HYMNS.
HYMN I.
1.WHERE have I been so long
Fast bound in sin and night,
Mix’d with the blind self righteous throng
Who hate the sons of light?
2. O how shall I presume,
Jesus, to call on thee,
Sunk in the lowest dregs of Rome,
The worst idolatry!
3. A stranger to thy grace,
Long have I labour’d, Lord,
To ’stablish my own righteousness,
And been what I abhor’d.
4. Foe to the Popish boast
No merit was in me!
Yet in my works I put my trust,
And not alone in thee.
5. For works that I had wrought
I look’d to be forgiven,
And by my virtuous tempers thought
At last to purchase heaven.
6. Or if I needed still
The help of grace divine,
Thy merits should come in to fill
The small defects of mine.
7. Alas! I knew not then
Thou only didst atone
For all the sinful sons of men,
And purge our guilt alone.
8. Didst shed thy blood to pay
The all-sufficient price,
And take the world’s offence away
By thy great sacrifice.
9. But O! my dying God,
By thee convinced at last,
My soul on that atoning blood,
On that alone I cast.
10. I dare no longer trust
On ought I do, or feel,
But own, while humbled in the dust,
My whole desert is hell.
11. My works of righteousness
I cast them all away;
Me, Lord, thou frankly must release,
For I have nought to pay:
12. Not one good word or thought
I to thy merits join,
But gladly take the gift unbought
Of righteousness divine.
13. My faith is all in thee,
My only hope thou art,
The pardon thou hast bought for me,
Engrave it on my heart:
14. The blood by faith applied
O let it now take place,
And speak me freely justified,
And fully sav’d by grace.
HYMN II.
1. FORGIVE me, O thou jealous God,
A wretch, who on thy laws have trod,
And robb’d thee of thy right,
A sinner to myself unknown,
’Gainst thee I have transgress’d and done,
This evil in thy sight.
2. My body I disdain’d to incline
Or worship at an idol’s shrine
With gross idolatry:
But Oh! my soul hath baser prov’d,
Honour’d, and fear’d, and serv’d, and lov’d
The creature more than thee.
3. Let the blind sons of Rome bow down
To images of wood and stone;
But I with subtler art,
Safe from the letter of thy word,
My idols secretly ador’d,
Set up within my heart.
4. But Oh! suffice the season past:
My idols now away I cast,
Pleasure, and wealth and fame,
The world, and all its goods I leave,
To thee alone resolv’d to give
Whate’er I have or am.
5. Lo! in a thankful, loving heart
I render thee whate’er thou art,
I give myself to thee;
And thee my whole delight I own,
My joy, my glory, and my crown
To all eternity.
HYMN III.
1.O THOU who seest what is in man,
And shew’st myself to me,
Suffer a sinner to complain
And groan his griefs to thee.
2. A sinner, that has cloak’d his shame
With self-deceiving art,
Thy worshipper reform’d in name,
But unrenew’d in heart.
3. The servants most unlike their Lord,
How oft did I condemn;
The persecuting church abhorr’d,
Nor saw myself in them!
4. The [♦]spirit of my foes I caught,
The angry bitter zeal,
And fierce for my own party fought,
And breath’d the fire of hell
5. Threatning I did and slaughter breathe,
(The flail of heresy)
And doom the sects to bonds, or death,
That did not think with me.
6. To propagate the truth, I fought
With fury and despight,
And in my zeal for Israel fought,
To slay the Gibeonite.
7. “The temple of the Lord are we!”
And all who dared deny,
I would not have their conscience free,
But force them to comply.
8. With wholsome discipline severe
To conquer them I strove,
And drive into the pale thro’ fear,
Who would not come thro’ love.
9. How vainly then the zealots blind
Of Rome did I disclaim?
Still to the church of Satan join’d,
And differing but in name.
10. How could I, Lord, myself deceive
While unreform’d within,
Protest against their creed, and cleave
The closer to their sin?
11. Their foulest sin my own I made,
(And humbly now confess)
While by my anger I essay’d
To work thy righteousness.
12. A murtherer convict I come
My vileness to bewail,
By nature born a son of Rome,
A child of wrath and hell,
13. Lord, I at last recant, reject,
Thro’ thy great strength alone,
The madness of the Romish sect,
The madness of my own.
14. Lord, I abhor, renounce, abjure
The fiery spirit unclean,
The persecuting zeal impure,
The sin-opposing sin.
15. Let others draw with fierce despight,
Th’ eradicating sword,
And with the devil’s weapons fight
The battles of the Lord:
16. But Oh! my gracious God, to me
A better spirit impart,
The gentle mind that was in thee,
The meekly loving heart:
17. The heart whose charity o’erflows
To all, far off, and near,
True charity to friends and foes,
Impartially sincere.
18. Heathens, and Jews, and Turks, may I
And Heretics embrace,
Nor ev’n to Rome the love deny
I owe to all the race.
[♦] “sprit” replaced with “spirit”
A WORD to a
FREEHOLDER.
WHAT are you going to do? To vote for a parliament man? I hope then you have taken no money. For doubtless you know the strictness of the oath, That you have received no “Gift or reward, directly or indirectly, nor any promise of any, on account of your vote” in the ensuing election. Surely you start at perjury! At calm, fore-thought, deliberate, wilful perjury. If you are guilty already, stop. Go no farther. ’Tis at the peril of your soul. Will you sell your country? Will you sell your own soul? Will you sell your God, your Saviour? Nay God forbid! rather cast down just now the thirty pieces of silver or gold, and say, “Sir, I will not sell heaven. Neither you, nor all the world is able to pay the purchase.”
I hope you have received nothing else, neither will receive; no entertainment, no meat, or drink. If this is given you on account of your vote, you are perjured still. How can you make oath, you have received no gift? This was a gift, if you did not buy it. What will you sell your soul to the devil for a draught of drink, or for a morsel of bread? Oh consider what you do. Act, as if the whole election depended on your single vote: And as if the whole parliament depended (and therein the whole nation) on that single person whom you now chuse to be a member of it.
But if you take nothing of any, for whom shall you vote? For the man that loves God. He must love his country, and that from a steady, invariable principle. And by his fruits you shall know him. He is careful to abstain from all appearance of evil. He is zealous of good works, as he has opportunity, doing good to all men. He uses all the ordinances of God and that both constantly and carefully. And he does this, not barely as something he must do; or what he would willingly be excused from. No; he rejoices in this his reasonable service, as a blessed privilege of the children of God.
But what if none of the candidates have these fruits? Then vote for him that loves the king: king George, whom the wise providence of God has appointed to reign over us. He ought to be highly esteemed in love, even for his office sake. A king is a lovely, sacred name. He is a minister of God unto thee for good. How much more, such a king, as has been in many respects, a blessing to his subjects. You may easily know those who love him not. For they generally glory in their shame. They are not afraid to speak evil of dignities: no, not even of the ruler of their people.
Perhaps you will say, but I love my country, Therefore I am for the country-interest. I fear, you know not what you say. Are you against your king because you love your country? Who taught you to separate your king from your country? To set one against the other? Be assured, none that loves either. True lovers of their country do not talk in this senseless manner.
Is not the interest of the king of England and of the country of England, one and the same? If the king is destroyed, doth it profit the country? If the country, does it profit the king? Their interest cannot be divided. The welfare of one is the welfare of both.
Have you an objection of a different kind? Do you say, I am for the church? The church of England for ever! Therefore I vote for ——. He is a true churchman, a lover of the church. Are you sure of that? Friend, think a little. What kind of a churchman is he? A whoring churchman? A gaming churchman? A drunken churchman? A lying churchman? A cursing and swearing churchman? Or, a red-hot persecuting churchman, that would send all dissenters to the devil at a clap? For shame! for shame! Do you call a man a churchman, who knows no more of God than a Turk? Call a man a churchman, that does not even pretend to so much religion, as would serve an honest Heathen? He is a lover of the church who is a lover of God, and consequently of all mankind. Whoever else talks of loving the church is a cheat. Set a mark upon that man.
Above all, mark that man, who talks of loving the church, and does not love the king. If he does not love the king, he cannot love God. And if he does not love God, he cannot love the church. He loves the church and the king just alike. For indeed he loves neither one nor the other.
Oh beware, you who truly love the church, and therefore he cannot but love the king: beware of dividing the king and the church, any more than the king and country. Let others do as they will, what is that to you? Act you as an honest man, a loyal subject, a true Englishman, a lover of the country, a lover of the church; in one word, a Christian! One that fears nothing but sin, that seeks nothing but heaven, and that desires nothing but God. Nothing but glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill towards men!
ADVICE to a
SOLDIER.
1.ARE you to die? Must you leave this world, and carry nothing of it away with you? Naked as you came out of your mother’s womb, naked shall you return. And are you never to come back into this world? Have you no more place under the sun? When you leave these houses and fields, this flesh and blood, do you part with them for ever? Are you sure of this? Must all men die? Can none at all escape death? Do rich men likewise die, and leave their riches for others? Do princes also fall and die like one of their people? Can you then escape it? You do not think so. You know death is as sure as if you felt it already: as if you was now gasping for life, sweating and trembling in those last pangs, till the soul started off from the quivering lips, into the boundless ocean of eternity.
2. And are you to be judged? How is this to be? Why, the Son of God shall come in his glory, and all his holy angels with him; and then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory. And before him shall be gathered all nations, and he shall separate them from one another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats. Behold he cometh with clouds! And every eye shall see him, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty! And I saw (wilt thou also say) a great white throne, and him that sat thereon, from whose face the earth and the heavens fled away, and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and they were judged, every man according to his works. And shalt thou also be judged according to thy works? All thy works, whether they be good or evil? Yea, and for every idle word which thou shalt speak, thou shalt give an account in the day of judgment. But this is not all: the Lord, the judge searcheth the heart, and trieth the reins. He understands all thy thoughts; and for all these likewise he shall bring thee into judgment. Supposest thou it is enough to be outwardly good? What! though thy inward parts are very wickedness? And are they not? Is not thy soul fallen short of the glory (the glorious image) of God? Look into thy breast. Art thou not a fallen spirit? Dost thou not know and feel, how very far thou art gone from original righteousness? Desperately full thou art of all evil, and naked of all good? Is there not in thee, an earthly, sensual, devilish mind? A mind that is enmity against God? ’Tis plain there is. For thou dost not love God. Thou dost not delight in him. He is not the desire of thy eyes, or the joy of thy heart. Thou lovest the creature more than the Creator. Thou art a lover of pleasure more than a lover of God. O how wilt thou stand in the judgment!
3. Are you then to go to heaven or hell? It must be either to one or the other. I pray God you may not go to hell! for who can dwell with everlasting burnings? Who can bear the fierceness of that flame, without even a drop of water to cool his tongue? Yea, and that without end; for as the worm dieth not so the fire is not quenched. No, whoever is once cast into that lake of fire, shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever. O eternity! eternity! Who can tell the length of eternity? I warn thee now, before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, that thou come not into that place of torment!
4. But alas! Is not hell now begun in thy soul? Does thy conscience never awake? Hast thou no remorse at any time? No sense of guilt? No dread of the wrath of God? Why these (if thou art not saved from them in this life) are the worm that never dieth. And what else is thy carnal mind? Thy enmity against God? Thy foolish and hurtful lusts, thy inordinate affections? What are pride, envy, malice, revenge? Are they not vipers gnawing thy heart? May they not well be called, the dogs of hell? Canst thou be out of hell, while these are in thy soul? While they are tearing it in pieces, and there is none to help thee? Indeed they are not fully let loose upon thee. And while thou seest the light of the sun, the things of the world that surround thee, or the pleasures of sense divert thy thoughts from them. But when thou canst eat and drink no more, when the earth, with the works thereof is burnt up, when the sun is fallen from heaven, and thou art shut up in utter darkness, what a state wilt thou be in then? Mayst thou never try! Seek thou a better habitation, a house of God eternal in the heavens.
5. There the wicked cease from troubling, there the weary are at rest. For God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying; neither shall there be any more pain, but everlasting joy upon their heads. But this joy our ears have not yet heard, neither has it entered into the heart of man to conceive. Yet a little of it the children of God can conceive, from what they already enjoy. For the kingdom of heaven is within them. God has given them eternal life; the life which is hid with Christ in God. They have heaven upon earth; righteousness and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. Their souls are renewed in the image of God. They love God. They are happy in him; and they love their neighbour (that is every man) as themselves, as their own souls. Being justified by faith, they have peace with God, yea, a peace which passeth all understanding. And they rejoice in him, knowing their sins are blotted out; that they are accepted in the beloved, and that they are going to an inheritance incorruptible undefiled, and that fadeth not away.
6. Will you reply to all this, “But I am a soldier, and have therefore nothing to do with these things?” Hold! Have soldiers nothing to do with death? How so? Do soldiers never die? can you fright death away? No, my friend; he will not regard all your big words and looks; nor all the weapons of your warfare. You can neither conquer, nor escape him. Your profession may excuse you from many other things; but there is no excusing yourself from death. Are you less sure of this than other men are? No; there is one lot for all. Are you farther from it than they? Nay, rather nearer. You live in the very jaws of death. Why then a soldier (if there be any difference) has more to do with death than other men. It is not far from every one of us: but, to him, it is just at the door.
7. Or, do you fancy a soldier has nothing to do with judgment? Will you say then (as poor Captain Uratz did, when he was ask’d a few minutes before his death, if he had made his peace with God) “I hope God will deal with me like a gentleman?” But God said unto him, “Thou fool! I will deal with thee, as with all mankind. There is no respect of persons with me. I reward every man according to his works.” Thou also shalt receive of the righteous judge, according to the things which thou hast done in the body. Death levels all; it mingles in one dust the gentleman, soldier, clown and beggar; it makes all these distinctions void. When life ends so do they. Holy or unholy is the one question then. Lo! the books are opened, that all the dead may be judged according to the things that are written therein! O may thy name be found written in the book of life!
8. For, have soldiers nothing to do with hell? Why then is it so often in thy mouth? Dost thou think God does not hear the prayer? And how often hast thou prayed him, To damn thy soul? Is his ear waxed heavy that it cannot hear? I fear thou wilt find it otherwise. Was not he a soldier too, (and a terrible one) to whom God said of old, “Hell from beneath is moved for thee, to meet thee at thy coming?” And what marvel? For sin is the high road to hell. And have soldiers nothing to do with sin? Alas! How many of you wallow therein, yea and glory in your shame? How do you labour to work out your own damnation! O poor work, for poor wages! The wages of sin is death; the wages of cursing, of swearing, of taking the name of God in vain, of sabbath-breaking, drunkenness, revenge, of fornication, adultery, and all uncleanness. Now, art thou clear of these? Does not thy own heart smite thee? Art thou not condemned already? What voice is that which sounds in thine ears? Is it not the voice of God? Shall I not visit for these things, saith the Lord? Shall not my soul be avenged on such a sinner as this? It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God! Be very sure that thou art stronger than he, before thou fliest in his face! Do not defy God, unless thou canst overcome him. But canst thou indeed? O no. Do not try. Do not dare him to do his worst. Why should he destroy both thy body and soul in hell? Why shouldst thou be punished with everlasting destruction, from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power?
*9. But if there were no other hell, thou hast hell enough within thee. An awakened conscience is hell. Pride, envy, wrath, hatred, malice, revenge; what are these but hell upon earth? And how often art thou tormented in these flames? Flames of lust, envy, or proud wrath? Are not these to thy soul, when blown up to the height, as it were a lake of fire, burning with brimstone? Flee away before the great gulph is fixt: escape, escape for thy life! If thou hast not strength, cry to God, and thou shalt receive power from on high: and he whose name is rightly called Jesus, shall save thee from thy sins.
10. And why should he not? Has a soldier nothing to do with heaven? God forbid that you should think so! Heaven was designed for you also. God so loved your soul, that he gave his only begotten Son, that you, believing in him, might not perish, but have everlasting life. Receive then the kingdom, prepared for you from the foundation of the world! This, this is the time to make it sure; this short, uncertain day of life. Have you then an hour to spare? No; not a moment. Arise, and call upon thy God. Call upon the Lamb who taketh away the sins of the world, to take away thy sins. Surely he hath borne thy griefs, and carried thy sorrows! He was wounded for thy transgressions, and bruised for thy iniquities. He hath paid the ransom for thy soul. Believe in him, and thou shalt be saved. Art thou a sinner? He came, not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Art thou a lost, undone sinner? He came to seek and to save that which was lost. May he that gave himself for thee, give thee ears to hear, and a heart to understand his love! So shalt thou also say, “The life I now live, I live by faith in the Son of God.” So shall the love of God be shed abroad in thy heart, and thou shalt rejoice with joy unspeakable. Thou shalt have the mind that was in Christ, and shalt so walk as he also walked; till having fought the good fight, and finished thy course, thou receive the crown that fadeth not away!
The End of the Ninth Volume.