions spreads,
And takes and bears them on her plumes above,
To give peculiar proof of royal love;
"I was so the Lord, the gracious Lord alone,
With kindness most peculiar, led his own;
As no strange god concurr'd to make him free,
So none had power to lead him through but he.
To lands excelling lands and planted high,
That boasts the kindest influencing sky,
He brought, he bore him, on the wings of Grace,
To taste the plenties of the ground's increase;
Sweet dropping honey from the rocky soil,
From flinty rocks the smoothly flowing oil,
The gilded butter from the stately kine,
The milk with which the duggs of sheep decline,
The marrow fatness of the tender lambs,
The bulky breed of Basan's goats and rams:
The finest flowery wheat that crowns the plain
Distends its busk, and loads the blade with grain,
And still he drank, from ripe delicious heaps
Of clusters press'd, the purest blood of grapes.

But thou art wanton, fat, and kickest now,
Oh, well directed, oh, Jeshuron thou:
Thou soon wert fat, thy sides were thickly grown,
Thy fatness deeply cover'd every bone;
Then wanton fulness vain oblivion brought,
And God, that made and sav'd thee, was forgot;
While gods of foreign lands, and rites abhorr'd,
To jealousies and anger mov'd the Lord;
While gods thy fathers never knew were own'd,
And fiends themselves with sacrifice aton'd.
Oh! fools, unmindful whence your order'd frame,
And whence your life-infusing spirit came;
Such strange corruptions could his hate provoke,
And thus their fate his indignation spoke:

"It is decreed, I'll hide my face, and see,
When I forsake them, what their end shall be;
For they 're a froward, very froward train,
They promise duty, but return disdain.
Within my soul they 've rais'd a jealous flame,
By new-nam'd gods, and only gods in name;
They make the burnings of my anger glow,
By guilty vanity's displeasing show;
I'll also teach their jealousy to fret,

At such as are not form'd a people yet,
I'll make their anger vex their inward breast,
When such as have not known my laws are blest.
A fire, a fire that nothing can assuage,
Is kindled in the fierceness of my rage,
To burn the depths, consume the land's increase,
And on the mountains' strong foundations seize.
Thick heaps of mischief on their heads I send,
And all mine arrows, wing'd with fury, spend;
Slow-parching death, and pestilential heat,
Shall bring the bitter pangs of lingering fate.
The teeth of beasts shall swift destruction bring,
The serpents wound them with invenom'd sting,
The sword without, and dread within, consume
The youth and virgin, in their lovely bloom,
Weak tender infancy, by suckling fed,
And helpless age, with hoary frosted head.
I said I'd scatter all the sinful race,

I said I'd make its mere remembrance cease,
But that I fear'd the foe's unruly pride,
Their glory vaunted, and their power deny'd,
While thus they boast our arm has shown us brave,
And God did nothing, for he could not save,
So fond their thoughts are, so remote of sense,
And blind in every course of Providence.
O did they know to what my judgments tend!
O would they ponder on their latter end!
They soon would find, that when upon the field
One makes a thousand, two, ten thousand yield.
The Lord of Hosts has sold a rebel state
And sure inclos'd it in the nets of Fate.
For what's another's rock compar'd with ours,
Let them be judges that have prov'd their powers,
That on their own have vainly call'd for aid,
While ours to freedom and to glory led.
Their vine, indeed, may seem to flourish fair,
But yet it grows in Sodom's tainted air,
It sucks corruption from Gomorrah's fields,
And galls for grapes in bitter clusters yields,
And poison sheds for wine, like that which comes
From asps, and dragons death-infected gums.
And are not these their hateful sins reveal'd,
And in my treasures for my justice seal'd?
To me the province of revenge belongs,
To me the certain recompense of wrongs.
Their feet shall totter in appointed time,
And threatening danger overtake their crime;