4

He crowns thy life with love;

5

6

He refcue's from the grave,
Refpites from death, and time affords
Thy deathlefs foul to fave.

He feeds the friendless poor,

Gives the fad mourner reft,

Provides chastisement for the proud,

And justice for th' oppreft.

Thus are his works and ways

In various mercies known,

The last best gift of heavenly grace
Was his beloved Son.

CLXII. PSALM CIII. Short Met. WATTS,

I

M

The tender Mercy of GOD.

Y foul, repeat his praise,
Whofe mercies are so great;
Whofe anger is fo flow to rife,
So ready to abate.

2 The chastisements of God,
Whene'er his rod we feel,

3

4

Are lighter, fewer than our crimes,
And meant our crimes to heal.

High as the heavens are raised
Above the ground we tread,

So far the riches of his

grace

Our highest thoughts exceed.
The pity of the Lord
To those whom love reclaims,
Is fuch as tender parents feel;
He knows our feeble frames.

5

Our days are as the grafs,

6

Or as the tender flower;

If one sharp blaft sweep o'er the field,

It withers in an hour.

But thy compaffions, Lord,

To endlefs years endure;

And every heart relenting finds

Thy promised mercy fure.

CLXIII. PSALM CIII. Long Met. STEELE. On the compaffionate Mercy of GOD.

A

WAKE my foul, awake my tongue, My God demands the grateful fong; Let all my nobler powers record The tender mercy of the Lord. 2 Divinely free his mercy flows, Forgives my crimes, allays my woes, Bids death its awful form remove, And guards me with a father's love.

3

4

5

How much, beyond our best deserts, His kindness woes and wins our hearts; Reluctant does his anger rife,

But fwift as thought his mercy flies.

As diftant as creating power
Has fixed the eaft and western fhore;
So far our numerous crimes remove
At the sweet voice of pardoning love.

The tendereft pleading nature knows,
A mother's love, but faintly shows
The ever kind indulgent care,
Which his redeemed children fhare.

PSALM

CLXIV. PSALM CIV. Long Met. MERRICK. The Power and Providence of GOD.

2

3

4

5

6

7

CLOTHED with majefty divine, What power and glory, Lord, are thine! Light forms thy robe, and round thy head The heavens their ample curtain spread.

Thou knoweft amid the fluid fpace The ftrong compacted beams to place, That prop the chambers of the sky, And age's wafting power defy.

On firmest base upreared, the earth To him afcribed her wonderous birth; He fpake: and o'er each mountain's head The deep her watry mantle spread.

He spake: and from the whelming flood The mountains' tops emerging ftood; And swift adown their bending fide Th' obedient waters backward glide.

Now lodged within their peaceful bed
Along the winding vale are led,

And taught their deftined bounds to know,
No more th' affrighted earth o'erflow.

But fed from thy exhaustless source
They keep their falutary course,
Refresh the hills, the vale, the plain,
And life in all its forms fuftain.

PAUS E.

By thee, O Lord, all creatures live,
And from thy hand all good receive;

But

But if thy face thou turn away, Their troubled looks their grief betray. 8 If thou the vital air deny,

9

Behold them ficken, faint and die;
Duft to its kindred duft returns,
And earth her ruined offspring mourns.

But foon thy breath her lofs fupplies;
She fees a new-born race arife,

And, o'er her regions fcattered wide,
The bleffings of thy hand divide.
10 To God in joyful ftrains my tongue
Shall pour the tributary fong,

II

And, long as breath infpires my frame,
The wonders of his love proclaim.

Eternal Ruler of the skies,

How various are thy works, how wife! How grand and good! what tongue can frame An equal honour to thy name?

CLXV. PSALM CIV. Long Met. WATTS,

I

T

The fame.

O God addrefs the pious ftrain,

Who thro' all nature's wide domain

In majefty fublime appears,

And robes of brightest glory wears.

2 The heavens are for his curtain fpread; Th' unfathomed deep he makes his bed; Clouds are his chariot, when he flies

On winged storms across the skies."

3

His minifters are flaming fires,
Angels, whom his own spirit inspires;
Swifter than thought their armies moye
To bear his judgments or his love.
4 The world's foundations by his hand
Are poised, and while he pleases stand:
He binds the raging deep in chains,
A friend or foe as he ordains.

5

6

7

8

9

When earth was covered with the flood, Which high above the mountains stood, He thundered; and the ocean fled

Obedient to its deftined bed.

From him the chrystal fountains flow, And cheer the vallies as they go : The grove, the garden, and the field, A thousand joyful bleffings yield.

PAUSE.

Vaft are thy works, Almighty Lard!
All nature rests upon thy word,

And the whole race of creatures ftands,
Waiting their portion from thy hands.

While each receives his different food, Their cheerful looks pronounce it good; And man and beast, and fish and worm Rejoice and praise in different form.

But when thy face is hid, they mourn, And dying to their duft return; Both man and beaft their life refign, For life and being all are thine.