A Meditation

Eternal Love, before whose glorious Face All Times art present, filling ev'ry Place; Uncircumscribed, Unexcluded! Can Thy boundless Mercy to forgetful Man Be told? Or can thy long Forbearance be Enough admir'd? Great dreadful Majesty! Ah! let my Soul, in a true living sense Now raminate on the sweet Influence Of that abounding Goodness, which from thee Did freely reach to such a Worm as me! The Beast that cleaves the Hoof, and cheas the Cud, Was by the ancient Law proclaimed Good: And as thou'rt pleas'd to enjoin thine Israel, In humble due Acknowledgment to tell Thy mighty Wonders, each one to his Friend, Whereby thou brought' st' em to the promis'd Land; So' mongst the many Favours, Lord, of thine, May I now call to Mind that doleful Time; Wherein, as pondering of my State, I found (Tho' Life and Vertue doth with thee abound) My self as one of those dry senseless Bones, Which lay in th' open Valley, which thou once Did'st shew thy Prophet, all exceeding dry, Until thou pleas'd to cast a tender Eye Of Pity on them, and the Answer give Unto that great Demand, Can dry Bones live? By breathing on them, when thy gracious Hand Had gather'd them, and by thy bless'd Command, Cloth'd them with Flesh: Great King! thy Powr's the same It was of Old, and cannot move in vain. Thus, tho' at first my miserable State Seem'd unto me doleful and desperate, How soon thou, in the Bone, didst broach a Spring Which to my Soul did sweet Resreshment bring.