68 REDEMPTION.
The empyrean thrill'd, to silence waned,
And stood attent, to see redemption's plan
Evolved; for angels not the future know,
Except as He reveals t' whom every age,
Past, present, and to come, are equal known.
Soft they refrain'd their harps, hush'd was their voice
Of song, celestial mirth awhile stood still,
And deep suspense held mute the heav'nly choirs,
Whilst love ineffable, suffused their eyes,
And crystal drops, from love's pure fount, fell fast
And free; such drops as but the angels weep,
When most they love, and plead for erring man;
Free showers of grace, which oft the Father move,
And swift incline the scales to mercy's side;
For well they knew, a world's salvation hung,
Upon the issue of the coming strife.
Meanwhile, the grand Anarch, with fraudful force, Beset the earth ; up from the nadir sprung, Aliferous, with all his dev'lish crew; And, like some comet, from whose horrid hair, War, famine, pestilence and death, descend, So he, pestiferous, not less in length, Nor with less speed impell'd, affright and woe Shook from his deadly train. A lurid brume Oppress'd th' adusted air, aboding ill And deep malignance of th' approaching foe. Some quite mistook the portent, and supposed, The metamorphosed soul of Caesar had Return'd, with fire and vengeance to requite His murder on the brutal throng of Rome; A part believed it messenger of heaVn, Dispatch' d to desolate the earth, and quite
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