Awaken'd in me fwarm, while I confider
What from within I feel my felf, and hear,
What from without comes often to my ears,
Ill forting with my present state compar❜d.
When I was yet a Child, no childish play
To me was pleasing, all my mind was fet
Serious to learn and know, and thence to do
What might be publick good; my felf I thought
Born to that end, born to promote all truth,
All righteous things: therefore above my years,
The Law of God I read and found it fweet,
Made it
my whole delight, and in it grew
To fuch perfection, that e'er yet my age
Had measur'd twice fix years, at our great Feast
I went into the Temple, there to hear
The Teachers of our Law, and to propose
What might improve my knowledge or their own;
And was admir'd by all, yet this not all
To which my Spirit afpir'd, victorious deeds
Flam'd in my Heart, heroic acts, one while
To rescue Ifrael from the Roman Yoke,
Then to fubdue and quel o'er all the earth
Brute violence and proud Tyrannick pow'r,
Till truth were freed, and equity restor❜d:
Yet held it more humane, more heav'nly first
By winning words to conquer willing hearts,
And make perfwafion do the work of fear;
At least to try, and teach the erring Soul
Not wilfully mif- doing, but unaware
Miss-led; the stubborn only to destroy.
These growing thoughts my Mother foon perceiving
By words at times caft forth inly rejoyc'd,
And faid to me apart, High are thy thoughts
O Son, but nourish them and let them foar
To what heighth facred virtue and true worth
Can raise them, though above example high;
By matchless Deeds express thy matchless Sire.
For know, thou art no Son of mortal man,
Though men efteem thee low of Parentage,
Thy Father is th' Eternal King who rules
All Heav'n and Earth, Angels and Sons of men,
A messenger from God fore-told thy Birth
Conceiv'd in me a Virgin, he foretold
Thou should'st be great and fit on David's Throne,
And of thy Kingdom there fhall be no end.
At thy Nativity a glorious Quire
Of Angels in the fields of Bethlehem fung
To Shepherds watching at their folds by night,
And told them the Meffiah now was born,
Where they might fee him, and to thee they came;
Directed to the Manger where thou lay'st,
For in the Inn was left no better room:
A Star, not feen before in Heav'n appearing
Guided the Wife Men thither from the East,
To honour thee with Incense, Myrrh, and Gold,
By whose bright course led on they found the place,
Affirming it thy Star new grav'n in Heav'n,
By which they knew the King of Ifrael born.
Juft Simeon and Prophetick Anna, warn'd
By Vision found thee in the Temple, and spake
Before the Altar and the vested Priest,
Like things of thee to all that present stood:
This having heard, straight I again revolv’d
The Law and Prophets, fearching what was writ
Concerning the Meffiah, to our Scribes
Known partly, and foon found of whom they spake
Iam; this chiefly, that my way must lie
Through many a hard affay even to the death,
E'er I the promis'd Kingdom can attain,
Or work Redemption for mankind, whose sins
Full weight must be transferr'd upon my head.
Yet neither thus difhearten'd or dismay'd,
The time prefix'd I waited, when behold
The Baptift (of whofe birth I oft had heard,
Not knew by fight) now come, who was to come
Before Meffiah and his way prepare.
I as all others to his Baptifm came,
Which I believ'd was from above; but he
Straight knew me, and with loudest voice proclaim'd
Me him (for it was shewn him fo from Heav'n)
Me him whofe Harbinger he was; and first
Refus'd on me his Baptifm to confer,
As much his greater, and was hardly won:
But as I rofe out of the laving stream,
Heav'n open'd her eternal doors, from whence
The Spirit defcended on me like a Dove,
And last the fum of all, my Father's voice,
Audibly heard from Heav'n, pronounc'd me his,
Me his beloved Son, in whom alone
He was well pleas'd; by which I knew the time
Now full, that I no more should live obfcure,
But openly begin, as beft becomes
The Authority which I deriv'd from Heav'n.
And now by fome ftrong motion I am led
Into this Wilderness, to what intent,
I learn not yet, perhaps I need not know;
For what concerns my knowledge God reveals.
So spake our Morning Star, then in his rise,
And looking round on every fide beheld
A pathlefs Defart, dusk with horrid shades
The way he came not having mark'd, return
Was difficult, by humane fteps untrod;
And he ftill on was led, but with fuch thoughts
Accompanied of things paft and to come
Lodg'd in his breaft, as well might recommend
Such Solitude before choicest Society.
Full forty days he pass'd, whether on hill
Sometimes, anon in shady vale, each night
Under the covert of fome ancient Oak,
Or Cedar, to defend him from the dew,
Or harbour'd in one Cave, is not reveal'd;
Nor tafted humane food, nor hunger felt
Till those days ended, hunger'd then at last
Among wild Beasts: they at his fight grew mild,
Nor fleeping him nor waking harm'd, his walk
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