Original - Duke Divinity School

“On me Almighty Wrath is cast away.
Call back thy Thunders, Lord, hold-in thy Rage,
Nor with a Speck of Wretchedness engage:
Forget me quite, Stoop not 276 a Worm to blame;
But lose me in the Greatness of thy Name.
Thou art all Love, all Mercy, all Divine;
And shall I make those Glories cease to shine?
Shall sinful Man grow great by his offence,
And from its Course turn back Omnipotence?
“Forbid it! and O! grant, Great God, at least
This One, this Slender, almost No Request:
When I have wept a thousand Lives away,
When Torment is grown weary of its Prey,
When I have raved ten thousand Years in fire,
Ten thousand Thousand, let me Then Expire.”
Deep anguish, but too late! The hopeless Soul,
Bound to the Bottom of the burning Pool,
Though loath, and ever loud blaspheming, owns,
He’s justly doomed to pour Eternal Groans; …
To talk to Fiery Tempests; to implore
The raging Flame to give its Burnings o’er;
To toss, to writhe, to pant beneath his Load,
And bear the Weight of an offended God.
The Favoured of their Judge in triumph move
To take possession of their Thrones above;
Satan’s accursed Desertion to supply,
And fill the Vacant Stations of the Sky;
Again to kindle long-extinguisht Rays,
And with New Lights dilate theEthereal 277 Blaze;
To crop the Roses of Immortal Youth,
And drink the Fountain-head of Sacred Truth; […]
To lose Eternity in rapturous 278 Lays,
And fill Heaven’s wide Circumference with Praise.
276Ori.: “nor stoop.”
277Ori.: “heavenly.”
278Ori.: “grateful.”
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