University of Virginia Library

O hear my voice, All-potent Sire,
Nor distant from the pray'r retire,
Whose accents to thine ear impart
The anguish of my heaving heart.
A Croud, whose thoughts from Thee have stray'd,
With falsehood arm'd, my peace invade;
Oppression's shouts around me roar,
Death's blackest horrors whelm me o'er,
And griefs and fears, that shun controul,
Shake to its inmost depth my soul.
O who shall give me (thus my breast
Its vain inquietude express'd,)
The Dove's light wing, that through the air
A wretched fugitive may bear,
And grant me safe from harms to dwell
Within the rock's sequester'd cell?
How would I mount the wasting wind,
How leave the wrathful storms behind,
And in the Desert's lone retreat
Contented fix my lasting Seat!
Thy vengeance, Lord, inflict; their tongue
Divide; for Tumult, Strife, and Wrong,
Where'er I turn, before my eyes
In giant forms amid them rise;
Within their wall's unhallow'd bound
By day, by night, they take their round;
Nor cease their guilty streets to hear
The voice of falsehood, grief, and fear.

Not threaten'd Rage, or Hate profest,
My fame insult, my peace molest;
My soul, when Foes had aim'd the wound,
Some safe recess perchance had found,
Or, disciplin'd by previous care,
Had learn'd th' expected ill to bear;
But Thou, 'twas Thou, the Friend disguis'd,
The Man, whom chief of Friends I priz'd,
To whom, its Counsellor and Guide,
My soul in ev'ry doubt applied:
In bands of sweetest union join'd,
Each wish, each secret of the mind,
We shar'd, and 'midst th' assembled Train
Familiar trod the hallow'd Fane.
Let death (eternal Justice cries,)
Let death their impious race surprize;
Let Earth its op'ning jaws extend,
While living to the grave descend
The lawless Throng; whose Land profane
Hell's worst-invented mischiefs stain.
But God my vows solicit; He
From each distress my soul shall free;
He, as with fervent lips I pray,
At dawn, at noon, at close of day,
Shall stoop to my complaint his ear,
And instant in my cause appear.
He, when the battle round me bled,
From hostile myriads screen'd my head,
Gave to my pray'r the wish'd for peace,
And bade the dreadful tumult cease.
That Pow'r, who sate inthron'd above,
E'er Heav'n's vast Orbs were seen to move,
Whose Counsels, fix'd through ages past,
Shall time's remotest date outlast,
That Pow'r my contest shall decide,
And humble to the dust their pride.
See, unprovok'd, the restless foe
Aim at thy Saints the deathful blow,
Thy fear, great God, behind him thrown,
And compacts oft confirm'd disown.
While War's fierce flames within him burn,
As milk new foaming from the churn
Smooth are his lips; as oil his words;
Yet wound they deep as keenest swords.
O cast thee fearless on thy God;
He, prompt to save, the grateful load
Within his fost'ring arms shall bear,
And feed thee with a parent's care.

Author of good! beneath thy hand
Secure from lapse the Just shall stand,
While (such thy Mandate!) on his foes
Destruction's pit its mouth shall close.
Who thirst for blood, who falsehoods raise,
To death shall yield, e'er half their days
Be number'd, while, exulting, I
On Thee with stedfast hope rely.