When thou, O Lord, fhalt ftand difclos'd
In majefty fevere,
And fit in judgment on my foul;
O how fhall I appear
But thou haft told the troubled foul,
Who does her fins lament, The timely tribute of her tears
Shall endless woe prevent.
Then fee the forrows of my heart,
Ere yet it be too late;
And add my Saviour's dying groans,
To give those forrows weight.
Her pardon to procure,
Who knows Thy Only Son has dy'd
To make that pardon fure.
PARAPHRASE ON PSALM XXIII
HE Lord my pasture shall prepare,,
And feed me with a fhepherd's care
His prefence shall my wants fupply,
And guard me with a watchful eye :
My noon-day walks he fhall attend,
And all my mid-night hours defend.
When in the fultry glebe I faint,
Or on the thirsty mountain pant;
To fertile vales and dewy meads
My weary wandering steps he leads :
Where peaceful rivers, foft and flow,
Amid the verdant landscape flow.
Though in the paths of death I tread,
With gloomy horrors overspread,
My ftedfaft heart fhall fear no ill,
For thou, O Lord, art with me ftill;
Thy friendly crook shall give me aid,
And guide me through the dreadful shaɖe.
IV.
Though in a bare and rugged way,
Through devious lonely wilds I stray,
Thy bounty fhall my wants beguile,
The barren wilderness fhall fmile,
With fudden greens and herbage crown'd,
And ftreams fhall murmur all around.
HERE gentle Thames through stately channels glides,
And England's proud metropolis divides;
A lofty fabrick does the fight invade,
And stretches o'er the waves a pompous fhade;
Whence fudden fhouts the neighbourhood furprize,
And thundering claps and dreadful hissings rise.
Here thrifty R-- hires monarchs by the day,
And keeps his mercenary kings in pay;
With deep-mouth'd actors fills the vacant scenes,
And rakes the ftews for goddeffes and queens :
Here the lewd punk, with crowns and scepters grac’d,
Teaches her eyes a more majestic caft;
And hungry monarchs, with a numerous train
Of fuppliant flaves, like Sancho, starve and reign.
But enter in, my Mufe; the Stage survey,
And all its pomp and pageantry display ;
Trap-doors and pit-falls, from th' unfaithful ground,
And magic walls encompass it around :
On either fide maim'd Temples fill our eyes,
And intermixt with Brothel-houfes rife ;
Disjointed Palaces in order stand,
And Groves obedient to the mover's hand
O'erfhade the Stage, and flourish at command.
A ftamp makes broken towns and trees entire :
So when Amphion ftruck the vocal lyre,
*See Sedley's Mifcellanies, 8vo. p. 202.
He faw the spacious circuit all around,
With crowding woods and rifing cities crown'd.
But next the tiring-room furvey, and see
Falfe titles, and promifcuous quality,
Confus'dly fwarm, from heroes and from queens,
To thofe that fwing in clouds and fill machines.
Their various characters they chufe with art,
The frowning bully fits the tyrant's part :
Swoln cheeks and fwaggering belly make an host,
Pale meagre looks and hollow voice a ghoft;
From careful brows and heavy down-caft eyes,
Dull cits and thick-fcull'd aldermen arife:
The comic tone, inspir'd by Congreve, draws
At every word, loud laughter and applause:
The whining dame continues as before,
Her character unchang'd, and acts a whore.
Above the reft, the prince with haughty stalks
Magnificent in purple buskins walks:
The royal robes his awful shoulders grace,
Profufe of fpangles and of copper-lace:
Officious rascals to his mighty thigh,
Guiltlefs of blood, th' unpointed weapon tye:
Then the gay glittering diadem put on,
Ponderous with brafs, and starr'd with Bristol stone.
His royal confort next confults her glafs,
And out of twenty boxes culls a face;
The whitening firft her ghaftly looks befmears,
All pale and wan th' unfinish'd form appears;
Till on her cheeks the blushing purple glows,
And a falfe virgin-modesty bestows.
Her ruddy lips the deep vermilion dyes;
Length to her brows the pencil's art supplies,
And with black bending arches fhades her eyes.
Well pleas'd at length the picture she beholds,
And spots it o'er with artificial molds ;
Her countenance compleat, the beaux she warms
With looks not hers; and, fpight of nature, charms.
Thus artfully their perfons they difguife,
Till the laft flourish bids the curtain rife.
The prince then enters on the Stage in state;
Behind, a guard of candle-fnuffers wait:
There, fwoln with empire, terrible and fierce,
He shakes the dome, and tears his lungs with verse :
His fubjects tremble; the fubmiffive pit,
Wrapt up in filence and attention, fit;
Till, freed at length, he lays afide the weight,
Of public bufinefs and affairs of state:
Forgets his pomp, dead to ambitious fires,
And to fome peaceful brandy-fhop retires;
Where in full gills his anxious thoughts he drowns,
And quaffs away the care that waits on crowns.
The princefs next her painted charms difplays,
Where every look the pencil's art betrays;
The callow 'fquire at diftance feeds his eyes,
And filently for paint and washes dies:
But if the youth behind the fcenes retreat,
He fees the blended colours melt with heat,
And all the trickling beauty run in sweat.
The borrow'd vifage he admires no more,
And naufeates every charm he lov'd before:
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