9: 2 %

178.

To thee its grateful tribute bring;
My knee, with humble homage, bow,
My tongue perform its solemn vow.

2 All nature sings thy boundless love,
In worlds below, and worlds above;
But, in thy blessed word, I trace
Diviner wonders of thy grace.

3 There, what delightful truths I read!
There, I behold the Saviour bleed:
His name salutes my listening ear,
Revives my heart, and checks my fear.
4 There Jesus bids my sorrows cease,
And gives my lab'ring conscience peace;
Raises my grateful passions high,
And points to mansions in the sky.
5 For love like this, Oh! let my song,
Through endless years, thy praise prolong;
Let distant climes thy name adore,
Till time and nature are no more.
Ottiwell Heginbotham, 1768.

Round the whole earth, and never stand; So, when thy truth began its race,

It touched and glanced on every land.

4 Nor shall thy spreading gospel rest,
Till through the world thy truth has run;
Till Christ has all the nations blessed,
That see the light, or feel the sur.

5 Great Sun of righteousness! arise;
Bless the dark world with heavenly light;
Thy gospel makes the simple wise,
Thy laws are pure, thy judgments right.
6 Thy noblest wonders here we view,
In souls renewed, and sins forgiven;
Lord! cleanse my sins, my soul renew,
And make thy word my guide to heaven.
Isaac Watts, 1719.

1 THE law commands and makes us know What duties to our God we owe; But 't is the gospel must reveal

Where lies our strength to do his will.

2 The law discovers guilt and sin,

And shows how vile our hearts have been;
Only the gospel can express
Forgiving love and cleansing grace.

3 My soul! no more attempt to draw
Thy life and comfort from the law;
Fly to the hope the gospel gives;
The man, that trusts the promise, lives.
Isaac Watts, 1709.

ELLENTHORPE,

Francis Linley, cir. 1790.

9

181.

The Excellency of the Scriptures.

1 LET everlasting glories crown

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Thy head, my Saviour, and my Lord! Thy hands have brought salvation down, And writ the blessings in thy word.

2 In vain the trembling conscience seeks
Some solid ground to rest upon;
With long despair the spirit breaks,
Till we apply to Christ alone.

3 How well thy blessed truths agree!
How wise and holy thy commands !
Thy promises -how firm they be!
How firm our hope and comfort stands!
4 Should all the forms that men devise
Assault my faith, with treacherous art,
I'd call them vanity and lies,

And bind the gospel to my heart.

To form our minds, renew our hearts;
Its influence makes the sinner live,
And bids the drooping saint revive.

5 Our raging passions it controls,
And comfort yields to contrite souls ;
It brings a better world in view,
And guides us all our journey through.

6 May this blest volume ever lie
Close to my heart, and near my eye,
Till life's last hour my thoughts engage,
And be my chosen heritage.

2 My crimes are great, but not surpass
The power and glory of thy grace;
Great God! thy nature hath no bound,
So let thy pardoning love be found.

3 Oh! wash my soul from every sin,
And make my guilty conscience clean;
Here on my heart the burden lies,
And past offences pain my eyes.
4 My lips with shame my sins confess,
Against thy law, against thy grace;
Lord! should thy judgments grow severe,
I am condemned, but thou art clear.

5 Should sudden vengeance seize my breath,
I must pronounce thee just in death;
And, if my soul were sent to hell,
Thy righteous law approves it well.

6 Yet save a trembling sinner, Lord! Whose hope, still hovering round thy word,

Would light on some sweet promise there, Some sure support against despair.

We sing the honors of thy grace,
That sent to save our ruined race.
3 We sing thine everlasting Son,
Who joined our nature to his own;
Adam, the second, from the dust,
Raises the ruins of the first.

4 Where sin did reign, and death abound
There have the sons of Adam found
Abounding life; there glorious grace
Reigns thro' the Lord, our Righteousness.
Isaac Watts, 1709.

2

How shall we get our crimes forgiven,
Or form our natures fit for heaven?
Can souls, all o'er defiled with sin,
Make their own powers and passions
clean?

3 In vain we search, in vain we try,
Till Jesus brings his gospel nigh;
'Tis there such power and glory dwell,
As save rebellious souls from hell.
4 This is the pillar of our hope,
That bears our fainting spirits up;
We read the grace, we trust the word,
And find salvation in the Lord.

Isaac Watts, 1707.

comes,

The Saviour promised long;

Let every heart prepare a throne,
And every voice a song.

2 On him the Spirit, largely poured,
Exerts his sacred fire;

Wisdom and might, and zeal and love
His holy breast inspire.

He comes, the pris'ners to release,
In Satan's bondage held,

The gates of brass before him burst,
The iron fetters yield.

And peace on earth is given;
For lo th' incarnate Saviour comes
With messages from heaven.

3 Justice and grace, with sweet accord,
His rising beams adorn;

Let heaven and earth in concert join,-
To us a Saviour 's born.

4 Glory to God! in highest strains,
In highest worlds be paid;
His glory by our lips proclaimed,
And by our lives displayed.

Philip Doddridge, 1740. o.