Had they maintained allegiance firm and sure, And kept the faith immaculate and pure,

Then the proud eagles of all-conquering Rome
Had found one city not to be overcome;

And the twelve standards of the tribes unfurled
Had bid defiance to the warring world.
But grace abused brings forth the foulest deeds,
As richest soil the most luxuriant weeds.

Cured of the golden calves, their fathers' sin,
They set up self, that idol god within;
Viewed a Deliverer with disdain and hate,
Who left them still a tributary state;

Seized fast his hand, held out to set them free
From a worse yoke, and nailed it to the tree:
There was the consummation and the crown,
The flower of Israel's infamy full blown;
Thence date their sad declension and their fall,
Their woes not yet repealed, thence date them all.
Thus fell the best instructed in her day,
And the most favoured land, look where we may.
Philosophy indeed on Grecian eyes

Had poured the day, and cleared the Roman skies;

In other climes perhaps creative art,

With

power surpassing their's, performed her part,
Might give more life to marble, or might fill
The glowing tablets with a juster skill,
Might shine in fable, and grace idle themes
With all the embroidery of poetic dreams;
'Twas their's alone to dive into the plan,
That truth and mercy had revealed to man;
And while the world beside, that plan unknown,
Deified useless wood, or senseless stone,
They breathed in faith their well-directed prayers,
And the true God, the God of truth, was their's.
Their glory faded, and the race dispersed,
The last of nations now, though once the first;
They warn and teach the proudest, would they learn,
Keep wisdom, or meet vengeance in your turn:
If we escaped not, if Heaven spared not us,
Peeled, scattered, and exterminated thus;
If vice received her retribution due

When we were visited, what hope for you?
When God arises with an awful frown

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To punish lust, or pluck presumption down;

When gifts perverted, or not duly prized,
Pleasure overvalued, and his grace despised,
Provoke the vengeance of his righteous hand
To pour down wrath upon a thankless land;
He will be found impartially severe,
Too just to wink, or speak the guilty clear.
Oh Israel, of all nations most undone!
Thy diadem displaced, thy sceptre gone;
Thy temple, once thy glory, fallen and rased,
And thou a worshipper even where thou mayest;
Thy services once only without spot,

Mere shadows now, their ancient pomp forgot;
Thy Levites, once a consecrated host,

No longer Levites, and their lineage lost,

And thou thyself over every country sown,

With none on earth that thou canst call thine

own;

Cry aloud thou that sittest in the dust,

Cry to the proud, the cruel, and unjust;

Knock at the gates of nations, rouse their fears; Say wrath is coming, and the storm appears;

But raise the shrillest cry in British ears.

What ails thee, restless as the waves that roar, And fling their foam against thy chalky shore? Mistress, at least while Providence shall please, And trident-bearing queen of the wide seasWhy, having kept good faith and often shown Friendship and truth to others, findest thou none? Thou that hast set the persecuted free,

None interposes now to succour thee.
Countries indebted to thy power, that shine
With light derived from thee, would smother thine:
Thy very children watch for thy disgrace-
A lawless brood, and curse thee to thy face.
Thy rulers load thy credit, year by year,
With sums Peruvian mines could never clear;
As if, like arches built with skilful hand,

The more 'twere prest the firmer it would stand.
The cry in all thy ships is still the same,
Speed us away to battle and to fame.
Thy mariners explore the wild expanse,
Impatient to descry the flags of France:
But, though they fight as thine have ever fought,
Return ashamed without the wreaths they sought.

Thy senate is a scene of civil jar,

Chaos of contrarieties at war;

Where sharp and solid, phlegmatic and light,
Discordant atoms meet, ferment, and fight;
Where obstinacy takes his sturdy stand,
To disconcert what policy has planned;
Where policy is busied all night long

In setting right what faction has set wrong;
Where flails of oratory thresh the floor,

That yields them chaff and dust, and nothing more.
Thy racked inhabitants repine, complain,
Taxed till the brow of labour sweats in vain;
War lays a burthen on the reeling state,

And peace does nothing to relieve the weight;
Successive loads succeeding broils impose,
And sighing millions prophesy the close.

Is adverse providence, when pondered well,

So dimly writ, or difficult to spell,

Thou canst not read with readiness and ease
Providence adverse in events like these?

Know then that heavenly wisdom on this ball,
Creates, gives birth to, guides, consummates all;