1 O Righteous God, thou judge supreme,
We tremble at thy dreadful name,
And all our trying guilt we own
In dust and tears before thy throne.
2 So manifold our crimes have been,
Such crimson tincture dyes our sin,
That, could we all its horrors know,
Our streaming eyes with blood might flow.
3 Estrang'd from reverential awe,
We trample on thy sacred law;
And, tho' such wonders grace hath done,
Anew we crucify his Son.
4 Justly might this polluted land,
Prove all the vengeance of thy hand;
And bath'd in heav'n, thy sword might come
To drink our blood, and seal our doom.
5 Yet hast thou not a remnant here,
Whose souls are fill'd with pious fear?
O bring thy wonted mercy nigh,
While prostrate at thy feet they lie.
6 Behold their tears, attend their moan,
Nor turn away their secret groan:
With these we join our humble pray'r;
Our nation shield, our country spare.
7 [But if the sentence be decreed,
And our dear native land must bleed,
By thy sure mark may we be known,
And save in life or death thy own.]
Source: The Hartford Selection of Hymns: from the most approved authors: to which are added a number never before published (2nd ed.) #CCCXLVII
Philip Doddridge (b. London, England, 1702; d. Lisbon, Portugal, 1751) belonged to the Non-conformist Church (not associated with the Church of England). Its members were frequently the focus of discrimination. Offered an education by a rich patron to prepare him for ordination in the Church of England, Doddridge chose instead to remain in the Non-conformist Church. For twenty years he pastored a poor parish in Northampton, where he opened an academy for training Non-conformist ministers and taught most of the subjects himself. Doddridge suffered from tuberculosis, and when Lady Huntington, one of his patrons, offered to finance a trip to Lisbon for his health, he is reputed to have said, "I can as well go to heaven from Lisbon as from Nort… Go to person page >
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