XVI.

PSALM IX. Long Met. MERRICK.

GOD the Friend of Piety and Virtue.

HEE, Lord, I boaft my blifs fupreme,

my

Thee, great and wife and good we hail; Thro' thee the wife and good prevail. 2 Justice and truth fupport thy throne, All their decrees and thine are one; Time and the world to ruin tend, But God and truth fhall never end.

3

Ye fons of God, who virtue love,
Never from God and goodness move :
For you is bleffedness defigned,

While every ill with crime is twined.

4 Fear not, though preffed with fuffering's woe,
Virtue's hard trial you may know;
Your hope in God will God sustain,
Who feeks his God, feeks not in vain.

XVII. PSALM IX. Com. Met. WATTS.

Providence finally juftified, and Righteoufnefs rewarded.

I

HEN the great God, the wife and juft,
Shall judgment take of crime;
The humble fouls, that mourn in dust,
Shall raise their head fublime.

2 He from the dark ill-looking vale
Shall fuffering virtue raise;
Its better hopes at length prevail,
And God its faith repays.

3

The bad ten thoufand ills befet,

Present and future dread:
They die entangled in the net,

Which their own hands had spread.
4 Thus by thy judgments, mighty God,
Thy righteous plan is known;
O'er mischief hangs th' avenging rod,
And ruin's all its own.

5. Then let me ne'er from God divide,
But bow to all his will:

I

2

3

4

While God and goodness are allied,
I fear no earthly ill.

XVIII. PSALM X. Long Met. MERRICK.

The Wisdom and Righteousness of Providence afferted.

T

HINE is the throne, beneath thy reign,
Great King of kings, the tribes profane
Behold their dream of conqueft o'er,
And vanish to be feen no more.

What eyes, like thine, eternal Sire,
Through fin's dark mazes can inquire?
What hand, like thine, to virtue's foes
Such awful judgments can oppose ?

The meek obferver of thy laws
To thee commits his injured cause;
In thee, each anxious fear refigned,
The fatherless a father find.

Thou, Lord, thy fervants' wifh canft read,
E'er from their lips the prayer proceed:
'Tis thine the drooping heart to rear,
To wipe away the starting tear,

5 To vindicate the fufferer's cause,
To rescue from oppreffion's jaws,
To curb the hell-born tyrant's will,
And bid the fons of pride be still.

I

XIX.

PSALM XI. Com. Met. TATE.

A virtuous Truft in GOD fuperior to Fear.

SING

NINCE I have fixed my truft on God,
A refuge always nigh;

Bid me not, like the frighted bird,
To fheltering mountains fly.

2 But let the wicked bend the bow,
And aim the barbed dart;
Lurking in ambush to deftroy
The man of upright heart.
3 And let the firm affurance fail,
Which public faith imparts.
There is, who innocence protects
From all deftructive arts.

4 Short is the triumph, poor the joy!
For God abhors their caufe.
Though he defer, he will deftroy
All who infult his laws.

5 If innocence, which much he loves,
With fuffering he correct;

What may the wicked, whom he hates,
In their dread hour expect?

6 Ruin o'er their devoted head
The Judge of crime fufpends;
While bleffednefs, in all its forms,
On innocence attends.

PSALM

I

xx. PSALM XI. Long Met. WATTS.

M

GOD the Refuge in Trial.

Y refuge is the God of love, Nor will I other refuge try; Nor like the hunted trembling dove To fheltering woods and mountains fly. 2 Though equal law fhould be destroyed, That firm foundation of our peace; Though violence make juftice void, Still fhall the righteous find redrefs.

3

4

5

The Lord in heaven has fixed his throne, And thence furveys the world below; To him all mortal things are known; His eye explores our spirits through.

If he afflict his fervants here,

To prove the truth they bear their Lord:
What may the bold tranfgreffor fear,
By God and all good men abhorred.

Then ne'er let one good man despair, But calmly tread his onward way: Wrapped round by God's almighty care, Nor earth nor hell fhould him dismay.

XXI. PSALM XII. Com. Met. WATTS.

Anticipation of GOD's Judgment reproved.

'L

ORD, while iniquities abound,
And blafphemy grows bold,

While faith is hardly to be found,
And love is waxing cold.

2 Is now thy chariot haftening on?
Is this the promifed fign?

Is earth's poor triumph nearly gone?
And wilt thou challenge thine?
3 Oh check, my foul, this prying eye
Of bold prefumptuous man!
Nor let me my weak mind apply
To fearch thy fecret plan!

4 Whether or foon or late, I know
That judgment's hour will come:
Then let me all my care bestow
To fit me for its doom.

XXII.

PSALM XIV. Com. Met.

Reafon and Virtue welcome GOD; Folly and Vice

I

R

reject him.

EASON, the best and noblest gift.
Of God, to man is given;

And reafon's nobleft ufe is, when

It lifts the foul to heaven.

2 When its creator it explores
In all his glorious ways,
In all the kinder forms of love
That claim his creature's praife.
3 To live would be no good to man,
Befet with hope and fear;

If to conviction's cleareft eye
His God did not appear.

4 The man that can renounce his God,
Renounces reafon's voice,

Renounces all the props of life,
And makes defpair his choice.