Song 59: God's Gracious Design in Bringing His Own People Under Affliction -
If God in fetters of distress
His favour'd people bind;
If heavy loads of grief oppress
Their body or their mind:
He means to shew to them their sin,
In thought, in word, and deed;
How they to excess did therein
All boundaries exceed.
He hereby causes them betimes,
With penitence, reflect
On all their base unkindly crimes,
His kindly hands correct.
He likewise strikes sin's growing power
Design'dly to restrain;
That in their heart and life no more
It may victorious reign.
When faulty saints deserve a blow,
He learns them by the rod,
More clearly than before, to know
Their duty and their God.
Unto instructive discipline
Their ears he opens wide,
Attentive to the laws divine,
From which they turn'd aside.
Their prospr'ous state had stopt their ear,
But now their adverse lot
Commands, with loud alarms, to hear
The voice of him that smote.
His grace alone, that makes t' obey,
Concurring with the rod,
Excites them straight, thro' Christ the way,
To turn from sin to God.
Light in darkness; or God's favour in man's fury: a Digression, applying the subject of the preceding Song to some known occurrences of our day.
Great is the majesty of God,
And greatly to be fear'd:
The voice of his afflicting rod
With rev'rence must be heard.
Oft took we his great name in vain;
How justly then he tries,
By raising men our names to stain,
With libels full of lies!
But love, in-laid with chastisements,
Ill projects undermines,
And mercifully circumvents
The wrathful man's designs.
Some bloody bulls, in this rude age,
Will, to the end of time,
Stand chronicled, for pride and rage
That fed the desperate crime.
Stern justice, turning friends to foes,
Makes them against us mad;
Yet mercy brings our well from woes,
Our bliss from what is bad.
God makes the wrath of man to flame,
For ends they do not know:
Our rich improvement is his aim,
But their's our overthrow.
When wild reproachers would us class,
And damn with devilish elves,
Their unjust censures make us pass
Just censures on ourselves.
Their cruelty makes us more kind
Than e'er we were before:
Their lies and falsehoods make us mind
To value truth the more.
Their lawless fury makes us trace
God's just and holy laws:
Their causeless rage makes us confess
His anger's righteous cause.
Disorders, that with them prevail,
Make us good order seek:
Their passionate and fiery zeal
Makes us sedate and meek.
Their lofty aims to domineer,
Make arrogance our dread:
Their separating ways endear
Our union to the Head.
Good from their ill, beyond their ken,
Through grace, to us doth rise:
Their madness makes us sober men;
Their folly makes us wise.
His favour'd people bind;
If heavy loads of grief oppress
Their body or their mind:
He means to shew to them their sin,
In thought, in word, and deed;
How they to excess did therein
All boundaries exceed.
He hereby causes them betimes,
With penitence, reflect
On all their base unkindly crimes,
His kindly hands correct.
He likewise strikes sin's growing power
Design'dly to restrain;
That in their heart and life no more
It may victorious reign.
When faulty saints deserve a blow,
He learns them by the rod,
More clearly than before, to know
Their duty and their God.
Unto instructive discipline
Their ears he opens wide,
Attentive to the laws divine,
From which they turn'd aside.
Their prospr'ous state had stopt their ear,
But now their adverse lot
Commands, with loud alarms, to hear
The voice of him that smote.
His grace alone, that makes t' obey,
Concurring with the rod,
Excites them straight, thro' Christ the way,
To turn from sin to God.
Light in darkness; or God's favour in man's fury: a Digression, applying the subject of the preceding Song to some known occurrences of our day.
Great is the majesty of God,
And greatly to be fear'd:
The voice of his afflicting rod
With rev'rence must be heard.
Oft took we his great name in vain;
How justly then he tries,
By raising men our names to stain,
With libels full of lies!
But love, in-laid with chastisements,
Ill projects undermines,
And mercifully circumvents
The wrathful man's designs.
Some bloody bulls, in this rude age,
Will, to the end of time,
Stand chronicled, for pride and rage
That fed the desperate crime.
Stern justice, turning friends to foes,
Makes them against us mad;
Yet mercy brings our well from woes,
Our bliss from what is bad.
God makes the wrath of man to flame,
For ends they do not know:
Our rich improvement is his aim,
But their's our overthrow.
When wild reproachers would us class,
And damn with devilish elves,
Their unjust censures make us pass
Just censures on ourselves.
Their cruelty makes us more kind
Than e'er we were before:
Their lies and falsehoods make us mind
To value truth the more.
Their lawless fury makes us trace
God's just and holy laws:
Their causeless rage makes us confess
His anger's righteous cause.
Disorders, that with them prevail,
Make us good order seek:
Their passionate and fiery zeal
Makes us sedate and meek.
Their lofty aims to domineer,
Make arrogance our dread:
Their separating ways endear
Our union to the Head.
Good from their ill, beyond their ken,
Through grace, to us doth rise:
Their madness makes us sober men;
Their folly makes us wise.
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