CLVIII. GOD's Controversy with Britain stated and pleaded.

LISTEN, ye Hills; ye Mountains, hear;
Jehovah vindicates his Laws:
Trembling in Silence at his Bar,
Thou Earth, attend thy Maker's Cause.

Israel appear; present thy Plea;
And charge th Almighty to his Face;
Say, if his Rules oppressive be;
Say, if defective be his Grace.

Eternal Judge, the Action cease;
Our Lips are seal'd in conscious Shame;
'Tis ours, in Sackcloth to confess,
And thine, the Sentence to proclaim.

Ten thousand Witnesses arise,
Thy Mercies, and our Crimes appear
More than the Stars that deck the Skies,
And all our dreadful Guilt declare.

How shall we come before thy Face,
And in thine awful Presence bow?
What Offers can secure thy Grace,
Or calm the Terrors of thy Brow?

Thousands of Rams in vain might bleed;
Rivers of Oil might blaze in vain;
Or the First-born's devoted Head
With horrid Gore thine Altar stain.

But thine own Lamb, All-gracious GOD,
Whom impious Sinners dar'd to slay,
Hath sov'reign Virtue in his Blood
To purge the Nation's Guilt away.

With humble Faith to that we fly;
With that be Britain sprinkled o'cr;
Trembling no more in Dust we lie,
And dread thy Hand and Bar no more.