An Arrangement of the Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs of the Rev. Isaac Watts

[merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors]

Castle-Street, Nantwich, Italy.
Being of God proclaimed by creation.
HE spacious firmament on high,
With all the blue ethereal sky,
And spangled heavens, a shining frame,
Their great Original proclaim.
2.The unwearied sun, from day to day,
Doth his Creator's power display ;
And publishes, to every land,
The work of an almighty hand.
3 Soon as the evening shades prevail,
The moon takes up the wondrous tale,
And nightly, to the listening earth,
Repeats the story of her birth:
4 While all the stars that round her burn,
And all the planets in their turn,
Confirm the tidings as they roll,
And spread the truth from pole to pole.
5 What though in solemn silence all
Move round this dark, terrestrial ball;
What though no real voice nor sound
Amid their radiant orbs be found:

In reason's ear they all rejoice,
And utter forth a glorious voice;
-Forever singing, as they shine-
"The hand that made us is divine."

HYMN 2. C. M. Steele.

Stade, St. Martins, Barby.
Condescension of God.
ETE
TERNAL Power, Almighty God,
Who can approach thy throne?
Accessless light is thine abode,
To angel eyes unknown.

2 Before the radiance of thine eye,
The heavens no longer shine;
And all the glories of the sky
Are but the shade of thine.

3 Great God, and wilt thou condescend
To cast a look below?

To this vile world thy notice bend,
These seats of sin and wo?

4 [But O! to shew thy smiling face,
To bring thy glories near!
Amazing and transporting grace,
To dwell with mortals here!]
5 How strange! how awful is thy love!
With trembling we adore:
Not all the exalted minds above
Its wonders can explore.

While golden harps and angel tongues
Great God, permit our humble songs
Resound immortal lays,

To rise, and mean thy praise.

HYMN 3. C.M. Watts's Lyric Poems.
Carthage, St. Anns, St. Davids.
Condescension of God.
1WHEN the Eternal bows the skies,
To visit earthly things,
With scorn divine he turns his eyes
From towers of haughty kings.
2 He bids his awful chariot roll
Far downward from the skies,
To visit every humble soul,

With pleasure in his eyes.
3 Why should the Lord, that reigns above,
Disdain so lofty kings?
Say, Lord, and why such looks of love
Upon such worthless things?

Mortals, be dumb; what creature dares
Dispute his awful will?
Ask no account of his affairs,

But tremble, and be still.

5 Just like his nature is his grace,
All sovereign and all free;
Great God, how searchless are thy ways!
How deep thy judgments be!

HYMN 4. C.M. Watts's Lyric Poems. 5 Forever permanent and fix'd,

Abridge, Canterbury.

Decrees and Dominion of God.

1 KEEP silence, all created things,

wait your Maker's nod: My soul stands trembling, while she sings The honours of her God.

2 Life,death, and hell, and worlds unknown
Hang on his firm decree:
He sits on no precarious throne,
Nor borrows leave to be.

3 Chain'd to his throne, a volume lies,
With all the fates of men,
With every angel's form and size,
Drawn by the eternal pen.
4 His providence unfolds the book,
And makes his counsels shine;
Eich opening leaf, and ev'ry stroke
Fulfils some deep design.
5 Here, he exalts neglected worms
To sceptres and a crown:
And there, the following page he turns,
And treads the monarch down.
Not Gabriel asks the reason why
Nor God the reason gives;
Nor dares the fav'rite angel pry
Between the folded leaves.

7 My God, I would not long to see
My fate with curious eyes,
What gloomy lines are writ for me,
Or what bright scenes may rise.
In thy fair book of life and grace,
O may I find my name
Recorded in some humble place,
Beneath my Lord the Lamb!

HYMN 5. C. M. Rowe.
Devizes, St. Anns, Canterbury..
Eternity of God.

HOU didst, O mighty God, exist Ere time began its race; Before the ample elements

Fill'd up the void of space.
2 Before the pond'rous earthly globe
In fluid air was stay'd;
Before the ocean's mighty springs
Their liquid stores display'd.

3 And when the pillars of the world,
With sudden ruin break,
And all this vast and goodly frame
Sinks in the mighty wreck :
4 When from her orb the moon shall start,
Th' astonish'd sun roll back;
While all the trembling starry lamps
Their ancient course forsake:

From agitation free, Unchang'd, in everlasting years, Shall thy existence be.

HYMN 6. L. M.

1YE

Needham.

Portugal, Wells, Shoel. Faithfulness of God.

VE humble saints, proclaim abroad
The honours of a faithful God;
How just and true are all his ways,
How much above your highest praise!
2 The words his sacred lips declare,
Of his own mind the image. bear;
What should him tempt, from frailty
Blest in his self sufficiency. [free,

3 He will not his great self deny:
A God all truth can never lie:
As well might he his being quit
As break his oath, or word forget.
Let frighted rivers change their course,

Or backward hasten to their source;

Swift through the air let rocks be hurl'd, And mountains like the chaff be whirl'd, Let suns and stars forget to rise, Or quit their stations in the skies; Let heaven and earth both pass away, Eternal truth shall ne'er decay. 6 True to his word, God gave his Son, To die for crimes which men had done;

Blest pledge! he never will revoke A single promise he has spoke.

HYMN 7. C. M. Steele.

Irish, Exeter, Abridge.
Goodness of God.

1YE humble souls, approach your God With songs of sacred praise,

For he is good, immensely good, And kind are all his ways.

2 All nature owns his guardian care, In him we live and move; But nobler benefits declare

The wonders of his love.

3 He gave his Son, his only Son,
To ransom rebel worms;
Tis-here he makes his goodness known
In its diviner forms.

4 To this dear refuge, Lord, we come; 'Tis here our hope relies; A safe defence, a peaceful home, When storms of trouble rise. 5 Thine eye beholds, with kind regard, The souls who trust in thee; Their humble hope thou wilt reward With bliss divinely free.

6 Great God, to thy almighty love,
What honours shall we raise?
Not all the raptur'd songs above
Can render equal praise.

HYMN 8. L.M. Watts's Lyric Poems.
Portugal, Old Hundred, Blendon.
Greatness of God, or God supreme and self-sufficient.

1 WHAT is our God, or what his name,

Nor men can learn, nor angels teach;
He dwells conceal'd in radiant flame,
Where neither eyes nor tho'ts can reach.
2 The spacious worlds of heavenly light,
Compar'd with him, how short they fall: 2
They are too dark, and he too bright;
Nothing are they, and God is all.
3 He spoke the wondrous word, and lo!
Creation rose at his command;
Whirlwinds and seas their limits know,
Bound in the hollow of his hand.

4 There rests the earth, there roll the
spheres,

There nature leans, and feels her prop;
But his own self-sufficience bears
The weight of his own glories up.
5 The tide of creatures ebbs and flows,
Measuring their changes by the moon;
No ebb his sea of glory knows;
His age is one eternal noon.
6 Then fly, my song, an endless round,
The lofty tune let Gabriel raise:
All nature dwell upon the sound,
But we can ne'er fulfil the praise.

HYMN 9. C. M. Rippon's Select. Xorb
Bedford, Abridge, York.
Holiness of God.
COLY and reverend is the name

Hour eternal King:
HOLY
is
Thrice holy Lord, the angels cry;
Thrice holy, let us sing.
2Heaven's brightest lamps with him com-
How mean they look and dim! [par'd,
The fairest angels have their spots,
When once compar'd with him.
3 Holy is he in all his works,
And truth is his delight;
But sinners and their wicked ways
Shall perish from his sight.
4 The deepest reverence of the mind,
Pay, O my soul, to God;
Lift with thy hands a holy heart
To his sublime abode.

5 With sacred awe pronounce his name,
-Whoin words nor thoughts can reach ;
A broken heart shall please him more
Than the best forms of speech.

6 Thou holy God, preserve my soul
From all pollution free;
The pure in heart are thy delight,
And they thy face shall see.

HYMN 10. L. M. Watts's Lyrics. &
Green's Hundredth, Angel's Hymn.
Incomprehensibility of God.
1OD is a name my soul adores?

Th' Almighty Three,th' eternalOne!
Nature and grace, with all their powers,
Confess the Infinite Unknown.
From thy great self thy being springs:
Thou art thy own original,
Made up of uncreated things,
And self-sufficience bears them all.
3 Thy voice produc'd the seas and spheres,
Bid the waves roar and planets shine;
But nothing like thyself appears [thine.
Through all these spacious works of
4 Still restless nature dies and grows;
From change to change the creatures run:
Thy being no succession knows,
And all thy vast designs are one.
5 Thrones and dominions round thee fall,
And worship in submissive forms;
Thy presence shakes this lower ball,
This little dwelling-place of worms.
6 How shall affrighted mortals dare
To sing thy glory or thy grace?
Beneath thy feet we lie so far,
And see but shadows of thy face!
7. Who can behold the blazing light!
Who can approach consuming flame?
None but thy wisdom knows thy might,
None but thy word can speak thy name,

St. Anns, Huddersfield.
God incomprehensible.
ELESTIAL-King, our spirits lie,
Trembling beneath thy feet;
And wish, and cast a longing eye,
To reach thy lofty seat.

2 In thee, what endless wonders meet!
What various glories shine!
The dazzling rays too fiercely beat
Upon our fainting mind.
Angels are lost in glad surprise,
If thou unveil thy grace;

An humble awe runs through the skies,
When wrath arrays thy face.
Created powers, how weak they be!
How short our praises fall!
So much akin to nothing, we,
And thou, the eternal All.

5 Lord, here we bend our humble souls,

And awfully adore; For the weak pinions of our minds Can stretch a thought no more.

1THY

HYMN 12. C.M. Watts's Lyrics. or b
St. Asaphs, Bedford, Stade.
Infinity of God.
names, how infinite they be:
Great everlasting One!
Boundless thy might and majesty,
And unconfin'd thy throne.
2 Thy glories shine of wondrous size,
And wondrous large thy grace:
Immortal day breaks from thine eyes,
And Gabriel veils his face.

3 Thine essence is a vast abyss,
Which angels cannot sound,
An ocean of infinities,

Where all our thoughts are drown'd 4 Thy mysteries of creation lie Beneath enlighten'd minds; Thoughts can ascend above the sky, And fly before the winds; 5 Reason may grasp the massy hills, And stretch from pole to pole; But half thy name our spirit fills, And overloads our soul.

6 In vain our haughty reason swells,

For nothing's found in thee But boundless inconceivables, And vast eternity.

HYMN 13. C.M. Watts'sLyrics. or b Canterbury, Bedford, Abridge.

Sovereignty and grace.

THE

HE Lord, how fearful is his name! How wide is his command! Nature, with all her moving frame, Rests on his mighty hand. 2 Immortal glory forms his throne, And light his awful robe; While with a smile, or with a frown, He manages the globe. 3 A word of his almighty breath Can swell or sink the seas; Build the vast empires of the earth, Or break them as he please. 4 Adoring angels round him fall, In all their shining forms, His sovereign eye looks thro' them all, And pities mortal worms. 5 Now let the Lord forever reign, And sway us as he will, Sick, or in health, in ease, or pain, We are his favourites still.

HYMN 14. C. M.

Braintree, Irish, Devizes. Love of God.

COME, ye that know and fear the
And lift your souls above; [Lord,
Let every heart and voice accord,
To sing, that God is love.
This precious truth his word declares,
And all his mercies prove;
Jesus, the gift of gifts, appears,
To shew, that God is love.

3 Sinai, in clouds, and smoke, and fire,
Thunders his dreadful name;
But Sion sings, in melting notes,
The honours of the Lamb.
4 In all his doctrines and commands,
His counsels and designs-
In ev'ry work his hands have fram'd,
His love supremely shines.

5 Angels and men the news proclaim
Through earth and heaven above,
The joyful and transporting news,
That God the Lord is love.

HYMN 15. L. M.. Upton's Selection.X
Wells, Old Hundred, Portugal.
Majesty of God.
Do thou, my soul, in sacred lays,

Attempt thy great Creator's praise;
But, O, what tongue can speak his fame!
What mortal verse can reach the theme!
2 Before his throne a glittering band
Of seraphim, and angels, stand;
Ethereal spirits, who, in flight,
Outwing the active rays of light.
3 To God all nature owes its birth;
He form'd this pond'rous globe of earth,
He rais'd the glorious arch on high,
And measur'd out the azure sky.
In all our Maker's grand designs,
Omnipotence, with wisdom, shines;
His works, thro' all this wondrous frame,
Bear the great impress of his name.
5 Rais'd on devotion's lofty wing,
Do thou, my soul, his glories sing;
And let his praise employ thy tongue,
Till listening worlds applaud the song.

HYMN 16. L. M. Rippon's Select. *
Leeds, Castle Street.
Spirituality of God.
HOU art, O God, a Spirit pure,
Invisible to mortal eyes

THOU

Th' immortal, and th' eternal King, The great, the good, the only wise.

2 While nature changes, and her works
Corrupt, decay, dissolve, and die,
Thy essence pure no change shall see,
Secure of immortality.

3 Let stupid heathens frame their gods
Of gold and silver, wood and stone;
Ours is the God that made the heavens;
Jehovah he, and God alone.

4 My soul, the purest homage pay,
In truth and spirit him adore;
More shall this please than sacrifice,
Than outward forms delight him more.
HYMN 17. C. M. Watts's Sermons. *
Irish, Braintree.
Trinity.
1FATHER of glory to thy name 4
Immortal praise we give,
Who dost an act of grace proclaim,
And bid us rebels live.

2 Immortal honour to the Son,

Who makes thine anger cease;
Our lives he ransom'd with his own,
And died to make our peace.
3 To thy Almighty Spirit be

Immortal glory given,
Whose influence brings us near to thee,
And trains us up for heaven.
4 Let men with their united voice
Adore th' eternal God,
And spread his honours and their joys
Through nations far abroad.
5 Let faith, and love, and duty join,
One general song to raise;
Let saints in earth and heaven combine
In harmony and praise.
HYMN 18. L. M. Williams's Psalms.
Old Hundred, Portugal.
Unity of God.

ETERNAL God Almighty Cause

Of earth, and seas, and worlds
unknown,
All things are subject to thy laws,
All things depend on thee alone.
2 Thy glorious being singly stands,
Of all within itself possess'd;
Controll'd by none are thy commands;
Thou from thyself alone art bless'd.
3 To thee alone ourselves we owe;
Let heaven and earth due homage pay;
All other gods we disavow,
Deny their claims, renounce their'sway.
4 Spread thy great name through heathen
Their idol deities dethrone; [lands;
Reduce the world to thy commands;
And reign, as thou art, God alone.

HYMN 19. L. M.

Watts's Lyrics. *

Blendon, Castle-Street.

God only known to himself.
TAND and adore! how glorious He,
That dwells in bright eternity!

We gaze, and we confound our sight,
Plung'd in th' abyss of dazzling light.
2 Seraphs, the nearest to the throne,
Begin, and speak the Great Unknown:
Attempt the song, wind up your strings,
To notes untried, and boundless things.
3 How far your highest praises fall
Below th' immense Original!
Weak creatures we, that strive in vain
To reach an uncreated strain!

Great God, forgive our feeble lays,

Sound out thine own eternal praise;
A song so vast, a theme so high,
Calls for the voice that tuned the sky.

GREAT Author of th' immortal mind!
For noblest thoughts and views de-
The image of thy holiness.
Make me ambitious to express [sign'd,

2 While I thy boundless love admire,
Grant me to catch the sacred fire;
And for thy child thou wilt me own.
Thus shall my heavenly birth be known,
Enlarge my soul with love like thine;

My moral powers by grace refine;
And cheerful feed an hungry foe.
So shall I feel another's wo,
4 I hope for pardon, through thy Son,
For all the crimes which I have done;
O, may the grace that pardons me,
Constrain me to forgive like thee!

CREATION AND PROVIDENCE.

HYMN 21. C. M. Watts's Lyrics.
Braintree, Devizes.

A song to Creating Wisdom.
ET
TERNAL Wisdom, thee we praise!
Thee the creation sings! [seas,
With thy lov'd name, rocks, hills, and
And heaven's high palace rings.
Thy hand, how wide it spread the sky!
How glorious to behold!
Ting'd with the blue of heavenly dye,
And starr'd with sparkling gold.

« Anterior Continuar »

Libros

An Arrangement of the Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs of the Rev. Isaac ...