HYMN 60. L. M.

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The truth of God the promiser; or, the promises are our security.

1

RAISE, everlasting praise, be paid

Praise to the God whose strong decrees
Sway the creation as he please.

2 Praise to the goodness of the Lord,
Who rules his people by his word;
And there, as strong as his decrees,
He sets his kindest promises.

3 [Firm are the words his prophets give: Sweet words, on which his children live; Each of them is the voice of God,

Who spake, and spread the skies abroad. ▲ Each of them powerful as that sound That bid the new-made world go round: And stronger than the solid poles, On which the wheel of nature rolls.]

5 Whence then should doubts & fears arise?
Why trickling sorrows drown our eyes?
Slowly, alas! our mind receives
The comforts that our Maker gives.
6 Oh, for a strong, a lasting faith,
To credit what th' Almighty saith!
T'embrace the message of his Son,
And call the joys of heaven our own.
7 Then, should the earth's old pillars shake,
And all the wheels of nature break;

Our steady souls would fear no more
Than solid rocks, when billows roar.

8 Our everlasting hopes arise
Above the ruinable skies,

Where the eternal Builder reigns,
And his own court his power sustains.

HYMN 61. C. M.

A thought of death and glory.

MY soul, come, meditate the day,

And think how near it stands,

When thou must quit this house of clay,
And fly to unknown lands.

(b)

2 [And you, mine eyes, look down and view
The hollow gaping tomb:
This gloomy prison waits for you,
Whene'er the summons come.]

3 Oh! could we die with those that die,
And place us in their stead:

Then would our spirits learn to fly,
And converse with the dead.

4 Then we should see the saints above
In their own glorious forms,
And wonder why our souls should love
To dwell with mortal worms.

1

5 [How we should scorn these clothes of flesh,
These fetters and this load,
And long for evening to undress,
That we may rest with God.]

6 We should almost forsake our clay
Before the summons come,

And pray and wish our souls away
To their eternal home.

HYMN 62. C. M.

(b)

God the thunderer; or, the last judgment & hell.* NING to the Lord, ye heavenly hosts, And then, O earth, adore:

*Made in a great sudden storm of thunder, August 20, 1697.

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Let death and hell, thro' all their coasts,
Stand trembling at his power.

2 His sounding chariot shakes the sky,
He makes the clouds his throne:
There all his stores of lightning lie,
Till vengeance darts them down.

3 His nostrils breathe out fiery streams-
And from his awful tongue

A sovereign voice divides the flames,
And thunder roars along!

▲ Think, O my soul, the dreadful day,
When this incensed God

Shall rend the sky, and burn the sea,
And fling his wrath abroad!

5 What shall the wretch, the sinner do?
He once defy'd the Lord:

But he shall dread the Thunderer now,
And sink beneath his word.

6 Tempests of angry fire shall roll,
To blast the rebel worm,
And beat upon his naked soul
In one eternal storm.

HYMN 63. C. M.

A funeral thought.

151

1H Mine ears, attend the cry

ARK! from the tombs, a doleful sound!

"Ye living men, come, view the ground
"Where you must shortly lie.

2 "Princes, this clay must be your bed,
"In spite of all your towers;
"The tall, the wise, the rev'rend head
"Must lie as low as ours."