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PART THE FIRST.

THE HISTORICAL BOOKS, PSALMS, PROVERBS, AND

ECCLESIASTES.

THE PENTATEUCH.

THE first five books for author claim.
Moses, and Pentateuch their name.
In GENESIS, which first we call,
Is man's creation, and his fall.
But soon to Adam came the word
That rebel man should be restor❜d.
Yet, though the gracious promise came,
The first-born bore a murderer's name.
See the whole world by flood expire,
The cities of the plain by fire!

You ask, perhaps, "Who slew all these?”
'Twas sin, the original disease!

From Adam the infection ran,

In downward course from man to man,
Though all who draw the vital breath

Must pay the penalty of death,

Yet one

* immortal pair we see;

Pledge of our immortality!

Elijah and Enoch,

Enoch, in a corrupted time,

Bequeath'd to us this truth sublime:
God's service is not merely talk,

The man of God with God must walk;
From general laws immunity

He found, for Enoch did not die;
"God took him!" O emphatic word!
No more was needful to record.

The world grew worse as old it grew, Sin, gathering strength, grew bolder too. Long-suffering patience now was past, The appalling sentence comes at last; "My Spirit shall not always strive, "No further respite will I give."

God bids a refuge straight prepare For those his goodness meant to spare. Blest Noah, and his favour'd race, Alone obtain the special grace.

A picture of our world remark,
In those who labour'd in the ark;
A stronger instance need we find
Of the hard heart of base mankind?
Howe'er assiduously they wrought,
No builder his own safety sought;
A cent'ry was the task pursu'd,
Not one his own destruction view'd:
Oh, blind, God's menac'd blow to slight!
What! perish with the ark in sight?

See God his awful threat'ning keep,
Break up the fountains of the deep;
Remove the limits long assign'd
Th' encroaching waters fast to bind !

Heav'n's windows open; lo, the sky
Pours down its deluge from on high!
The floods that rise, the floods that fall,
Meet at one point and cover all:
All cry, none aid; with anguish wild
The frantic mother grasps her child.
The weak their safety seek below,
The rapid waves above them flow;
The strong attempt the mountain's steep,
The mountains are become the deep.
Half dead with famine, half with fear,
Now few, and fewer now, appear!
All strive, all sink-sink beasts and men;
Perish'd each living substance then.
Existence is extinct! - the world
Itself to dire destruction hurl'd.
Good Noah's house alone remain'd;
The waves his floating ark sustain'd.
There is an ark that's open still,
Where all may shelter if they will.
Awful, indeed, if Christians too
Should perish with their ark in view!
But if the moral plague abound,
Yet still some righteous men were found;
Righteous, not perfect, you may see
Throughout mankind's long history;
As stars in darkness seem more bright,
So these illume the moral night.

See Abraham full of faith and grace,
Sire of the patriarchal race!
To Isaac turn your wond'ring eyes,
Prefiguring the great Sacrifice!

What Abraham felt, fond parents, say,
Himself his only son must slay!

Though much he mourn'd, for much he lov'd,
His faith his prompt obedience prov'd:
What dauntless faith those words implied,
"God will himself a lamb provide!"
Joseph, the virtuous, next behold,
Like Christ by his own brethren sold:
The pit, the prison, all unite,

To make his character more bright:

Whence came that strength which could sustain him, From tempting pleasure's snares restrain him?

Could make the prison, pit, and court,

To him alike a safe resort?

What made him thus unyielding stand?

His God was still at his right hand!
Religion was to him a law;

He knew the Omnipresent saw :
No secresy his soul can win,
No fancied safety tempt to sin:
Omniscience sees the skulking shame,
Darkness and light to God the same!

Now EXODUS records the story
Of Pharaoh's crimes and Moses' glory:
A splendid court his favour'd lot,
He ne'er sad Israel's woes forgot.

What wealth, what grandeur could dispense,
The charms of ease, the baits of sense,
Were his; nor sensual pleasures move,
Nor wealth nor grandeur wins his love.

With what magnanimous disdain
Of sin he spurn'd the alluring train;
Abounding in Almighty grace,

He chose to suffer with his race:
He saw God's hand sustain him still,
Saw HIM who is invisible.

We pass unhappy Israel's woes,
Her bondage midst insulting foes.
The iron scourge the captives felt,
The harden'd monarch could not melt:
In his peculiar plagues we see
God's judgments on idolatry.

The blinded land, though warn'd in time,
Persisted in the impious crime.
Jehovah's indignation burned,

And into plagues their idols turned;
He made the due inflictions sent,
Their just, appropriate punishment.
The living God, whom they withstood,
The Nile they worshipp'd turn'd to blood.
Behold, in this polluted tide

The fish they consecrated died.
The fish, the frog, as whim invites,
Usurp by turns old Nilus' rights.
Successive plagues of reptiles vile
Sprung from this master idol, Nile.

Well did the Grecian satirist* choose
Such subjects for his taunting muse.
See, quoth the bard, in Egypt rise
Temples all glorious to the eyes!

* Lucian.

VOL. I.

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