amufing and entertaining in rhymes and metre, that will incline children to make this part of their business a diversion. And you may turn their very duty into a reward, by giving them the privilege of learning one of thefe Songs every week, if they fulfil the business of the week well, and promising them the book itself, when they have learnt ten or twenty fongs out of it.

II. What is learnt in verfe, is longer retained in memory, and sooner recollected. The like founds, and the like number of fyllables, exceedingly affift the remembrance. And it may often happen, that the end of a fong running in the mind, may be an effectual means to keep off fome temptations, or to incline to fome duty, when a word of fcripture is not upon their thoughts.

III. This will be a conftant furniture for the minds of children, that they may have something to think upon when alone, and fing over to themfelves. This may fometimes give their thoughts a divine turn, and raise a young meditation. Thus they will not be forced to feek relief for an emptiness of mind, out of the loose and dangerous fonnets of the age.

IV. These Divine Songs may be a pleasant and proper matter for their daily or weekly worship, to fing one in the family, at such time as the parents or governors fhall appoint; and therefore I have confined the verse to the most usual pfalm tunes.

The greatest part of this little book was composed feveral years ago, at the request of a friend, who has

been long engaged in the work of catechising a very great number of children of all kinds, and with abundant skill and fuccefs. So that you will find here nothing that favours of a party: The children of high and low degree, of the church of England or Diffenters, baptifed in infancy, or not, may all join together in these fongs. And as I have endeavoured to fink the language to the level of a child's understanding, and yet to keep it, if possible, above contempt; fo I have defigned to profit all, if poffible, and offend none. I hope the more general the fenfe is, these compofures may be of the more univerfal use and service.

I have added at the end, some attempts of Sonnets on Moral Subjects, for children, with an air of pleafantry, to provoke fome fitter pen to write a little book of them.

May the Almighty God make you faithful in this important work of education; may he fucceed your cares with his abundant grace, that the rifing generation of Great Britain may be a glory among the nations, a pattern to the chriftian world, and a bleffing to the earth.

DIVINE SONGS

FOR

CHILDREN.

SONG I.

A general SONG of Praise to GOD.

OW glorious is our heavenly King,

How

Who reigns above the sky!

How shall a child presume to fing

His dreadful majesty?

How great his power is, none can tell,
Nor think how large his grace;
Not men below, nor faints that dwell
On high before his face.

Not angels that stand round the Lord,

Can fearch his fecret will ?
But they perform his heavenly word,
And fing his praises ftill.

Then let me join this holy train,
And my firft offerings bring;
Th' eternal God will not disdain
To hear an infant fing.

My heart refolves, my tongue obeys,
And angels fhall rejoice,

To hear their mighty Maker's praise
Sound from a feeble voice.

I

SONG

II.

Praife for Creation and Providence,

Sing th' almighty power of God,

That made the mountains rife,

That spread the flowing feas abroad,
And built the lofty skies.

I fing the wisdom that ordain'd
The fun to rule the day;

The moon fhines full at his command,
And all the ftars obey.

I fing the goodness of the Lord,

That fill'd the earth with food;

He form'd the creatures with his word,
And then pronounc'd them good.

Lord, how thy wonders are difplay'd,
Where'er I turn mine eye!

If I furvey the ground I tread,
Or gaze upon the sky!

There's

There's not a plant or flower below,
But makes thy glories known;
And clouds arise, and tempefs blow,
By order from thy throne.

Creatures (as numerous as they be)
Are fubject to thy care;
There's not a place where we can flee,
But God is prefent there.

In heaven he shines with beams of love,
With wrath in hell beneath!
'Tis on his earth I ftand or move,
And 'tis his air I breathe.

His hand is my perpetual guard;
He keeps me with his eye:
Why should I then forget the Lord,
Who is for ever nigh?

Praise to GOD for our Redemption.

BLEST be the wisdom and the power,

The justice and the grace,

That join'd in counsel to restore,

And fave our ruin'd race.

Our father ate forbidden fruit,
And from his glory fell;

And we his children thus were brought
To death, and near to hell.

Bleft