HYMN II.
[God of unbounded power]
1
God of unbounded power,
God of unwearied love,
Be present in our dangerous hour,
Our danger to remove;
To guard our favourite land,
So oft preserved by Thee,
Come, Lord, and in the channel stand,
Come, and block up the sea.
Refuse them leave to pass,
Forbid them to draw nigher;
Surround us as a wall of brass,
As battlements of fire.
Our lives, our threaten'd coast
Beneath Thy shadow take,
And turn aside the alien host,
And drive the ruffians back.
2
Or if Thine awful will
Admit our Romish foe,
And force the sleeping crowd to feel
The long-suspended blow;
If justice stern hath pass'd
The' irrevocable doom,
And arm'd with Britain's sins at last
The ravagers must come;
Come first, Thou Man in white,[_]
Compare verse 3, et seq., page 79.
3
Come then, ye hostile bands,
For one short moment come;
The Man in white shall bind your hands,
Ye murderers of Rome:
If suffer'd from on high
To reach our threaten'd shore,
With bridles in your mouth draw nigh,
And show your bounded power.
Your power to God submits;
He keeps our faithful souls;
Above the water-floods He sits,
And earth and hell controls:
In dangers, deaths, and snares
He lays the sacred line;
Nor can ye touch a man that bears
His Saviour's bloody sign.
