A HYMN. James Merrick Alexander Huber Editor Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
Broad Street Oxford OX1 3BG UK
Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive
Taylor Institution Library St Giles' Oxford OX1 3NA UK info@eighteenthcenturypoetry.org https://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/
Oxford This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. T116245 1122 K093079.001 Pearch, G. A collection of poems in four volumes. By several hands. Vol. I. [The second edition]. London printed for G. Pearch 1770 pp. 148-151. 4v. ; 8⁰.

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A HYMN . BY THE SAME .
PART I. GOD of my health , whose tender care First gave me power to move , How shall my thankful heart declare The wonders of thy love ? While void of thought and sense I lay , Dust of my parent Earth , Thy breath inform'd the sleeping clay , And call'd me to the birth . From Thee the parts their fashion took , E'er life was yet begun , And in the volume of thy Book Were written one by one . Thine eye beheld in open view The yet unfinish'd plan : The portrait lines thy pencil drew , And form'd the future Man . O may this frame , that rising grew Beneath thy plastic hands , Be studious ever to pursue Whate'er thy Will commands ! The Soul , that moves this earthly load , Thy semblance let it bear , Nor lose the traces of the God Who stamp'd his image there .
PART II . THOU , who within this earthly shrine Hast pour'd thy quick'ning ray , O ! let thine influence on me shine , And purge each mist away . With curious search let others ask Thro' Nature's depths to see : O teach my soul the better task , To know itself and Thee ! Teach me to know how weak the mind That yields to erring pride ; And let my doubting Reason find Thy Word its safest guide . Let me not , lost in Learning's maze , Religion's flame resign : For what's the worth of human praise , Compar'd , my God , to Thine ? Keep in my soul the strong delight , The hopes that in me rise , While Faith presents before my sight The bliss that never dies . O be those Hopes my only boast , That Faith my whole employ , Till Faith in Knowledge shall be lost , And Hope in fullest Joy !
PART III . WHERE-E'ER I turn my wakeful thought , Unnumber'd foes I see : Guide of my youth , forsake me not , But lead me safe to Thee . As on I press , Distrust and Doubt Dissuasive step between ; While Pleasures tempt me from without , And Passions war within . Yet , fix'd on Thee , I lose each fear , Each vain assault I brave : I know Thee , Lord , nor slow to hear , Nor impotent to save . O cast my errors from thy sight , And let them pass away , Unheeded , as a watch by night , Or as a cloud by day . So while , in secret thought arraign'd , O'er my past life I go , And mark how oft I urg'd thy hand To strike th' avenging blow , So oft shall my repeated lays My thankful heart declare , And joy to celebrate thy praise , Whose Mercy deign'd to spare .