1.WHITHER are you going? To heaven or hell? Do you not know? Do you never think about it? Why do you not? Are you never to die? Nay, it is appointed for all men to die. And what comes after? Only heaven or hell.——Will the not thinking of death, put it farther off? No; not a day: not one hour. Or will your not thinking of hell, save you from it? O no: you know better. And you know that every moment you are nearer hell, whether you are thinking of it or no: that is, if you are not nearer heaven. You must be nearer one or the other.
2. I intreat you, think a little on that plain question, Are you going toward heaven or hell? To which of the two does this way lead? Is it possible you should be ignorant? Did you never hear, that neither adulterers nor fornicators, shall inherit the kingdom? That fornicators and adulterers God will judge? And how dreadful will be their sentence, “Depart ye cursed into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels!”
3. Surely you do not mock at the word of God! You are not yet sunk so low as this. Consider then that awful word, know ye not, that ye are the temples of God? Was not you designed for the Spirit of God to dwell in? Was not you devoted to God in baptism? But if any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy. O do not provoke him to it any longer. Tremble before the great, the holy God!
4. Know you not, that your body is, or ought to be, the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you? Know you not, that you are not your own? For you are bought with a price. And, O how great a price! You are not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold: but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. O when will you glorify God, with your body and your spirit, which are God’s!
5. Ah poor wretch! How far are you from this? How low are you fallen? You yourself are ashamed of what you do. Are you not? Conscience, speak in the sight of God? Does not your own heart condemn you at this very hour? Do not you shudder at the condition you are in?——Dare, for once, to lay your hand upon your breast, and ask, “What am I doing? And what must the end of these things be?” Destruction both of body and soul.
6. Destruction of body as well as of soul! Can it be otherwise? Are you not plunging into misery in this world, as well as in the world to come? What have you brought upon yourself already! What infamy? What contempt? How could you now appear, among those relations or friends, that were once so loved, and so loving to you? What pangs have you given them? How do some of them still weep for you in secret places? And will you not weep for yourself? When you see nothing before you, but want, pain, diseases, death? O spare yourself! Have pity upon your body, if not your soul. Stop! Before you rot above ground and perish!
7. Do you ask, what shall I do? First, Sin no more. First of all, secure this point. Now, this instant now, escape for your life. Stay not. Look not behind you. Whatever you do, sin no more: starve, die, rather than sin. Be more careful for your soul than your body. Take care of that too: but of your poor soul first.
8. “But you have no friend: none, at least, that is able to help you.” Indeed you have: one that is a present help in time of trouble. You have a friend that has all power in heaven and earth, even Jesus Christ the righteous. He loved sinners of old: and he does so still. He then suffered the publicans and harlots to come unto him. And one of them washed his feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head. I would to God you were in her place! Say, Amen! Lift up your heart, and it shall be done. How soon will he say, “Woman be of good chear! Thy sins which are many, are forgiven thee.—Go in peace. Sin no more. Love much; for thou hast much forgiven.”
9. Do you still ask, but what shall I do for ♦bread? For food to eat, and raiment to put on? I answer, in the name of the Lord God, (and mark well! His promise shall not fail) seek thou first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto thee.
Settle it first in your heart, whatever I have or have not, I will not have everlasting burnings. I will not sell my soul and body for bread: better even starve on earth than burn in hell. Then ask help of God. He is not slow to hear. He hath never failed them that seek him. He who feeds the young ravens that call upon him, will not let you perish for lack of sustenance. He will provide, in a way you thought not of, if you seek him with your whole heart. O let your heart be toward him: seek him from the heart. Fear sin, more than want, more than death. And cry mightily to him who bore your sins, till you have bread to eat, that the world knoweth not of; till you have angels food, even the love of God, shed abroad in your heart: till you can say, now I know that my Redeemer liveth, that he hath loved me and given himself for me: and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God!
I. “WHAT is smuggling?” It is the importing, selling, or buying of run goods: that is, those which have not paid the duty appointed by law to be paid to the king.
1. Importing run goods. All smuggling vessels do this with an high hand. It is the chief, if not the whole business of these, to bring goods which have not paid duty.
2. Next to these are all sea captains, officers, sailors, or passengers, who import any thing without paying the duty which the law requires.
3. A third sort of smugglers are all those, who sell any thing which has not paid the duty.
4. A fourth sort, those who buy tea, liquors, linen, handkerchiefs, or any thing else which has not paid duty.
II. “But why should they not? What harm is there in it?”
1. I answer, open smuggling (such as was common a few years ago, on the southern coasts especially) is robbing on the highway: and as much harm as there is in this, just so much there is in smuggling. A smuggler of this kind is no honester than an highwayman. They may shake hands together.
2. Private smuggling is just the same with picking of pockets. There is full as much harm in this as in that. A smuggler of this kind is no honester than a pickpocket. These may shake hands together.
3. But open smugglers are worse than common highwaymen, and private smugglers are worse than common pickpockets. For it is undoubtedly worse to rob our father, than one we have no obligation to. And it is worse still, far worse, to rob a good father, one who sincerely loves us, and is at that very time doing all he can, to provide for us, and to make us happy. Now this is exactly the present case. King George is the father of all his subjects: and not only so, but he is a good father. He shews his love to them on all occasions: and is continually doing all that is in his power, to make his subjects happy.
4. An honest man therefore would be ashamed to ask, where is the harm in robbing such a father? His own reason, if he had any at all, would give him a speedy answer. But you are a Christian: are you not? You say, you believe the bible. Then I say to you, in the name of God, and in the name of Christ, Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not take what is not thine own, what is the right of another man. But the duties appointed by law are the King’s right, as much as your coat is your right. He has as good a right to them, as you have to this: these are his property, as much as this is yours. Therefore you are as much a thief if you take his duties, as a man is that takes your coat.
5. If you believe the bible, I say to you, as our Saviour said to them of old time, Render unto Cæsar the things that are Cæsar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s. If then you mind our Saviour’s words, be as careful to honour the King, as to fear God. Be as exact in giving the king, what is due to the king, as in giving God what is due to God. Upon no account whatever rob or defraud him of the least thing which is his lawful property.
6. If you believe the bible, I say to you, as St. Paul said to the ancient Christians, Render unto all their dues: in particular, Custom to whom custom is due, tribute to whom tribute. Now custom is by the laws of England due to the king. Therefore every one in England is bound to pay it him. So that robbing the king herein, is abundantly worse than common stealing, or common robbing on the highway.
7. And so it is, on another account also: for it is a general robbery: it is, in effect, not only robbing the king, but robbing every honest man in the nation. For the more the king’s duties are diminished, the more the taxes must be increased. And these lie upon us all: they are the burden not of some, but of all the people of England. Therefore every smuggler is a thief-general, who picks the pockets both of the king, and all his fellow-subjects. He wrongs them all; and above all, the honest traders: many of whom he deprives of their maintenance: constraining them either not to sell their goods at all, or to sell them to no profit. Some of them are tempted hereby, finding they cannot get bread for their families, to turn thieves too. And then you are accountable for their sin as well as your own: you bring their blood upon your own head. Calmly consider this, and you will never more ask, “What harm there is in smuggling?”
III. 1. But for all this, cannot men find excuses for it? Yes, abundance; such as they are. “I would not do this, says one; I would not sell uncustomed goods: but I am under a necessity: I can’t live without it.” I answer, may not the man who stops you on the highway, say the very same? “I would not take your purse; but I am under a necessity: I cannot live without it.” Suppose the case to be your own; and will you accept of this excuse? Would not you tell him, “Let the worst come to the worst, you had better be honest, though you should starve.” But that need not be neither. Others who had no more than you to begin with, yet find a way to live honestly. And certainly so may you: however, settle it in your heart, “Live or die, I will be an honest man.”
2. “Nay, says another, we do not wrong the king: for he loses nothing by us. Yea, on the contrary, the king is rather a gainer, namely by the seizures that are made.”
So you plunder the king, out of stark love and kindness! You rob him, to make him rich! It is true, you take away his purse: but you put an heavier in its place! Are you serious? Do you mean what you say? Look me in the face and tell me so. You cannot. You know in your own conscience, that what comes to the king, out of all seizures made the year round, does not amount to the tenth, no not to the hundredth part of what he is defrauded of.
But if he really gained more than he lost, that would not excuse you. You are not to commit robbery, though the person robbed were afterwards to gain by it. You are not to do evil, that good may come. If you do, your damnation is just.
“But certainly, say some, the king is a gainer by it, or he might easily suppress it.” Wilt you tell him, which way? By Custom-house officers? But many of them have no desire to suppress it. They find their account in its continuance: they come in for a share of the plunder. But what if they had a desire to suppress it? They have not the power. Some of them have lately made the experiment: and what was the consequence? Why they lost a great part of their bread, and were in danger of losing their lives.
♦8. Can the king suppress smuggling, by parties of soldiers? That he cannot do. For all the soldiers he has are not enough, to watch every port and every creek in Great-Britain. Besides, the soldiers that are employed, will do little more than the Custom-house officers. For there are ways and means to take off their edge too, and making them as quiet as lambs.
“But many courtiers and great men, who know the king’s mind, not only connive at smuggling, but practise it.” And what can we infer from this? Only that those great men are great villains. They are great highwaymen and pickpockets: and their greatness does not excuse, but makes their crime tenfold more inexcusable.
But besides. Suppose the king were willing to be cheated, how would this excuse your cheating his subjects? All your fellow-subjects, every honest man, and in particular, every honest trader? How would it excuse, your making it impossible for him to live, unless he will turn knave as well as yourself?
3. “Well, but I am not convinced it is a sin: My conscience does not condemn me for it.” No! Are you not convinced, that robbery is a sin? Then I am sorry for you. And does not your conscience condemn you for stealing? Then your conscience is asleep. I pray God to smite you to the heart, and awaken it this day!
4. “Nay, but my soul is quite happy in the love of God: therefore I cannot think it is wrong.” I answer, wrong it must be, if the bible is right. Therefore either that love is a mere delusion, a fire of your own kindling; or God may have hitherto winked at the times of ignorance. But now you have the means of knowing better. Now light is offered to you. And if you shut your eyes against the light, the love of God cannot possibly continue.
5. “But I only buy a little brandy or tea now and then, just for my own use.” That is, I only steal a little. God says, steal not at all.
6. “Nay, I do not buy any at all myself: I only send my child or servant for it.” You receive it of them: Do you not? And the receiver is as bad as the thief.
7. “Why I would not meddle with it, but I am forced, by my parent, husband, or master.” If you are forced by your father or mother to rob, you will be hanged nevertheless. This may lessen, but does not take away the fault: for you ought to suffer rather than sin.
8. “But I do not know, that it was run.” No! Did not he that sold it, tell you it was? If he sold it under the common price, he did. The naming the price, was telling you, “This is run.”
9. “But I don’t know where to get tea which is not run.” I will tell you where to get it. You may have it from those whose tea is duly entered, and who make a conscience of it. But were it otherwise, if I could get no wine, but what I knew to be stolen, I would drink water: yea, though not only my health, but my life depended upon it: for it is better to die, than to live by thieving.
10. “But if I could get what has paid duty, I am not able to pay the price of it. And I can’t live without it.” I answer, 1. You can live without it, as well as your grandmother did. But 2. If you could not live without it, you ought to die, rather than steal. For death is a less evil than sin.
11. “But my husband will buy it, whether I do or no. And I must use what he provides, or have none.” Undoubtedly to have none is a less evil, than to be partaker with a thief.
IV. Upon the whole then, I exhort all of you that fear God, and desire to save your souls, without regarding what others do, resolve at all hazards, to keep yourselves pure. Let your eye be fixed on the word of God, not the examples of men. Our Lord says to every one of you, What is that to thee? Follow thou me! Let no convenience, no gain, no pleasure, no friend, draw you from following him. In spite of all the persuasions, all the reasonings of men, keep to the word of God. If all on the right-hand and the left will be knaves, be you an honest man. Probably God will repay you (he certainly will, if this be best for you) even with temporal blessings: there have not been wanting remarkable instances of this. But if not, he will repay you with what is far better: with the testimony of a good conscience towards God; with joy in the Holy Ghost; with an hope full of immortality; with the love of God shed abroad in your hearts. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus!
London,
January 30, 1767.
WHAT a condition are you in? The sentence is past: you are condemned to die: and this sentence is to be executed shortly. You have no way to escape; these fetters, these walls, these gates and bars, these keepers cut off all hope. Therefore die you must: but must you die like a beast, without thinking what it is to die? You need not: you will not: you will think a little first: you will consider, what is death? It is leaving this world, these houses, lands, and all things under the sun; leaving all these things, never to return; your place will know you no more. It is leaving these pleasures; for there is no eating, drinking, gaming, no merriment in the grave. It is leaving your acquaintance, companions, friends: your father, mother, wife, children. You cannot stay with them, nor can they go with you: you must part; perhaps for ever. It is leaving a part of yourself; leaving this body which has accompanied you so long. Your soul must now drop its old companion, to rot and moulder into dust. It must enter upon a new, strange, unbodied state. It must stand naked before God!
2. But O! how will you stand before God? The great, the holy, the just, the terrible God? Is it not his own word, Without holiness no man shall see the Lord? No man shall see him with joy: rather he will call for the mountains to fall upon him and the rocks to cover him. And what do you think holiness is? It is purity both of heart and life. It is the mind that was in Christ, enabling us to walk as he also walked. It is the loving God with all our heart, the loving our neighbour, every man as ourselves, and the doing to all men, in every point, as we would they should do unto us. The least part of holiness is, to do good to all men, and to do no evil either in word or work. This is only the outside of it. But this is more than you have. You are from it; far as darkness from light. You have not the mind that was in Christ: there was no pride, no malice in him: no hatred, no revenge, no furious anger, no foolish or worldly desire. You have not walked as Christ walked: no; rather as the devil would have walked, had he been in a body; the works of the devil you have done, not the works of God. You have not loved God with all your heart. You have not loved him at all. You have not thought about him. You hardly knew or cared, whether there was any God in the world. You have not done to others as you would they should do to you; far, very far from it. Have you done all the good you could to all men? If so, you had never come to this place. You have done evil exceedingly: your sins against God and man are more than the hairs of your head. Insomuch that even the world cannot bear you; the world itself spues you out. Even the men that know not God declare, you are not fit to live upon the earth.
3. O repent, repent! Know yourself: see and feel what a sinner you are. Think of the innumerable sins you have committed, even from your youth up. How many wicked words have you spoken? How many wicked actions have you done? Think of your inward sins! Your pride, malice, hatred, anger, revenge, lust. Think of your sinful nature, totally alienated from the life of God. How is your whole soul prone to evil, void of good, corrupt, full of all abominations! Feel, that your carnal mind is enmity against God. Well may the wrath of God abide upon you. He is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity: he hath said, The soul that sinneth, it shall die. It shall die eternally, shall be punished with everlasting destruction, from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power.
4. How then can you escape the damnation of hell? The lake of fire burning with brimstone? Where the worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched? You can never redeem your own soul. You cannot atone for the sins that are past. If you could leave off sin now, and live unblamable for the time to come, that would be no atonement for what is past. Nay, if you could live like an angel for a thousand years, that would not atone for one sin. But neither can you do this: you cannot leave off sin: it has the dominion over you. If all your past sins were now to be forgiven, you would immediately sin again: that is, unless your heart were cleansed; unless it were created anew. And who can do this? Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Surely none but God. So you are utterly sinful, guilty, helpless! What can you do to be saved?
5. One thing is needful: believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved! Believe (not as the devils only, but) with that faith which is the gift of God, which is wrought in a poor, guilty, helpless sinner, by the power of the Holy Ghost. See all thy sins on Jesus laid. God laid on him the iniquities of us all. He suffered once the just for the unjust. He bore our sins in his own body on the tree. He was wounded for thy sins; he was bruised for thy iniquities. Behold the Lamb of God, taking away the sin of the world! Taking away thy sins, even thine, and reconciling thee unto God the Father! Look unto him and be thou saved! If thou look unto him by faith, if thou cleave to him with thy whole heart, if thou receive him both to atone, to teach and to govern thee in all things, thou shalt be saved, thou art saved, both from the guilt, the punishment, and all the power of sin. Thou shalt have peace with God, and a peace in thy own soul, that passeth all understanding. Thy soul shall magnify the Lord, and thy Spirit rejoice in God thy Saviour. The love of God shall be shed abroad in thy heart, enabling thee to trample sin under thy feet. And thou wilt then have an hope full of immortality. Thou wilt no longer be afraid to die, but rather long for the hour having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ.
6. This is the faith that worketh by love, the way that leadeth to the kingdom. Do you earnestly desire to walk therein? Then put away all hindrances. Beware of company: At the peril of your soul, keep from those who neither know nor seek God. Your old acquaintance are no acquaintance for you, unless they too acquaint themselves with God. Let them laugh at you, or say, you are running mad. It is enough, if you have praise of God. Beware of strong drink. Touch it not, lest you should not know when to stop. You have no need of this to chear your spirits; but of the peace and the love of God: beware of men that pretend to shew you the way to heaven, and know it not themselves. There is no other name whereby you can be saved, but the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. And there is no other way whereby you can find the virtue of his name but by faith. Beware of Satan transformed into an angel of light, and telling you, it is presumption to believe in Christ, as your Lord and your God, your wisdom and righteousness, sanctification and redemption. Believe in him with your whole heart. Cast your whole soul upon his love. Trust him alone: love him alone: fear him alone: and cleave to him alone: Till he shall say to you (as to the dying malefactor of old,) This day shalt thou be with me in paradise.
1.DO you ever think? Do you ever consider? If not, ’tis high time you should. Think a little, before it is too late. Consider what a state you are in. And not you alone, but our whole nation. We would have war. And we have it. And what is the fruit? Our armies broken in pieces: And thousands of our men either killed on the spot or made prisoners in one day. Nor is this all. We have now war at our own doors: our own countrymen turning their swords against their brethren. And have any hitherto been able to stand before them? Have they not already seized upon one whole kingdom? Friend, either think now, or sleep on and take your rest, till you drop into the pit where you will sleep no more?
2. Think, what is likely to follow, if an army of French also, should blow the trumpet in our land! What desolation may we not then expect? What a wide-spread field of blood? And what can the end of these things be? If they prevail, what but Popery and Slavery? Do you know what the spirit of Popery is? Did you never hear of that in queen Mary’s reign? And of the holy men who were then burnt alive by the Papists, because they did not dare to do as they did? To worship angels and saints; to pray to the virgin Mary; to bow down to images, and the like. If we had a king of this spirit, whose life would be safe? At least, what honest man’s? A knave indeed might turn with the times. But what a dreadful thing would this be to a man of conscience? “Either turn, or burn. Either go into that fire: or into the fire that never shall be quenched.”
3. And can you dream that your property would be any safer than your conscience? Nay, how should that be? Nothing is plainer than that the Pretender cannot be king of England, unless it be by conquest. But every conqueror may do what he will. The laws of the land are no laws to him. And who can doubt, but one who should conquer England by the assistance of France, would copy after the French rules of government?
4. How dreadful then is the condition wherein we stand? On the very brink of utter destruction! But why are we thus? I am afraid the answer is too plain, to every considerate man. Because of our sins: because we have well-nigh filled up the measure of our iniquities. For, what wickedness is there under heaven, which is not found among us at this day? Not to insist on the sabbath-breaking in every corner of our land, the thefts, cheating, fraud, extortion; the injustice, violence, oppression; the lying and dissimulating; the robberies, sodomies and murders (which, with a thousand unnamed ♦villainies are common to us and our neighbour Christians of Holland, France, and Germany:) consider over and above, what a plentiful harvest we have of wickedness almost peculiar to ourselves? For who can vie with us, in the direction of courts of justice? In the management of public charities? Or, in the accomplished, barefaced wickedness, which so abounds in our prisons, and fleets, and armies? Who in Europe can compare with the sloth, laziness, luxury and effeminacy of the English gentry? Or with the drunkenness, and stupid, senseless cursing and swearing, which are daily seen and heard in our streets? One great inlet, no doubt, to that flood of perjury, which so increases among us day by day: the like whereunto is not to be found, in any other part of the habitable earth.
5. Add to all these (what is indeed the source as well as completion of all) that open and profess’d Deism and rejection of the Gospel, that public, avowed apostacy from the Christian faith, which reigns among the rich and great, and hath spread from them to all ranks and orders of men (the vulgar themselves not excepted) and made us a people fitted for the destroyer of the Gentiles.
6. Because of these sins is this evil come upon us. For (whether you are aware of it, or no) there is a God: a God, who tho’ he sits upon the circle of the heavens, sees and knows all that is done upon earth. And this God is holy; he does not love sin: he is just, rendering to all their due. And he is strong; there is none able to withstand him: he hath all power in heaven and in earth. He is patient indeed, and suffers long; but he will at last repay the wicked to his face. He often does so in this world; especially when a whole nation is openly and insolently wicked. Then doth God arise and maintain his own cause; then doth he terribly shew both his justice and power: that if these will not repent, yet others may fear, and flee from the wrath to come.
7. There hath been among them that feared God, a general expectation for many years, that the time was coming, when God would thus arise, to be avenged on this sinful nation. At length the time is come. The patience of God, long provoked, gives place to justice. The windows of heaven begin to be opened, to rain down judgments on the earth. And yet, with what tenderness does he proceed? In the midst of wrath remembring mercy. By how slow degrees does his vengeance move! Nor does his whole displeasure yet arise.
8. Brethren, countrymen, Englishmen, What shall we do? To-day! While it is called to-day! Before the season of mercy is quite expired, and our destruction cometh as a whirlwind? Which way can we remove the evils we feel? Which way prevent those we fear? Is there any better way, than the making God our friend? The securing his help against our enemies? Other helps are little worth. We see armies may be destroyed, or even flee away from old men and children. Fleets may be dashed to pieces in an hour, and sunk in the depth of the sea. Allies may be treacherous, or slow, or foolish, or weak, or cowardly. But God is a friend who cannot betray, and whom none can either bribe or terrify. And who is wise, or swift, or strong like him? Therefore, whatever we do, let us make God our friend. Let us with all speed remove the cause of his anger. Let us cast away our sins. Then shall his love have free course, and he will send us help, sufficient help, against all our enemies.
9. Come; will you begin? Will you, by the grace of God, amend one, and that without delay? First then, own those sins which have long cried for vengeance in the ears of God. Confess, that we and all (and you in particular) deserve for our inward and outward abominations, not only to be swept from the face of the earth, but to suffer the vengeance of eternal fire. Never aim at excusing either yourself or others: Let your mouth be stopt. Plead guilty before God. Above all, own that impudence of wickedness, that utter ♦carelessness, that pert stupidity, which is hardly to be found in any part of the earth, (at least, not in such a degree) except in England. Do you not know what I mean? You was not long since praying to God for “damnation upon your own soul.” One who has heard you, said, is that right? Does not God hear? “What if he takes you at your word?” You replied, with equal impudence and ignorance, “What, Are you a Methodist?”——What, if he is a Turk? Must thou therefore be a Heathen?——God humble thy brutish, devilish spirit.
10. Lay thee in the dust, for this and for all thy sins. Let thy laughter be turned into heaviness; thy joy into mourning; thy senseless jollity and mirth, into sorrow and brokenness of heart. This is no time to eat and drink and rise up to play; but to afflict thy soul before the Lord. Desire of God a deep piercing sense of the enormous sins of the nation, and of thy own. Remember that great example: how when the king of Nineveh was warned of the near approaching vengeance of God, he caused it to be proclaimed, Let none taste any thing, let them not feed nor drink water. But let them be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily to God; yea let them turn every one from his evil way; who can tell, if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger that we perish not. Jonah iii.
11. Let them turn every one from his evil way. Cease to do evil. Learn to do well. And see that this reformation be universal: for there is no serving God by halves. Avoid all evil, and do all good unto all men; else you only deceive your own soul. See also, that it be from the heart: lay the axe to the root of the tree. Cut up, by the grace of God, evil desire, pride, anger, unbelief. Let this be your continual prayer to God, the prayer of your heart, (as well as lips) “Lord, I would believe: help thou mine unbelief! Give me the faith that worketh by love. The life which I now live, let me live by faith in the Son of God. Let me so believe, that I may love thee, with all my heart, and mind, and soul, and strength! and that I may love every child of man, even as thou hast loved us! Let me daily add to my faith courage, knowledge, temperance, patience, brotherly kindness, charity: that so an entrance may be ministered to me abundantly, into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.”
An HYMN.
REGARD, thou righteous God and true,
Regard thy weeping people’s prayer,
Before the sword our land go through,
Before thy latest plague we bear,
Let all to thee their smiter turn,
Let all beneath thine anger mourn.
The sword, which first bereav’d abroad,
We now within our borders see:
We see, but slight thy nearer rod,
So oft so kindly warn’d by thee:
We still thy warning love despise,
And dare thine utmost wrath to rise.
Yet for the faithful remnants sake
Thine utmost wrath awhile defer,
If haply we at last may wake,
And trembling at destruction near
The cause of all our evils own,
And leave the sins for which we groan.
Or if the wicked will not mourn,
And ’scape the long-suspended blow,
Yet shall it to thy glory turn,
Yet shall they all thy patience know,
Thy slighted love and mercy clear,
And vindicate thy justice here.
For his Majesty
King GEORGE.
IMMORTAL King of Kings,
Whose favour or whose frown
Monarchs and States to honour brings,
Or turns them upside down;
To thee in danger’s hour
We for our sov’reign cry,
Protect him by thy gracious power,
And set him up on high.
Not by a mighty host
Can he deliver’d be;
Let others in their numbers trust,
We look, O Lord, to thee:
Help to thy servant send,
And strengthen from above,
And still thy minister defend
By thine almighty love.
The spirit of thy grace,
Thy heavenly unction shed,
And hosts of guardian angels place
Around his sacred head:
Confound whoe’er oppose,
Or force them to retire;
Be thou a tower against his foes,
Be thou a wall of fire.
O bring him out of all
His sanctified distress,
And by his name thy servant call,
And fill him with thy peace:
Shew him, almighty Lord,
That thou his Saviour art,
And speak the soul-converting word
My son, give me thy heart!