 | Collected poems of Samuel Davies : 1723-1761 |  |
XV. The Conflagration. (annext to a Sermon on 2 Pet. iii. 11. Jan. 27, 1750–1.)
1.
Now Harmony adjusts the World,And charming Order round me smiles:
Ere long Confusion shall be hurl'd,
And break and shatter Nature's Wheels.
2.
The Day approaches, (dreadful Day!)When Chaos shall resume his Place?
This mighty Frame of Things decay,
And vanish in the general Blaze.
3.
Ye azure Arches, lost in Smoke,Shall shrink, affrighted, to a Scroll:
The Pillars of high Heaven be broke,
While Lightnings glare from Pole to Pole.
4.
Thou too, accurst terrestial Ball,That saw the Son of God expire;
Thou and thy Works shall perish all,
And sink in universal Fire.
5.
Horrendous Sight! A World in Flames!Thunders loud rumbling thro' the Air!
Dire Lightnings flushing fiery Streams,
And glaring red and vengeful there!
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6.
Mountains wide-bursting! liquid FireIn glowing Torrents rushing down!
Rocks, Stones, fierce Min'rals, Sulphur dire
Melting, the Plains and Vallies drown!
7.
Old Ocean of its Moisture dry'd,Receives the fierce descending Tide:
Thither dissolving Worlds retire,
And form a boundless Lake of Fire.
8.
With loud Ætnean Thunders roarsThe Globe, with Earthquakes tost and torn:
Palaces, Cities, Castles, Tow'rs,
Towns, Wood and Plains united burn.
9.
And where! O where shall Sinners thenFlee from the universal Wreck!
Aghast they view the burning Main,
And plunge into the sulph'rous Lake.
10.
There overwhelm'd, the rebel WormsLie ever, ever, ever lost!
Beaten with everlasting Storms,
On fiery Eddies whirl'd and tost.
11.
But ye dear Saints, ye pious Few,Jesus shall screen your feeble Souls:
Safe from on high your Eyes shall view
The burning Earth and melting Poles.
12.
Jesus shall live when Nature dies;And while he lives, you must be blest:
Behold he forms new Earth and Skies,
Where you eternal Years shall rest.
13.
Let Earth and Skies, convuls'd and torn,To common Desolation fall;
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God is your Bliss, your Heav'n, your All.
There is no Theme, perhaps, in the Compass of Nature, that so far exceeds human Language and Imagination, as the Conflagration. The Terrors of Ætna and Vesuvius, in their most outragious Eruptions, are but low and trifling Emblems of a burning World. But perhaps nothing can give us a more lively and striking Prospect of that tremendous Scene, 'til we ourselves are Spectators of it, than the elegant Dr. Burnet's Description, in his sacred Theory of the Earth. Book III. Ch. 12. from whence I have borrowed most of these Thoughts.
| Collected poems of Samuel Davies : 1723-1761 | |