REDEMPTION. 297
As flaming meteors, through the sulph'rous air,
And for acclaim, amidst the hellish crew,
Fall thund'ring down. The seat of Satan first,
The dire shock feels, and tott'ring sinks beneath
The unexpected hail. Th' adamantine
Walls of Pandemonium, rent in twain, reel,
And with the hideous tumult inward roll j
Her mountains, from their deep foundations torn,
Blaze o'er the vaulted dome, and crashing fall,
Upon the reprobated throng of fiends ;
Hell's molten seas pour forth their boiling waves,
Whilst cataracts of fire come hissing down,
And discord wild, commingles with the din.
Nor less the spheres, astounded, hear the cry;
The sun from noonday sky withdraws his light,
Stars from their orbits flee, in dire amaze,
And vagrant courses take through ether's depths,
Or, crush'd to atoms, wide bestrow their planes,
And seem as not, long lost to mortal eye,
Till tube of Galileo brought to view
Their glitt'ring dust, on heaven's azure fields.
So deem the asteroids, fragments of worlds,
Late found, and undiscover'd myriads more;
Worlds, blanch'd with horror at th' atrocious deed,
Hurl'd piecemeal, when the Saviour's dying groan,
On Golgotha, the universe convulsed ;
But oft'ner parts mysterious shooting space,
In fragments fall whither attraction leads,
As hissing aerolites, and dimly trace
The ruin, that o'erwhelm'd them what time earth,
With hand deicidal, her God did slay.
Beside the cross, withheld from mortal ken,
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