6 Great God, exert thy power to save;
Deep on the heart these truths engrave;
The ponderous load of guilt remove,
That trembling lips may sing thy love.

CXLIX. The Backslider recollecting himself in his Afflictions.
Hosea ii. 6, 7.

1

THE

HE Lord, how kind are all his ways,
When most they seem severe !

He frowns, and scourges, and rebukes,
That we may learn his fear.

2 With thorns he fences up our path,
And builds a wall around,

To guard us from the death, that lurks
In sin's forbidden ground.

3 When other lovers, sought in vain,
Our fond address despise,

He opens his indulgent arms
With pity in his eyes.

4 Return, ye wandering souls, return,
And seek his tender breast;

Call back the memory of the days,
When there you found your rest.
5 Behold, O Lord, we fly to thee,
Though blushes veil our face,
Constrain'd our last retreat to seek
In thy much-injur'd grace.

CL. The Advantages of seeking the Knowledge of God. Hosea vi. 3. 1 SHINE forth, eternal source of light,

And make thy glories known;

Fill our enlarg'd adoring sight
With lustre all thy own.

2 Vain are the charms, and faint the rays
The brightest creatures boast;

And all their grandeur, and their praise
Is in thy presence lost.

3 To know the author of our frame
Is our sublimest skill:

True science is to read thy name,
True life t' obey thy will.

*Fountain or original.

4 For this I long, for this I pray, And following on pursue, Till visions of eternal day

Fix and complete the view.

CLI. Inconstancy in Religion. Hosea vi. 4.
1 PERPETUAL source of light and grace,
We hail thy sacred name:
Through every year's revolving round
Thy goodness is the same.

2 On us, all worthless as we are,
Its wondrous mercy pours;
Sure as the heaven's establish'd course,
And plenteous as the showers.

3 Inconstant service we repay,

And treacherous vows renew;
False as the morning's scattering cloud,
And transient as the dew.

4 In flowing tears our guilt we mourn,
And loud implore thy grace
To bear our feeble footsteps on
In all thy righteous ways.

5 Arm'd with this energy divine,
Our souls shall stedfast move ;
And with increasing transport press
On to thy courts above.

6 So by thy power the morning sun
Pursues his radiant way,

Brightens each moment in his race,
And shines to perfect day.

CLII. Gratitude the Spring of true Religion. Hosea xi. 4.
1 MY God, what silken cords are thine!
How soft, and yet how strong!

While power, and truth, and love combine
To draw our souls along.

2 Thou saw'st us crush'd beneath the yoke
Of Satan and of sin :

Thy hand the iron bondage broke

Our worthless hearts to win.

3 The guilt of twice ten thousand sins
One moment takes away;

And grace, when first the war begins,
Secures the crowning day.

7 So, by the light our burning gives,
Might neighbouring nations read,
How terrible thy judgments are,
And learn our guilt to dread.

8 Yet 'midst the cry of sins like ours,
Incline thy gracious ear;

And thy own children's feeble cry
With soft compassion hear.

9 O by thy sacred spirit's breath
Kindle a holy flame;

Refine the land thou might'st destroy,
And magnify thy name.

CLVI. Preparing to meet God. Amos iv. 12, 13. 1 HE comes, thy God, O Israel, comes; Prepare thy God to meet :

Meet him in battle's force array'd,
Or humbled at his feet.

2 He form'd the mountains by his strength; He makes the winds to blow;

And all the secret thoughts of man
Must his Creator know.

3 He shades the morning's opening rays;
He shakes the solid world;

And stars and angels from their seats
Are by his thunder hurl'd.

4 Eternal Sovereign of the skies!
And shall thine Israel dare

In mad rebellion to arise,
And tempt the unequal war?

5 Lo, nations tremble at thy frown,
And faint beneath thy rod;
Crush'd by its gentlest movement down,
They fall, tremendous God!

6 Avert the terrors of thy wrath,

And let thy mercy shine;

While humble penitence and prayer
Approve us truly thine.

CLVII. Jonah's Faith recommended. Jonah ii. 4.

LORD, we have broke thy holy laws,
And slighted all thy grace;

And justly thy vindictive wrath
Might cast us from thy face.

* Avenging.

2 Yet while such precedents appear
Mark'd by the sacred book,

We from these depths of guilt and fear
Will to thy temple look.

3 To thee, in our Redeemer's name,
We raise our humble cries;

May these our prayers, perfum'd by him,
Like grateful incense rise.

4 O never may our hopeless eyes
An absent God deplore,
Where the dear temples of thy love

Shall stand reveal'd no more.

5 Far from those regions of despair
Appoint, our souls a place,

Where not a frown through endless years
Shall veil thy lovely face.

CLVIII. God's Controversy with Britain stated and pleaded. Micah vi. 1, 2, 3.

FOR A FAST-DAY.

LISTEN, ye hills; ye mountains hear;
Jehovah vindicates his laws:

Trembling in silence at his bar,
Thou earth, attend thy Maker's cause.

2 Israel appear; present thy plea;
And charge the Almighty to his face;
Say, if his rules oppressive be;
Say, if defective be his grace.

3 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.

4 Ten thousand witnesses arise;

Thy mercies, and our crimes appear,
More than the stars that deck the skies,
And all our dreadful guilt declare.
5 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?
6 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.

7 But thy own Lamb, all-gracious God,
Whom impious sinners dar'd to slay,
Hath sovereign virtue in his blood
To purge the nation's guilt away.
8 With humble faith to that we fly;
With that be Britain sprinkled o'er ;
Trembling no more in dust we lie,
And dread thy hand and bar no more.

CLIX. Hearing the Voice of God's Rod. Micah vi. 9.
1 ATTEND, my soul, with reverend awe,
The dictates of thy God;

Silent and trembling hear the voice
Of his appointed rod.

2 Now let me search and try my ways,
And prostrate seek his face,

Conscious of guilt before his throne
In dust my soul abase.

3 Teach me, my God, what's yet unknown,
And all my crimes forgive;
Those crimes would I no more repeat,
But to thy honour live.

4 My wither'd joys too plainly shew,
That all on earth is vain;
In God my wounded heart confides
True rest and bliss to gain.

5 Father, I wait thy gracious call,
To leave this mournful land,
And bathe in rivers of delight,
That flow at thy right hand.

CLX. God's incomparable Mercy admired. Micah vii. 18, 19, 20.
1 SUPREME in mercy, who shall dare
With thy compassion to compare?
For thy own sake wilt thou forgive,
And bid the trembling sinner live.
2 Millions of our transgressions past,
Cancell'd, behind thy back are cast;
Thy grace, a sea without a shore,
O'erflows them, and they rise no more.
3 And lest new legions should invade,
And make the pardon'd soul afraid,
Our inbred lusts thou wilt subdue,
And form degenerate hearts anew.