My eyes are open'd, and I see Like men of business; and for business walk And mighty voyages we take, And mighty journeys seem to make, O'er sea and land, the little point that has no space: Because we fight, and battles gain; Some captives call, and say, " the rest are slain :" Rich, valiant, wise, and virtuous, seem to grow: From hieroglyphick proofs of heraldry, Who write of twenty thousand years, That really we Live: Whilst all these Shadows, that for Things we take, Are but the empty dreams which in Death's sleep we make. But these fantastick errors of our dream We pray God our friends' torments to prolong, To be as long a-dying as Methusalem. The ripen'd soul longs from his prison to come; But we would seal, and sow up, if we could, the womb: We seek to close and plaister up by art The cracks and breaches of th' extended shell, Would rudely force to dwell THE THIRTY-FOURTH CHAPTER OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH, AWAKE, and with attention hear, To what from God, I, his loud prophet, tell. The rotting corpse shall so infect the air, As one who buys, surveys, a ground, Lest any nook or corner he should miss : Then shall the market and the pleading-place "Brother leopard, come away; "Behold a land which God has given us in prey "Behold a land from whence we see "Mankind expuls'd, his and our common enemy!" The brother leopard shakes himself, and does not stay. The glutted vultures shall expect in vain Shall find at last the business done, Leave their consumed quarters, and be gone: Th' unburied ghosts shall sadly moan, To dance and revel in the mask of night, The moon and stars, their sole spectators, shall af fright: And, if of lost mankind If any relicks but remain; They in the dens shall lurk, beasts in the palaces shall reign. THE PLAGUES OF EGYPT. Is this thy bravery, Man, is this thy pride? To fly from thine own liberty! All creatures, the Creator said, were thine; And sweat and toil in the vile drudgery Of tyrant Sin; To which we trophies raise, and wear out all our breath In building up the monuments of Death; We, the choice race, to God and angels kin! In vain the prophets and apostles come To call us home, Home to the promis'd Canaan above, Which does with nourishing milk and pleasant honey flow; And even i' th' way to which we should be fed With angels' tasteful bread: But we, alas! the flesh-pots love, We love the very leeks and sordid roots below. In vain we judgments feel, and wonders see! And with worse harden'd hearts do our own Pharaohs grow. Ah! lest at last we perish so, Think, stubborn Man, think of th' Egyptian Prince (Hard of belief and will, but not so hard as thou); Think with what dreadful proofs God did convince The feeble arguments that human power could show; Think what plagues attend on thee, Who Moses' God dost now refuse, more oft than Moses he. "If from some god you come" (said the proud king With half a smile and half a frown; |