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LORD, 'tis an infinite delight

To see thy lovely face,

To dwell whole ages in thy sight,

And feel thy vital rays.

This Gabriel knows; and sings thy name

With rapture on his tongue;

Moses, the saint, enjoys the same,

And Heaven repeats the song.

While the bright nation sounds thy praise

From each eternal hill,

Sweet odours of exhaling grace

The happy region fill.

Thy love, a sea without a shore,
Spreads life and joy abroad:
O'tis a Heaven worth dying for,
To see a smiling God!

Show me thy face, and I'll away

From all inferior things;

Speak, Lord, and here I quit my clay,

And stretch my airy wings.

Sweet was the journey to the sky
The wondrous prophet tried;

'Climb up the mount,' says God, and die:'The prophet climb'd and died.

Softly his fainting head he lay
Upon his Maker's breast;
His Maker kiss'd his soul away,
And laid his flesh to rest.

In God's own arms he left the breath
That God's own Spirit gave;
His was the noblest road to death,
And his the sweetest grave.

LONGING FOR HIS RETURN:

O 'TWAS a mournful parting day!
'Farewell, my Spouse,' he said;
(How tedious, Lord, is thy delay!
How long my Love hath staid!)

Farewell! at once he left the ground,
And climb'd his Father's sky!
Lord, I would tempt thy chariot down,
Or leap to thee on high.

Round the creation wild I rove,

And search the globe in vain;

There's nothing here that's worth my love,
Till thou return again.

My passions fly to seek their King,
And send their groans abroad,
They beat the air with heavy wing,
And mourn an absent God.

With inward pain my heart-strings sound,
My soul dissolves away;

Dear Sovereign, whirl the seasons round,
And bring the promis'd day.

HOPE IN DARKNESS.

YET, gracious God,

1694.

Yet will I seek thy smiling face;

What though a short eclipse his beauties shroud, And bar the influence of his rays;

'Tis but a morning vapour, or a summer cloud: He is my Sun though he refuse to shine, Though for a moment he depart,

I dwell for ever on his heart,

For ever he on mine.

Early before the light arise

Ill spring a thought away to God;
The passion of my heart and eyes
Shall shout a thousand groans and sighs,
A thousand glances strike the skies,
The floor of his abode.

Dear Sovereign, hear thy servant pray,
Bend the blue Heavens, Eternal King!
Downward thy cheerful graces bring:

Or shall I breathe in vain, and pant my hours away?

Break,glorious Brightness, through the gloomy veil,

Look how the armies of despair

Aloft their sooty banners rear

Round my poor captive soul, and dare

Pronounce me prisoner of hell.

But Thou, my Sun, and Thou, my Shield,

Wilt save me in the bloody field;

[ray,

Break, glorious Brightness, shoot one glimmering

One glance of thine creates a day,

And drives the troops of hell away.

Happy the times, but ah! those times are gone,

When wondrous power and radiant grace

Round the tall arches of the temple shone,
And mingled their victorious rays:
Sin, with all its ghastly train,
Fled to the deeps of death again,
And smiling triumph sat on every face:
Our spirits, raptur'd with the sight,
Were all devotion, all delight,

And loud Hosannas sounded the Redeemer's praise.
Here could I say,

(And point the place whereon I stood)
Here I enjoy'd a visit half the day
From my descending God:
I was regal'd with heavenly fare,
With fruit and manna from above;
Divinely sweet the blessings were,
While my Emmanuel was there :
And o'er my head

The Conqueror spread

The banner of his love.

Then why my heart sunk down so low?
Why do my eyes dissolve and flow,

And hopeless nature mourn?
Review, my soul, those pleasing days,
Read his unalterable grace

Through the displeasure 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 thee joy.

COME LORD JESUS.

WHEN shall 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 slowly every minute wears; Fly, winged time, and roll away These tedious rounds of sluggish years.

Ye heavenly gates, loose all your chains,
Let the eternal pillars bow;
Bless'd Saviour, cleave the starry plains,
And make the crystal mountains flow.

Hark, how thy saints unite their cries,
And pray and wait the general doom;
Come Thou, the Soul of all our joys,

Thou, the Desire of nations, come.

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