Deep wisdom can my foul prepare
By prefent woes for abfent blifs.
By acid griefs that now I fhare,
He can convey the joys I mifs.
Who all from nothing's womb difclof'd,
Can make th' amazing product cease
With him our order is confus'd,
By him confufion brings forth peace,
Then, Lord, ne'er let me basely spurn
Against thy fearchless unknown ways;
But magnify thy work, and turn
My groans and murmurs into praise.
Let me fubmiffive, while I live,
Thy awful juftice own with fear:
Yet penfive let me never grieve
Thy tender mercy by defpair.
Since though by fin I foully fwerv'd,
And lewdly from my glory fell,
I'm chaften'd here and not referv'd
To feel the weight of fin in hell.
Thy high right hand's once joyful days
In my diftrefs l'll call to mind;
And own that all thy darkest ways
Will clearly prove thee good and kind.
The Believer wading thro' deeps of defertion and corruption.
ORD, when thy face thou hid'st,
And leav'ft me long to plore,
I faithlefs doubt of all thou didst
And wrought'ft for me before.
No marks of love I find,
No grains of grace, but wracks;
No track of heav'n is left behind,
No groan, no fmoaking flax.
But fay, if all the gufts
And grains of love be spent, Say, Farewell Chrift, and welcome lufts: Stop, ftop; I melt, I faint. Lord, yet thou haft my heart, This bargain black I hate ; I dare not, cannot, will not part With thee at fuch a rate. Once like a father good,
Thou didft with grace perfume; Waft thou a father to conclude
With dreadful judge's doom?
Confirm thy former deed,
Reform what is defil'd;
I was, I am, I'll ftill abide
Thy choice, thy charge, thy child.
Love-feals thou didft impart,
Lock'd up in mind I have;
Hell cannot raze out of my heart
What heav'n did there ingrave.
Thou once didft make me whole
By thy almighty hand:
Thou mad'ft me vow and gift my foul;
Both vow and gift shall stand.
But, fince my folly grofs
My joyful cup did spill,
Make me the captive of thy cross,
Submiffive to thy will.
Self in myself I hate,
That's matter of my groan; Nor can I rid me from the mater That causes me to moan.
O frail, unconftant flesh!
Soon-trapt in ev'ry gin;
Soon turn'd, o'erturn'd, and fo a-fresh
Plung'd in the gulf of fin.
Shall I be flave to fin,
My Lord's moft bloody foe!
I feel its pow'rful sway within,
How long fhall it be fo?
How long, Lord, fhall I stay?
How long in Mefech here?
Dishonouring thee from day to day,
Whose name's to me fo dear?
While fin, Lord, breeds my grief,
And makes me fadly pine;
With blinks of grace, O grant relief,
Till beams of glory fhine.
Complaint of fin, forrow, and want of love.
F black doom by desert should
Then, Lord, my due defert is death;
Which robs from fouls immortal joy,
And from their bodies mortal breath.
But in fo great a Saviour,"
Can e'er fo bafe a worm's annoy
Add any glory to thy pow'r,
Or any gladness to thy joy?
Thou justly may'it me doom to death,
And everlasting flames of fire;
But on a wretch to pour thy wrath
Can never fure be worth thine ire.
Since Jefus the atonement was,
Let tender mercy me release;
Bb
Let him be umpire of my cause,
And pass the gladsome doom of peace.
Let grace forgive, and love forget
My bafe, my vile apoftacy;
And temper thy deserved hate
With love and mercy toward me.
The ruffling winds and raging blasts
Hold me in conftant cruel chafe ;
They break my anchors, fails, and masts,
Allowing no repofing place.
The boift'rous feas with fwelling floods,
On ev'ry fide against me fight.
Heav'n, overcaft with ftormy clouds,
Dims all the planet's guiding light.
The hellish furies lie in wait,
To win my foul into their pow'r;
To make me bite at ev'ry bait,
And thus my killing bane devour.
I lie inchain'd in fin and thrall,
Next border unto black despair;
Till grace reftore, and of my fall
The doleful ruins all repair.
My hov'ring thoughts would flee to glore,
And neftle fafe above the sky;
Fain would my tumbling ship afhore
At that fure anchor quiet lie.
But mounting thoughts are haled down
With heavy poife of corrupt load;
And bluft'ring ftorms deny with frown
An harbour of secure abode.
To drown the wight that wakes the blast,
Thy fin-fubduing grace afford;
The ftorm might ceafe, could I but caft This troublous Jonah over-board.
Base flesh, with fleshly pleafures gain'd,
Sweet grace's kindly fuit declines;
When mercy courts me for its friend,
Anon my fordid flesh repines.
Soar up, my foul, to Tabor hill,
Caft off this lothfome preffing load;
Long is the date of thine exile,
While abfent from the Lord, thy God.
Dote not on earthly weeds and toys,
Which do not, cannot fuit thy taste :
The flowers of everlafting joys
Grow up apace for thy repaft.
Sith that the glorious God above
In Jefus bears a love to thee
How base, how brutish is thy love
Of any being lefs than he?
Who for thy love did chufe thy grief,
Content in love to live and die:
Who lov'd thy love more than his life,
And with his life thy love did buy.
Since then the God of richeft love
With thy poor love enamour'd is ;
How high a crime will thee reprove
If not enamour'd deep with his?
Since on the verdant field of grace
His love does thine fo hot pursue:
Let love meet love with chafte embrace,
Thy mite a thousand-fold is due.
Rife love, thou early heav'n and fing,
Young little dawn of endless day:
I'll on thy mounting fiery wing
In joyful raptures melt away.
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