A FAREWELL TO THE WORLD. Presence of God, who takes my part, So sweetens all event! He is the patience of my heart, FROM THE FRENCH. WORLD adieu, thou real cheat! Oft have thy deceitful charms Fill'd my heart with fond conceit, Foolish hopes, and false alarms: Now I see, as clear as day, How thy follies pass away. Vain thy entertaining sights; False thy promises renew'd; All the pomp of thy delights Does but flatter and delude: Thee I quit for Heav'n above, Objects of the noblest love. Farewell honour's empty pride! Thy own nice, uncertain gust, If the least mischance betide, Lays thee lower than the dust: Worldly honours end in gall, Rise to day, to morrow fall. Foolish vanity, farewell! More inconstant than the wave; Where thy soothing fancies dwell, Purest tempers they deprave: He, to whom I fly from thee, Jesus Christ, shall set me free. Never shall my wandering mind Follow after fleeting toys; Since in God alone I find Solid and substantial joys: Lord, how happy is a heart; Thou shalt answer its desires: It shall see the glorious scene Of thy everlasting reign. AN HYMN. FROM THE FRENCH. How charming! to be thus confin'd These very ills are my delight; My pleasures rise from pains; The punishments, that most affright, Become my wish'd-for gains: Whatever torments they excite, Pure sighing love remains. Pain is no object of my fear, THE SOUL'S TENDENCY TOWARDS ITS TRUE CENTRE. STONES towards the earth descend; Rivers to the ocean roll; Every motion has some end: "Mine is, where my Saviour is; Love the force that doth impel." Speed along thy quick'ning pace! "Thank thee for thy gen'rous care: Heav'n, that did the wish inspire, Through thy instrumental pray'r, Plumes the wings of my desire. "Now, methinks, aloft I fly: Now, with angels bear a part: Glory be to God on high! Peace to ev'ry Christian heart!" THE DESPONDING SOUL'S WISH. My spirit longeth for thee, Within my troubled breast; Altho' I be unworthy Of so divine a guest. Of so divine a guest, No rest is to be found, But in thy blessed love; O! let my wish be crown'd, And send it from above! THE ANSWER. CHEER up, desponding soul; And left my Father's throne; From death to set thee free, To claim thee for my own. To claim thee for my own, I suffer'd on the cross: No soul could fear its loss, But, fill'd with love divine, Would die on its own cross, And rise for ever mine. AN HYMN TO JESUS. FROM THE LATIN OF ST. BERNARD. JESU! the soul that thinks on thee, No sound can dwell upon the tongue, Jesu! the penitent's retreat, Jesu! the source of life and light, That mak'st the mind so blest and bright; This can no tongue that ever spoke, A PARAPHRASE And the men who dwell on it, his children, for whom It has pleas'd him that Christ the Redeemer should come; Yet his church must consist, in all saving respect, Now this excellent pray'r, in this seuse of the For the catholic church more especially prays; And profess to be Christians, may be so indeed; No partial distinction is here to be sought; And the nations, converted, bring on the great Mean while, tho' eternity be her chief care, The compassion, here taught, is unlimited too, ON THE PRAYER, USED IN THE CHURCH LITURGY, Prays that all may obtain its beneficent ends; FOR ALL SORTS AND CONDITIONS OF MEN. It will bear the repeating again and again, His true saving health, by the nations all round. But tho' all the whole world, in a sense that is And whenever the suff'rings, here needful, are past, The particular mention of such, as desire All which she entreats, for his sake, to be done, And to them, who shall suffer, whoever they be, The church is indeed, in its real intent, And the utter extinction of foeship, and wrath, By the working of love, in the strength of its This gives it its holy, and catholic name, [faith: And truly confirms its apostolic claim; [been, Showing what the one Saviour's one mission had "Go and teach all the world"-ev'ry creature therein. In the praise ever due to the gospel of grace, Its universality holds the first place: When an angel proclaim'd its glad tidings, the morn That the Son of the Virgin, the Saviour was born; "Which shall be to all people" was said to complete The angelical message, so good, and so great; And of goodness to men, is so boundless a love. This short supplication, or litany, read, When the longer with us is not wont to be said, To pray without ceasing, or limiting thought; THE PRAYER OF RUSBROCHIUS. O MERCIFUL Lord! by the good which thou art, May I pay to all men a becoming respect, If shown to myself, let me learn to endure, Let my pure, simple aim, in whatever it be, Wishing all the world well; but intent to fulfil, Be they pleas'd, or displeas'd, thy adorable will. Preserve me, dear Lord, from presumption and pride, [fide: That upon my own actions would tempt to conLet me have no dependence on any but thine, With a right faith, and trust, in thy merits divine: Still ready prepar'd, in each requisite hour, Both to will, and to work, as thou givest the pow'r; But may on thy love flame thro' all my whole heart, And a false selfish fire not affect the least part. To this end, let thine arrow pierce deeply Letting out all the filth, and corruption of sin; Of the weakness, the folly, the malice alone, Never let me forget, never, while I draw breath, What thou hast done for me, thy passion, and death! The wounds, and the griefs, of thy body, and soul, To hearts, in the bond of thy charity knit, By a mind, if thou pleasest, as willing to want. The amusements, on which it once set such a Are now as insipid, as grateful before; To the thought of religious, or secular friends, And in their heart, and mine, make thyself under stood. Extinguish, O Lord, let not any one take A complacence in me, which is not for thy sake; In me too root out the respect, of all kind, Which does not arise from thy love in my mind: No sorrow be spar'd, no affliction, no cross, That may further this love, or recover its loss; This is always thy meaning; O let it be mine To confess myself guilty, repent, and resign. With a real contempt of all self-seeking views, To embrace, for my choice, what thy wisdom shall choose; Looking up still to thee, to receive all event Which it wills, or permits, with a thankful con tent: Not regarding what men shall do to me, or why, Tho' unworthy to ask it, poor sinner! I trust The design to save sinners saw rightly fulfil: FROM MR. LAW'S SPIRIT OF PRAYER. OH heav'nly Father! gracious God, above! Thou boundless depth of never-ceasing love! Save me from self, and cause me to depart From sinful works of a long hearden'd heart; From all my great corruptions set me free; Give me an ear to hear, an eye to see, An heart and spirit to believe, and find Thy love in Christ, the Saviour of mankind. Made for thyself, O God, and to display Thy goodness in me, manifest, I pray, By grace adapted to each wanting hour, Thy holy nature's life-conferring pow'r: Give me the faith, the hunger, and the thirst, After the life breath'd forth from thee, at first; Birth of thy holy Jesus in my soul; That I may turn, thro' life's succeeding whole, From ev'ry outward work, or inward thought, Which is not thee, or in thy spirit wrought, ON ATTENTION. SACRED attention! true effectual prayer! Till fir'd at length by Heaven's enlivening beams, A PRAYER, USED BY FRANCIS THE FIRST, WHEN HE WAS AT ALMIGHTY Lord of Hosts, by whose commands If right and duty, not the will to war, A COMMENT ON THE FOLLOWING PASSAGE, IN THE GENERAL CONFESSION OF SINS, USED IN THE CHURCHLITURGY. -According to thy promises declared unto mankind in Christ Jesu our Lord. 'ACCORDING to thy promises"-hereby, "Declar'd"-by all the ministers of peace, "Unto mankind"-not only to the Jews, Christians, or Turks, in writings which they use, Writ on the tablet of each conscious heart, Repent, from all iniquity depart Not for no purpose; for the plain intent [sur'd "In Christ" by whom true scripture has asRedeeming grace for penitents procur'd; The fainter hopes, which reason may suggest, Are deeply, by the gospel's aid, imprest: 'Twas always hop'd for was the promis'd good, But, by his coming, clearly understood. "Jesu"-Jehovah's manifested love, In Christ, th' anointed Saviour from above; "Our Lord"-our new, and true parental head; FOR THE DUE IMPROVEMENT OF A FUNERAL SOLEMNITY. AROUND the grave of a departed friend, If due concern has prompted to attend, Deep, on our minds, let the affecting scenes "He that believes on me" (what Christ had said The patient Job, by such a faith within, [skin Strengthning his heart, could say "This mortal Destroyed, I know that my Redeemer lives"In flesh and blood, which his redemption givesJob, from the dust, expected to arise, And stand before his God with seeing eyes. The royal Psalmist saw this life of man, How vain, how short, at its most lengthen'd span: Conscious in whom the human trust should be, "Truly my hope," he said, "is ev'n in thee"And pray'd for its recover'd strength, before He went from hence, here to be seen no more. The mystic chapter is rehears'd, wherein Paul sings the triumph over death, and sin; The glorious body, freed from earthly leav'n, Image and likeness of the Lord from Heav'n; For such th' abounding in his work shall gain; Labour, we know that never is in vain. Hence comes the sure and certain hope, to rise In Christ; tho' man, as born of woman, dies: True life, which Adam dy'd to, at his fall, And Christ, the sinless Adam, can recall, By a new, heav'nly birth, from him, revives, And breathes, again, God's holy breath of lives. A voice from Heav'n bad hearing John record, "Blest are the dead, the dying in the Lord" In them, the pray'r, which man's Redeemer will'd That men should pray, is perfectly fulfill'd: This perfect sense the words, that we repeat, Require to make the pay'd-for good complete. Thanks then are due for all the faithful dead, Departed hence, to be with Christ their head; And pray'r, unfainting, for his-"Come, ye blest Come, ye true children, enter into rest; Live in my Father's kingdom, and in mine, In grace, and love, and fellowship divine." Is that which gives external modes a worth, Now what this is, exclusive of all strife, Christianity, that has not Christ within, The will of God, the saving of mankind, If Christ has put an end to rites of old, Is still the same; and, to its Saviour's praise, By hearty love, and correspondent rites Church unity is held, and faith's increase, PART SECOND. IF once establish'd the essential part, To make an outward correspondence true, We must recur to Christ's example too. Now, in his outward form of life, we find Goodness demonstrated of ev'ry kind; What he was born for, that he show'd throughout; It was the bus'ness that he went about; Love, kindness, and compassion to display Tow'rds ev'ry object coming in his way. But love so high, humility so low, And all the virtues which his actions show; His doing good, and his enduring ill, For man's salvation and God's holy will, Exceed all terms-his inward, outward plan Was love to God, express'd by love to man. Mark of the church, which he establish'd, then, Is the same love, same proof of it to men; U |