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Boast ye of Chrift! read your difgrace

In this his word divine;
Depart from me, ye wicked race,
I know ye not as mine.

5 Whene'er immoral faith begins,
The work of mercy ends;
A faint, and cherishing his fins,
Mercy itself offends.

6 Such hopes corrupt the foul within,
Give vice its deepest dye,
Dreadfully aggravate our fin;
Sin can no higher fly.

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CCCXXVII,

Common Metre. BROWNE.

The true Way to please GOD.

WH

Herewith fhall I approach the Lord, And bow before his throne? What shall sweet peace of mind afford? What for my faults atone?

2 Shall altars flame, and victims bleed,
And spicy fumes afcend?

Will these my earnest wish fucceed,
And make my God my friend?

3 With trembling hands, and bleeding heart, Shall I mine offspring flay?

Will this atone for ill defert,
And purge my guilt away?

4 Alas! 'twere idle mockery all,
Such victims bleed in vain ;
No fatlings from the field or ftall
Such favour can obtain.

5 Well doft thou know what must delight,
And what acceptance win:
Repentance true, and heart upright,
And life eftranged from fin.

6 To God with humble reverence bow,
And to his glory live;

To men their facred rights allow,
And proofs of kindness give.

7 Hands that are clean, and hearts fincere God never will despise;

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And cheerful duty he'll prefer
To coftly facrifice.

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CCCXXVIII. Long Metre.
The Pleasures of a good Confcience.

ORD, how divinely bleft are they,
Whose hearts report no hardened crime!
Who thee in all thy grace furvey!
Peace is their own, and hope fublime.

*The day glides fweetly o'er their heads, Made up of innocence and love;

And when mild eve her mantle spreads,
Their hours of night ferenely move.

The world and all its boasted joys
Sit light and easy at their hearts;
What not their happiness destroys,
Not much of happiness imparts.

Yet thus fecured against its power, The world itself becomes their friend; No carking cares their peace devour, No guilty means defeat the end.

*This ftanza chiefly from Watts.

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At friendship with themselves and God, They neither wifh nor fear to die; For life and death are but the road, That leads to nobler blifs on high.

cccxxix. Long Metre. DR. COTTON. The best Support from a good Conscience.

WHILE fome

HILE fome in folly's pleasures roll, And court the joyswhich hurt the foul; Be mine, that filent calm repaft, A peaceful confcience to the laft.

That tree, which bears immortal fruit, Without a canker at the root;

That friend, who never fails the just,
When other friends betray their truft.

With this companion in the fhade,
My foul no more fhall be difmayed;
But fearless meet the midnight gloom,
And the pale monarch of the tomb.

Affliction come, I'll not repine; The nobleft comforts ftill are mine; Comforts which over death prevail, And journey with me thro' the vale.

Amid the various scene of ills, Each stroke fome kind defign fulfils; And fhall I murmur at my God, When love itself directs the rod ?

His hand will fmooth my rugged way, And lead me to the realms of day; To milder skies and brighter plains, Where everlasting bleffing reigns.

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Common

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CCCXXX. Common Metre.

Early Religion.

APPY the youth, whose early years
To God and good are given;

The downward path who wifely fears,
Whose eye is fixed on heaven.

2 'Tis dangerous to fet out in fin,
We know not where it ends;
Corruption, when it fteals within,
Rarely to better tends.

3 In youth the ways of God to tread
Is lovely in his eyes;

But the cold heart, to feeling dead,
Is a poor facrifice.

4 This life was given for nobler views,
And he adorns his kind,

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Who fteadily thro' life purfues
Th' improvement of his mind.

CCCXXXI.

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Short Metre. SCOTT.

Invitation of Wisdom.

EAR wifdom's earnest cry:
Wisdom, the voice of God,

To young and old, the low and high,
Utters his will abroad.

Within the human breast
Her ftrong monitions plead :
She thunders her divine proteft
Against th' unrighteous deed.

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Within the holy place

She ftretches out her hand;
O finners liften to my grace;
Ye fimple understand.

The race of man I love,
In mercy I chastise,

Severely faithful I reprove;

Hear, mortals, and be wife.

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My house, a royal dome,

With open gate invites ;

Thro' devious paths no longer roam,
With me are true delights.

6 Come, ye of purer

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taste,

Come, drink of wifdom's wine No forrow poifons my repast,

The banquet is divine.

Sweet peace and cheerfulness Know me their conftant friend; But all the ways of finfulness

To dreadful ruin tend.

CCCXXXII.

Common Metre. BROWNE.

Rejoice, O young Man, &c. Eccl.

TH

HY laughingjoys, young man, pursue,
In all thy youth rejoice;

'Tis life's gay fpring, reftraint adieu !
Nor heed dull wifdom's voice.

2 Repel each intermeddling fear;
Shall fear thy course restrain?
At danger laugh, remote or near,
And deem each terror vain.
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3 But