Original - Duke Divinity School

Come Thou chaste Maid, here ever let me stay.
While the calm Hours steal unperceiv’d away; 151
Here court the Muses, while the Sun on high
Flames in the Vault of Heav’n, and fires the Sky;
Or while still Night’s dark Wings the Globe surround,
And the pale Moon glides on her solemn Round;
Bid my free Soul to starry Orbs repair,
Those radiant Worlds that float in ambient Air.
Or when Aurora, from her golden Bow’rs,
Exhales the Fragrance of the balmy Flow’rs,
Reclin’d in Silence on a mossy Bed,
Consult the learned Volumes of the Dead:
Fal’n Realms, and Empires in description view,
Live o’er past Times, and ancient Days renew. […]
Charm me, ye sacred Leaves, with loftier Themes,
With opening Heav’ns, and Angels robe’d in Flames:
Ye restless Passions, while I read, be aw’d!
Hail ye mysterious Oracles of God!
Here I behold how Infant Time began,
How the Dust mov’d and quicken’d into Man;
There tread on hallow’d Ground where Angels trod,
And revr’nd Patriarchs talk’d as Friends with God;
Or hear the Voice to slumbring Prophets giv’n,
Or gaze on Visions from the Throne of Heav’n.
The 43 rd Chapter of Eccles. Paraphrased 152
The Sun that rolls his beaming Orb on high,
Pride of the World and Glory of the Sky,
Illustrious in his Course, in bright array
Marches along the Heav’ns, and scatters Day
O’er Land, and o’er the Main, and thro’ th’ethereal Way.
151Wesley copied these two lines in wrong order, and numbers them underneath to be reversed (shown
above in correct order).
152 rd Broome, “The 43 Chapter of Ecclesiastes Paraphrased,” Poems, 151–60. Wesley published in
Collection of Moral and Sacred Poems 2:95–99; and in Arminian Magazine 10 (1787): 387–91.
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