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Sincere Praise.

I.
1 ALmighty Maker God!
2 How wondrous is thy Name!
3 Thy Glories how diffus'd abroad
4 Thro' the Creations Frame!
II.
5 Nature in every Dress
6 Her humble Homage Pays,
7 And takes a Thousand Ways t' express
8 Thine Undissembled Praise.
III.
9 In Native White and Red
10 The Rose and Lilly stand,
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11 And free from Pride their Beauties spread
12 To show thy skilful Hand.
IV.
13 The Lark mounts up the Sky
14 With Unambitious Song,
15 And bears her Maker's Praise on high
16 Upon her Artless Tongue.
V.
17 My Soul would rise and Sing
18 To her Creator too,
19 Fain would my Tongue adore my King,
20 And Pay the Worship due.
VI.
21 But Pride that busie Sin
22 Spoils all that I perform,
23 Curs'd Pride, that creeps securely in,
24 And swells a haughty Worm.
VII.
25 Thy Glories I abate,
26 Or praise thee with Design;
27 Some of thy Favours I forget,
28 Or would have something mine.
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VIII.
29 The very Songs I frame
30 Are Faithless to thy Cause,
31 And steal the Honours of thy Name
32 Unto their own Applause.
IX.
33 Create my Soul anew,
34 Else all my Worship's vain;
35 This wretched Heart will ne'er be true
36 Until 'tis form'd again.
X.
37 Descend Celestial Fire,
38 And seize me from above,
39 Melt me in Flames of pure Desire
40 A Sacrifice to Love.
XI.
41 Let Joy and Worship spend
42 The Remnant of my Days,
43 And to my God my Soul ascend
44 In sweet Perfumes of Praise.

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Title (in Source Edition): Sincere Praise.
Author: Isaac Watts
Themes:
Genres: hymn

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Watts, Isaac, 1674-1748. Horæ lyricæ: Poems, chiefly of the lyric kind. In two books. ... By I. Watts. London: Printed by S. and D. Bridge, for John Lawrence at the Sign of the Angel in the Poultrey. MDCCVI., 1706, pp. 29-31. [20],267,[1]p.; 8⁰. (ESTC T82397; OTA K067329.000) (Page images digitized from a copy in the Princeton Theological Seminary Library.)

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The text has been typographically modernized, but without any silent modernization of spelling, capitalization, or punctuation. The source of the text is given and all editorial interventions have been recorded in textual notes. Based on the electronic text originally produced by the TCP project, this ECPA text has been edited to conform to the recommendations found in Level 5 of the Best Practices for TEI in Libraries version 4.0.0.

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