PSALM 50. Third Part. (L. M.) Hypocrisy exposed.
I
The Lord, the Judge, his churches warns,
Let hypocrites attend and fear,
Who place their hope in rites and forms,
But make not faith nor love their care.
II
Vile wretches dare rehearse his name
With lips of falsehood and deceit;
A friend or brother they defame,
And sooth and flatter those they hate.
III
They watch to do their neighbours wrong,
Yet dare to seek their Maker's face;
They take his covenant on their tongue,
But break his laws, abuse his grace.
IV
To heaven they lift their hands unclean,
Defil'd with lust, defil'd with blood;
By night they practise every sin,
By day their mouths draw near to God.
V
And while his judgments long delay,
They grow secure and sin the more;
They think he sleeps as well as they,
And put far off the dreadful hour.
VI
O dreadful hour! when God draws near,
And sets their crimes before their eyes!
His wrath their guilty souls shall tear,
And no deliverer dare to rise.
This psalm having a plain reference to the Last Judgment, I have
in the first part, omitted every thing that might obscure the sense
of it.
The latter part of this psalm being designed to expose and terrify
all formal worshippers and hypocrites, I have formed two or three
hymns on that subject, with some transposition and paraphrase of the
verses; but I have kept the same introduction still, by repeating the
first verse of the psalm.
