Page:The lives of the poets of Great Britain and Ireland to the time of Dean Swift - Volume 4.djvu/75

Rh LESS God, my ſoul; thou, Lord alone,
 * Poſſeſſeſt empire without bounds:

With honour thou art crown’d, thy throne
 * Eternal Majeſty ſurrounds.

With light thou doſt thy ſelf enrobe,
 * And glory for a garment take;

Heav’ns curtain ſtretch’d beyond the globe,
 * The canopy of ſtate to make.

God builds on liquid air, and forms
 * His palace-chambers in the ſkies:

The clouds his chariots are, and ſtorms
 * The ſwift-wing’d ſteeds with which he flies.

As bright as flame, as ſwift as wind
 * His miniſters Heav’n’s palace fill;

To have their ſundry taſks aſſign’d,
 * All proud to ſerve their Sovereign’s will.

Earth on her center fix’d he ſet,
 * Her face with waters over ſpread;

Not proudeſt mountains dar’d as yet
 * To lift above the waves their head!

But when thy awful face appeared,
 * Th’ inſulting waves diſpers’d; they fled

When once thy thunder’s voice they heard,
 * And by their haſte confeſs’d their dread.

Thence up by ſecret tracts they creep,
 * And guſhing from the mountain’s ſide,

Thro’ vallies travel to the deep;
 * Appointed to receive their tide.

There haſt thou fix’d the ocean’s mounds.
 * The threat’ning ſurges to repel:

That they no more o’erpaſs their bounds,
 * Nor to a ſecond deluge ſwell. PART