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LONGING FOR The Second Coming OF CHRIST.

I.
1 WHEN shall thy Shining Face be seen?
2 When shall our Eyes behold our God?
3 What lengths of Distance lie between,
4 And Hills of Guilt, a Heavy Load!
II.
5 Our Months are Ages of Delay,
6 And slowly every Minute wears;
7 Fly winged Time, and roll away
8 These tedious Rounds of Sluggish Years.
III.
9 Ye Heavenly Gates, loose all your Chains,
10 Let the Eternal Pillars bow,
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11 Dear Saviour, Cleave the Starry Plains,
12 And make the Chrystal Mountains flow.
IV.
13 Hark how thy Saints unite their Cries,
14 And pray and wait the General Doom,
15 Come, thou the Soul of all our Joys,
16 Thou the Desire of Nations, come.
V.
17 Put thy bright Robes of Triumph on,
18 And bless our Eyes, and bless our Ears,
19 Thou absent Love, thou Dear Unknown,
20 Thou Fairest of ten thousand Fairs.
VI.
21 Our Heart-strings groan with deep Complaint,
22 Our Flesh lies panting, Lord, for thee,
23 And every Limb and every Joynt
24 Stretches for Immortality.
VII.
25 Our Spirits shake their Eager Wings,
26 And burn to meet thy rolling Throne,
27 We rise away from Mortal things
28 To attend thy Shining Chariot down!
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VIII.
29 Now let our Chearful Eyes survey
30 The blazing Earth and melting Hills,
31 And smile to see the Lightnings play,
32 And flash along before thy Wheels.
IX.
33 O for a shout of Violent Joys
34 To Joyn the Trumpets thundring sound!
35 The Angel Herald shakes the Skies,
36 Awakes the Graves, and tears the Ground.
X.
37 Ye Slumbring Saints, a Heavenly Host
38 Stands waiting at your gaping Tombs,
39 Let every Sacred Sleeping Dust
40 Leap into Life, for Jesus comes.
XI.
41 Jesus the God of Might and Love
42 New moulds our Limbs of Cumbrous Clay,
43 Quick as Seraphick Flames we move,
44 Active and Young and Fair as they.
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XII.
45 Our airy Feet with unknown flight
46 Swift as the motions of Desire
47 Run up the Hills of Heavenly Light,
48 And leave the Weltring World in Fire.

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Title (in Source Edition): LONGING FOR The Second Coming OF CHRIST.
Author: Isaac Watts
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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. 34-37. [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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