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Thee, Father, first they sung, Omnipotent, Immutable, Immortal, Infinite, Eternal King; thee, Author of all being, Fountain of light, thyself invisible Amidst the glorious brightness, where thou sittest Throned inaccessible, but when thou shadest The full blaze of thy beams, and, through a cloud Drawn round about thee, like a radiant shrine, Dark with excessive bright thy skirts appear, Yet dazzle heaven, that brightest seraphim Approach not, but with both wings veil their eyes. Thee, next they sang, of all creation first, Begotton Son, Divine Similitude, In whose conspicuous countenance, without cloud Made visible, the Almighty Father shines, Whom else no creature can behold: on thee Impressed the effulgence of his glory abides, Transfused on thee his ample Spirit rests. He heaven of heavens, and all the powers therein, By thee created; and by thee threw down The aspiring dominations: thou that day Thy Father's dreadful thunder didst not spare, Nor stop thy flaming chariot-wheels, that shook Heaven's everlasting frame, while o'er the necks Thou drovest of warring angels disarrayed. Back from pursuit thy powers with loud acclaim The only extolled, Son of thy Father's might, To execute fierce vengeance on his foes, Not so on Man: him, through their malice fallen, Father of mercy and grace, thou didst not doom So strictly, but much more to pity incline, No sooner did thy dear and only Son Perceive thee purposed not to doom frail man So strictly, but much more to pity inclined, He, to appease thy wrath, and end the strife Of mercy and justice in thy face discerned,