Hymns Occasioned by the Earthquake, Part II, 6

Righteous Lord, Thy people spare!
Lo! we turn at last to Thee,
Humbly the correction bear
Of our past iniquity.
Own the cause of our distress,
Mournfully our sins confess.

We Thy judgments have abhorr'd,
We Thy covenant have broke,
Daringly denied our Lord,
Cast away His easy yoke,
Would not cast our sins away.
Would not know our gracious day.

Therefore is the plague begun,
Therefore doth it still proceed;

Wrath Divine by means unknown,
Wrath Divine hath done the deed,
Made the stalls and pastures void,
God our cattle hath destroy d.
Heavier woes He keeps in store.

If we still refuse to turn,
Dare His anger's utmost power,
All His lingering pity scorn;
But beneath Thy hand we bow,
Stay Thy plague, and save us now.
Jesu, save us from our sins.
Save us from our plague of heart,
All of unbelief convince,
All unto Thyself convert;
Let our sin-sick spirits find
Thee the Healer of mankind.

No delight Thy goodness hath
In the death of him who dies;

Grant us then the living faith,
Faith that on Thy blood relies,
Faith that all Thy grace receives,
Faith that all Thy fulness gives.

HYMN Vn.
Righteous, O Lord, are all Thy ways!
Thy judgments in the ancient days
On unrepenting sinners fell;
Thy wrath descended, in a flood,
On a whole world that knew not God,
And swept their thoughtless souls to hell.
Yet in the universal wreck
Thou didst a kind exception make.

In favour of a child of Thine:
Thou didst for him an ark provide.
And safely with his household hide
The heir of righteousness Divine.

Thou art in every age the same.
And when our crimes the vengeance claim.
And when our measure is fiU'd up,
Thine anger yet again shall bum,
And force them who Thy mercies spurn,
To drink the bitter trembling cup.
Thou, Lord, out of Thy place shalt rise,
Open the windows of the skies,
To plague the people of Thine ire.
Thy flaming ministers employ,
And terribly at last destroy
The wicked with a flood of fire.

Great God, if now Thy day is near,
Alarm us with a sacred fear.

And snatch from a devoted race,
A world, who, as Thy Son foretold.
Harden their hearts like those of old.

And live corrupt in all their ways.
They eat, they drink, they plant, they build;
Their hearts, with cares and pleasures fill'd,
No room can find for thoughts of Thee,
Till the last dreadful plagues commence,
And sweep their careless spirits hence
Into a sad eternity.

But wilt Thou not Thine own secure.
The men, who great distress endure.

And cruel mockings for Thy sake;
Who tremble at Thy tokens nigh.
And to the Ark of mercy fly,
And Jesu's wounds their refuge make!
Surely Thou wilt Thy word fulfil.
And give Thy caution'd people still.
Within the sacred Ark to rest;
Even now by faith we enter in,
And mount above the floods of sin,
Secure in our Redeemer's breast.

Superior to the storms below,
The various storms of human woe,
Shut up in Christ we mount, we rise,
Buoy'd by His mighty Spirit up.
Above the highest mountain's top.

Above the ruin'd earth, and skies.
When earth and skies are all on fire,
We then shall mount divinely higher,
As by E/iJa/i's whirlwind driven.
Triumphant o'er the blazing flood,
The church, and family of God,
Our Ark and we shall rest in heaven.
HYMN Vni.