Though weakly born, he raises hydra-head,
And self exalts for worship as a God;
Though every faculty is mortal man,
Yet from his mouth imperious dictates come;
Against the most high God most furious throws
Infernal mandates to o'erturn His laws.
True worship from the earth t' eradicate,
He fire and sword hurls saints to extirpate;
Regards not God, dares to oppose His will,
And o'er both God and man pretends to rule.
He, pompously bedeck'd in regal state,
In temples sits to God appropriate :
His brutal feeling, for the lovely sex,
Forbids just marriage, impious the pretext.
So greedy, he, by fraud, strives to obtain
The lands of others, then divides the gain
With whom he will; yet, to increase his power,
Cause cheated earth his mandates to revere.
He coins strange gods, then impious rites ordains,
By lies and craft idolatry maintains: (21)
The trump'ry framed by his carving hands,
Blasphemously he men's protectors names,
And bids them be ador'd; and all obey,
If not, he'll hurl their guilty souls away
To fire infernal; tells that sav'd are none
To whom his curses torments may consign.
Yet he shall flourish but the turb'lent time
The most high God hath pleased to ordain
To try His servants; for His saints to prove
Themselves His own by piety and love;
And till the days of tribulation pass,
When Israel's sons no longer shall transgress
Their Maker's laws; the Saviour will believe,
And by repentance former faults retrieve;
Converted, are by holy impulse drawn,
From lands remote, to lov'd Jerusalem.
Lo, God's Messiah shall His throne erect
On earth, and all His faithful friends protect;
Those frightful beasts before His presence flee,
Their wicked deeds mankind no longer see;
For I beheld prostrate terrestrial thrones,
And pass away ambitious rule of kings;
I saw Him flying in the flamy cloud,
In raiment white as snow,-hair of His head
As silv'ry wool,-His splendid chariot fly
On wheels of flame, and, in grand majesty,*
Him seated on eternal morning's dawn,
And from Him issue light's effulgent stream;
Thousand thousands saints and angels near,
In joyful harmony their prince revere,
To the exalted Son of the Most High,
Eternal honor, lasting rev'rence pay,
And kings and people to Him bend the ear,
Give holy homage, piously adore.
I saw the Book, unseal'd the judgment set,
And myriads in His awful presence wait
Unerring sentence, from pure wisdom's tongue,
In joy or wo to fix eternal doom.
Beheld the judgment of the man of sin,
Messiah comes with fury to consume;
Saw blazing with destructive strokes the flame
Which purges earth of this infernal name,
The saints of God enjoying holy rule,*
And the Messiah reigning over all.
Yet, ere these happy days by men are seen,
More dreadful troubles than were ever known,†
Shall harass nations; woes shall come
For earthly punishment of wicked men:
Before Emanuel's glorious presence they,
Like chaff, before the wind, shall fly away:
But holy souls a bless'd deliverance have,
No more injustice from their foes receive;‡
And many from death's torpid couch awake,
And of eternal happiness partake;
True wisdom's sons as heavenly lustres shine;
They, who to holiness the many turn,
As stars unfading brilliant shall be,
And glorious blaze in bright eternity;
Celestial honors, glorious crowns possess,
Eternal thrones, and lasting happiness.
Entreating the Great God, in fervent prayer,
That He to Israel would again restore
His native country, and the holy place,
In goodness cause his captive state to cease,§
* See chap. vii. ver. 27. + Ibid xii. ver. 1. Ibid xii. 27. § Ibid xii.
Not for his righteousness to mercy shew,
But in compassion cause the favor flow;
With speed descending from th' ethereal clime,
To tell the fact, celestial Gabriel came,
Declar'd from God his being sent express,
And this the purport of his mild address.
Know, favor'd Daniel, that are heard thy prayers By the Omnipotent, who secrets knows; I'm sent by Him, at Thy request, to tell What henceforth to thy country shall befall.
Weeks seventy are the fixed time precise,
Upon thy people and their holy place,
When their apostacy shall be complete,
Sin offering made in its perfected state.
When for iniquity th' atonement's made,
As was appointed by the most high God;
When the Eternal Righteousness shall come
To visit earth, and there be fully known;
The Holy One anointed and reveal'd,
And this stupendous prophecy be seal❜d. (22)
And learn, O Daniel, do thou understand,
That from the edict's travelling the land,
Which orders Israel's worship to renew,
Shall be weeks seven, and weeks sixty-two,
Till the Anointed One, the Prince, the Lord,
On earth proclaims the perfect word of God.
Increase successive, and decision firm, In the first seven accomplish the reform
That shall thy ancient ritual renovate,
Correct abuse, and purity reinstate.
But soon thy people shall corrupt become,
God disregard as lawful sovereign;
So, after the weeks seven and sixty-two,
His holy church theirs shall no longer be;
Nor specially they be esteemed His;
Th' Anointed One will cut off by divorce
The sanctuary and the city too,
As they will not Him or accept or know.
He comes unto His own vice to correct,
Reveals the truth, which they will not accept ;
Their faces His peculiars hide from Him,
And treat their Saviour with contempt and scorn;
Still he'll with many, who His mercy seek,
Make firm a compact the succeeding week;
This ended, is the Holy One destroy'd,
By impious rage the Saviour's crucifi'd.
Then, on the border soon the standard's set
Of the Abomination come to desolate;
And then in half a week* shall ever cease,
The eve and morning's offer'd sacrifice;
Abolish'd, it no more must be renew'd,
The substance, not the shadow, be pursu'd.
Yet, shall the Desolator be cast out
And to his power a final issue put:
* A prophetic half week is three years and a half. From the period of the appearing of the Roman army upon the borders of Judea, to the final destruction of Jerusalem, was exactly three years and a half.
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