BOOK II.
On Occafional Subjects.
III. PROVIDENCES.
H. ORDINANCES. IV. CREATION.
WHILE with ceafelefs courfe the fun
Hafted thro' the former year,
Many fouls their race have run, i
Never more to meet us here:
Fix'd in an eternal state,
They have done with all below;
We a little longer wait,
But how little-none can know.
2 As the winged arrow flies,
Speedily the mark to find;
As the lightning from the skies.
Darts, and leaves no trace behind;
Swiftly thus our fleeting days
Bear us down life's rapid ftream;
Upwards, Lord, our fpirits raise,
All below is but a dream.
3 Thanks for mercies paft receive,
Pardon of our fins renew;
Teach us, henceforth, how to live
With eternity in view:
Blefs thy word to young and old,
Fill us with a Saviour's love;
And when life's fhort tale is told,
May we dwell with thee above.
1 TIME, with an unwearied hand,
Pushes round the feafons paft;
And in life's frail glafs the fand
Sinks apace, not long to laft:
Many as well as you or I,
Who laft year affembled thus,
In their filent graves now lie,
Graves will open foon for us!
2 Daily fin, and care, and ftrife,
While the Lord prolongs our breath,
Make it but a dying life,
Or a kind of living death:
Wretched they and most forlorn,
Who no better portion know;
Better ne'er to have been born,
Than to have our all below.
When constrain'd to go alone,
Leaving all you love behind,
Ent'ring on a world unknown,
What will then lupport your mind?
When the Lord his fummons fends *,
Earthly comforts lofe their pow'r;
Honour, riches, kindred, friends,
Cannot cheer a dying hour.
4 Happy fouls who fear the Lord!
Time is not too swift for you;
When your Saviour gives the word,
Glad you'll bid the world adieu:
Then he'll wipe away your tears,
Near himself appoint your place ;
Swifter fly, ye rolling years,
Lord, we long to fee thy face.
III. Uncertainty of Life.
1 SEE! another year is gone!
Quickly have the feafons pafs'd!
This we enter now upon
May to many prove their last :
Mercy hitherto has fpar'd,
But have mercies been improv'd?
Let us ask, Am I prepar'd
Should I be this year remov'd?
2 Some we now no longer fee,
Who their mortal race have run,
Seem'd as fair for life as we,
When the former year begun :
Some, but who God only knows,
Who are here affembled now,
Ere the prefent year fhall clofe,
To the ftroke of death must bow.
Life a field of battle is,
Thousands fall within our view;
And the next death-bolt that flies,
May be sent to me or you :
While we preach, and while we hear,
Help us, Lord, each one to think,
Vaft eternity is near,
I am ftanding on the brink.
4 If from guilt and fin fet free,
By the knowledge of thy grace;
Welcome, then, the call will be
To depart and fee thy face:
To thy faints, while here below,
With new years, new mercies come;
But the happieft year they know
Is their laft, which leads them home.
IV. A New-Year's Thought and Prayer.
TIME, by moments, steals away,
First the hour, and then the day;
Small the daily lofs appears,
Yet it foon amounts to years:
Thus another year is flown,
Now it is no more our own,
If it brought or promis'd good,
Than the years before the flood.
2 But (may none of us forget)
It has left us much in debt;
Favours from the Lord receiv'd,
Sins that have his Spirit griev'd,
Mark'd by an unerring hand,
In his book recorded ftand;
Who can tell the vast amount,
Plac'd to each of our account?
3 Happy the believing foul!
Chrift for you has paid the whole;
While you own the debt is large,
You may plead a full discharge:
But, poor careless finner, fay,
What can you to justice pay?
Tremble, left when life is paft,
Into prifon you be caft!
4 Will you ftill increase the score?
Still be careless as before?
Oh, forbid it, gracious Lord,
Touch their fpirits by thy word!
Now, in mercy, to them fhow
What a mighty debt they owe!
All their unbelief fubdue;
Let them find forgiveness too.
5 Spar'd to fee another year,
Let thy blefling meet us here;
Come, thy dying work revive,
Bid thy drooping garden thrive:
Sun of righteoufnefs, arife!
Warm our hearts, and blefs our eyes;
Let our prayer thy bowels move,
Make this year a time of love.
ARK! how Time's wide founding bell
Strikes on each attentive ear!
Tolling loud the folemn knell
Of the late departed year:
Years, like mortals, wear away,
Have their birth and dying day,
Youthful spring, and wintry age,
Then to-others quit the ftage..
2 Sad experience may relate
What a year the lait has been
Crops of forrow have been great,
From the fruitful feeds of fin:
Oh! what numbers gay and blithe,
Fell by death's unfparing (cythe?
While they thought the world their own,
Suddenly he mow'd them down.
3 See how War, with dreadful ftride,
Marches at the Lord's command,
Spreading defolation wide,
Thro' a once much-favour'd land:
War, with heart and arms of steel,
Preys on thousands at a meal 1;.
Daily drinking human gore,
Still he thirits and calls for more.
4 If the God whom we provoke,
Hither fhould his way direct;
What a fin-avenging stroke
May a land like this expect!
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