The Law and the Gospel.
“Lord, when thou didst on Sinai pitch,
And shine from Paran, when a firie Law,
Pronounc’d with thunder and thy threats, did thaw
Thy People’s hearts, when all thy weeds were rich,
And Inaccessible for light,
Terrour, and might;—
How did poore flesh, which after thou didst weare,
Then faint and fear!
Thy Chosen flock, like leafs in a high wind,
Whisper’d obedience, and their heads inclin’d.”
The idea in the last lines, we may suppose, was suggested by what Isaiah says of the effect produced on Ahaz and the men of Judah, when they heard that Rezin, king of Syria, had joined Israel against them. “And his heart was moved, and the heart of his people, as the trees of the wood are moved by the winds.”