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What then art THOU? By what name shall I call Thee?
Knew I the name devout archangels use,
Devout archangels should the name enjoy,
By me unrivall'd: thousands more sublime,
None half so dear as that which, though unspoke,
Still glows at heart. O how Omnipotence
Is lost in Love! Thou great PHILANTHROPIST!
Father of angels, but the friend of man!
Like Jacob, fondest of the younger born!
Thou, who didst save him, snatch the smoking brand
From out the flames, and quench it in Thy blood!
How art Thou pleased, by bounty to distress,
To make us groan beneath our gratitude,
Too big for birth! to favour, and confound!
To challenge and to distance all return!
Of lavish love stupendous heights to soar,
And leave Praise panting in the distant vale!
Thy right too great defrauds Thee of Thy due;
And sacrilegious our sublimest song.
But since the naked will obtains Thy smile,
Beneath this monument of praise unpaid,
And future life symphonious to my strain,
(That noblest hymn to Heaven,) for ever lie
Entomb'd my Fear of Death! and every fear,
The dread of every evil, but Thy frown.