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PART III.

The Works of God celebrated.

66.

Common Metre. WATTS.

The creation of the world.

ET heav'n arise, let earth appear,

L. Said the Almighty LORD;

The heav'ns arose, the earth appear'd
At his creating word.

2 Thick darkness brooded o'er the deep:
GOD said, Let there be light!

The light shone forth with smiling ray,
And scatter'd ancient night.

3 He bade the clouds ascend on high;
The clouds ascend, and bear
A wat❜ry treasure to the sky,
And float upon the air.

4 The liquid element below

Was gather'd by his hand;
The rolling seas together flow,
And leave the solid land.

5 With herbs, and plants, and fruitful trees, The new-form'd globe he crown'd,

Ere there was rain to bless the soil,
Or sun to warm the ground.

6 Then, high in heav'n's resplendent arch,
He plac'd those orbs of light;
He caus'd the sun to rule the day,
The moon to rule the night.

7 Next, from the deep, th' Almighty King
Did vital beings frame;
Fowls of the air of ev'ry wing,
And fish of ev'ry name.

8 To all the various brutal tribes
He
gave their wondrous birth;
At once the lion and the worm
Sprang from the teeming earth.

9 Then, chief, o'er all his works below,
At last was Adam made;

His Maker's image bless'd his soul,
And glory crown'd his head.

10 Fair in th' Almighty Maker's eye
The whole creation stood;

He view'd the fabric he had rais'd;
His word pronoune'd it good.

67.

Common Metre. DODSLEY'S POEMS.
GOD the Creator of mankind.

GOD of our lives, whose bounteous care

First gave us pow'r to move!

How shall our thankful hearts declare
The wonders of thy love?

2 While void of thought and sense we lay, Dust of our parent earth,

Thy breath inform'd the sleeping clay, And call'd us into birth.

3 Thine eye beheld in perfect view
The yet unfinish'd plan;

Th' imperfect lines thy pencil drew,
And form'd the future man.

4 O may this frame, which rising grew
Beneath thy forming hands,
Be studious ever to pursue
Whate'er thy will commands.

68.

Common Metre. GROVE.

GOD the Creator.

1 LORD, how excellent thy name! How glorious to behold,

Engraven fair on all thy works
In characters of gold!

2 On heav'n's unmeasurable face,
In lines immensely great;

In small, on ev'ry leaf and flow'r,
CREATOR-GOD is writ.

3 Though reason be not giv'n to all,
Nor voice to thee, O sun!

Their Maker all proclaim, and here
Their language is but one.

4 From land to land, from world to world, Thy fame is echo'd round;

And ages, as they pass, transmit
The never-dying sound.

5 Angels, the eldest sons of God,
Began the lofty song;

They saw the heav'ns expand abroad,
And earth on nothing hung.

6 Then man, the last and noblest work
Of all this nether frame,

With the first vital breath he drew,
Confess'd from whence he came.

7 O let us all give praise to God,
And magnify his name;

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The wonders of his pow'r and love
Let the whole world proclaim.

69.

Long Metre. MRS. STEELE.

The voice of Nature.

LMIGHTY goodness, pow'r divine,
The fields and verdant meads display;

And bless the hand which made them shine,
With various charms profusely gay.

2 For man and beast, here daily food
In wide diffusive plenty grows;

And there, for drink, the chrystal flood
In streams sweet-winding gently flows.
3 By cooling streams and soft'ning show'rs,
The vegetable race are fed;

And trees and plants and herbs and flow'rs,
Their Maker's bounty smiling spread.

4 The flow'ry tribes all blooming rise
Above the faint attempts of art;

Their bright inimitable dyes

Speak sweet conviction to the heart. 5 Ye curious minds, who roam abroad, And trace creation's wonders o'er, Confess the footsteps of the God, And bow before him and adore.

70.

Long Metre. ADDISON.
The voice of GOD in his works.
1 HE spacious firmament on high,
With all the blue ethereal sky,

And spangled heav'ns, a shining frame,
Their great original proclaim.

2 Th' unwearied sun, from day to day,
Doth his Creator's pow'r display;
And publishes to ev'ry land,
The work of an almighty hand.

3 Soon as the ev'ning shades prevail,
The moon takes up the wondrous tale;
And nightly to the list'ning earth

Repeats the story of her birth:

4 Whilst all the stars which round her burn, And all the planets in their turn,

Confirm the tidings as they roll,
And spread the truth from pole to pole.

5 What tho', in solemn silence, all
Move round this dark terrestrial ball;
What tho' no real voice nor sound,
Amidst their radiant orbs be found: