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DESIRING HIS DESCENT TO EARTH.

JESUS, I love. Come, dearest name,
Come and possess this heart of mine;
I love, though 'tis a fainter flame,
And infinitely less than thine.

O! if my Lord would leave the skies,
Dress'd in the rays of mildest grace;
My soul should hasten to my eyes
To meet the pleasures of his face.

How would I feast on all his charms,
Then round his lovely feet entwine!
Worship and love, in all their forms,
Should honour beauty so divine.

In vain the tempter's flattering tongue,
The world in vain shall bid me move,
In vain; for I should gaze so long

Till I were all transform'd to love.

Then, mighty God! I'd sing and say,

What empty names are crowns and kings!
Amongst them give these worlds away,
These little despicable things.'

I would not ask to climb the sky,
Nor envy angels their abode;
I have a heaven, as bright and high,
In the bless'd vision of my God.

ASCENDING TO HIM IN HEAVEN.

"Tis pure delight, without alloy,
Jesus, to hear thy name;

My spirit leaps with inward joy,
I feel the sacred flame.

My passions hold a pleasing reign,
While love inspires my breast;
Love, the divinest of the train,
The Sovereign of the rest.

This is the grace must live and sing,
When faith and fear shall cease,
Must sound from every joyful string
Through the sweet groves of bliss.

Let life immortal seize my clay;
Let love refine my blood;
Her flames can bear my soul away,
Can bring me near my God.

Swift I ascend the heavenly place,
And hasten to my home,

I leap to meet thy kind embrace,
I come, O Lord! I come.

Sink down, ye separating hills,

Let guilt and death remove,

'Tis love that drives my chariot-wheels, And death must yield to love.

THE

PRESENCE OF GOD WORTH DYING FOR;

OR,

THE DEATII OF MOSES.

LORD, 'tis an infinite delight

To see thy lovely face,

To dwell whole ages in thy sight,

And feel thy vital rays.

This Gabriel knows; and sings thy name

With rapture on his tongue;

Moses, the saint, enjoys the same,

And Heaven repeats the song.

While the bright nation sounds thy praise

From each eternal hill,

Sweet odours of exhaling grace

The happy region fill.

Thy love, a sea without a shore,
Spreads life and joy abroad :
O'tis a Heaven worth dying for,
To see a smiling God!

Show me thy face, and I'll away

From all inferior things;

Speak, Lord, and here I quit my clay,
And stretch my airy wings.

Sweet was the journey to the sky

The wondrous prophet tried;

'Climb up the mount,' says God, and die :'The prophet climb'd and died.

Softly his fainting head he lay
Upon his Maker's breast;
His Maker kiss'd his soul away,
And laid his flesh to rest.

In God's own arms he left the breath
That God's own Spirit gave;
His was the noblest road to death,
And his the sweetest grave.

LONGING FOR HIS RETURN.

O 'TWAS a mournful parting day!

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Farewell, my Spouse,' he said;

(How tedious, Lord, is thy delay! How long my Love hath staid!)

Farewell! at once he left the ground,
And climb'd his Father's sky!
Lord, I would tempt thy chariot down,
Or leap to thee on high.

Round the creation wild I rove,

And search the globe in vain ;

There's nothing here that's worth my love,
Till thou return again.

My passions fly to seek their King,
And send their groans abroad,
They beat the air with heavy wing,
And mourn an absent God.

With inward pain my heart-strings sound,
My soul dissolves away;

Dear Sovereign, whirl the seasons round,
And bring the promis'd day.

HOPE IN DARKNESS.

YET, gracious God,

1694.

Yet will I seek thy smiling face;

What though a short eclipse his beauties shroud And bar the influence of his rays;

'Tis but a morning vapour, or a summer cloud: He is my Sun though he refuse to shine, Though for a moment he depart,

I dwell for ever on his heart,

For ever he on mine.

Early before the light arise

I'll spring a thought away to God;
The passion of my heart and eyes
Shall shout a thousand groans and sighs,
A thousand glances strike the skies,
The floor of his abode.

Dear Sovereign, bear thy servant pray,
Bend the blue heavens, Eternal King!
Downward thy cheerful graces bring:

Or shall I breathe in vain, and pant my hours away?

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