But Thou, my Sun, and Thou my Shield,
Wilt fave me in the bloody field;
Break, glorious Brightnefs, fhoot one glimmering ray,
One glance of thine creates a day,
And drives the troops of hell away.
Happy the times, but ah! the times are gone
When wondrous power and radiant grace
Round the tall arches of the temple fhone,
And mingled their victorious rays:
Sin, with all its ghaftly train,
Fled to the deeps of death again,
And smiling triumph fat on every face:
Our spirits raptur'd with the fight
Where all devotion, all delight,
And loud Hofannas founded the Redeemer's praise.
Here could I fay,
(And point the place whereon I ftood)
Here I enjoy'd a visit half the day
From my defcending God:
I was regal'd with heavenly fare,
With fruit and manna from above;
Divinely fweet the bleffings were
While mine Emanuel was there:
And o'er the head
The conqueror fpread
The banner of his love.
Then why my heart funk down fo low?
Why do my eyes diffolve and flow,
And hopeless nature mourn?
Review, my foul, thofe pleafing days,
Read his unalterable grace
Through the difpleasure of his face,
And wait a kind return.
A Father's love may raise a frown
To chide the child, or prove the Son,
But love will ne'er destroy;
The hour of darkness is but short,
Faith be thy life, and patience thy support,
The morning brings the joy.
COME, LORD JESUS.
HEN fhall thy lovely face be seen ?
When shall our eyes behold our God?
What lengths of distance, lie between,
And hills of guilt? a heavy load!
Our months are ages of delay,
And flowly every minute wears:
Fly, winged time, and roll away
These tedious rounds of sluggish years.
Ye heavenly gates, loofe all your chains,
Let the eternal pillars bow;
Bleft Saviour, cleave the ftarry plains,
And make the crystal mountains flow.
Hark, how thy faints unite their cries,
And pray and wait the general doom;
Come, Thou, The Soul of all our Joys,
Thou, The Defire of Nations, come.
Put thy bright robes of triumph on,
And blefs our eyes, and blefs our ears,
Thou abfent Love, thou dear Unknown,
Thou Faireft of ten thousand Fairs.
Our heart-ftrings groan with deep complaint,
Our flesh lies panting, Lord, for thee,
And every limb, and every joint,
Stretches for immortality.
Our fpirits fhake their eager wings,
And burn to meet thy flying throne ;
We rife away from mortal things
T'attend thy fhining chariot down.
Now let our chearful eyes furvey
The blazing earth and melting hills,
And smile to see the lightnings play,
And flash along before thy wheels.
O for a fhout of violent joys
To join the trumpet's thundering found!
The angel herald fhakes the skies,
Awakes the graves, and tears the ground.
Ye flumbering faints, a heavenly hoft
Stands waiting at your gaping tombs ;
Let every facred fleeping duft
Leap into life, for Jefus comes.
Jefus, the God of might and love,
New-moulds our limbs of cumberous clay
Quick as feraphic-flames we move,
Active and young, and fair as they.
Our airy feet with unknown flight
Swift as the motions of defire,
Run up the hills of heavenly light,
And leave the weltering world in fire.
BEWAILING my own INCONSTANCY.
I LOVE the Lord; but ah! how far
My thoughts from the dear object are!
This wanton heart how wide it roves!
And fancy meets a thousand loves.
foul burn to fee my God,
I tread the courts of his abode,
But troops of rivals throng the place,
And tempt me off before his face.
Would I enjoy my Lord alone,
I bid my paffions all be gone,
All but my love; and charge my will
To bar the door and guard it ftill.
But cares, or trifles, make, or find,
Still new avenues to the mind,
Till I with grief and wonder fee,
Huge crowds betwixt the Lord and me.
Oft I am told the Mufe will prove
A friend to piety and love;
Strait I begin fome facred fong,
And take my Saviour on my tongue.
Strangely I lose his lovely face,
To hold the empty founds in chace;
At beft the chimes divide
And the Muse shares the larger part.
Falfe confident! and falfer breast!
Fickle, and fond of every guest:
Each airy image as it flies
Here finds admittance through my eyes.
This foolish heart can leave her God,
And fhadows tempt her thoughts abroad:
How fhall I fix this wandering mind?
Or throw my fetters on the wind ?
Look gently down Almighty Grace,
Prifon me round in thine embrace;
Pity the foul that would be thine,
And let thy power my love confine.
Say when shall the bright moment be
That I fhall live alone for Thee,
My heart no foreign Lords adore,
And the wild Mufe prove false no more?
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