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learn the words of the Song of Moses: Deut. xxxi. 19-30; and we are directed in the New Testament, not only to sing with grace in the heart, but to teach and admonish one another by hymns and songs: Eph. v. 19. And there are these four advantages in it,

I. There is great delight in the very learning of truths and duties in this way. There is something so amusing and entertaining in rhymes and metre, that will incline children to make this part of their business a diversion. And you may turn their very duty into a reward, by giving them the privilege of learning one of these songs every week, if they fulfil the business of the week well, and promising them the book itself, when they have learned ten or twenty songs out of it.

II. What is learnt in verse is longer retained in memory and sooner recollected. The like sounds, and the like number of syllables, exceedingly assist the remembrance. And it may often happen, that the end of a song running in the mind, may be an effectual means to keep off some temptation, or to incline to some duty, when a word of Scripture is not upon their thoughts.

III. This will be a constant furniture for the minds of children, that they may have something to think upon when alone, and sing over to themselves. This may sometimes give their thoughts a divine turn, and raise a young meditation. Thus they will not be forced to seek relief for an emptiness of mind out of the loose and dangerous sonnets of the age.

IV. These DIVINE SONGS may be a pleasant and proper matter for their daily or weekly worship, to sing one in the family at such time as their parents or governors shall appoint; and therefore I have confined the verse to the most usual psalm tunes.

The greatest part of this little book was composed several years ago, at the request of a friend, who has been long engaged in the work of catechising a very great number of children of all kinds, and with abundant skill and success. So that you will find here nothing that savours of a party: the children of high and low degree; of the Church of England, or dissenters; baptized in infancy or not, may all join together in these songs. And as I have endeavoured to sink the lan

guage to the level of a child's understanding, and yet to keep it (if possible) above contempt; so, I have designed to profit all (if possible) and offend none. I hope the more general the sense is, these composures may be of the more universal use and service.

I have added at the end, some attempts of sonnets on moral subjects, for children, with an air of pleasantry, to provoke some fitter pen to write a little book of them.

May the Almighty God make you faithful in this important work of education; may he succeed your cares with his abundant grace, that the rising generation of Great Britain may be a glory among the nations, a pattern to the Christian world, and a blessing to the earth.

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A GENERAL SONG OF PRAISE TO GOD.

1 How glorious is our heav'nly King,
Who reigns above the sky!
How shall a child presume to sing
His dreadful Majesty?

2 How great his pow'r is none can tell, Nor think how large his grace;

Not men below, nor saints that dwell
On high before his face.

3 Not angels that stand round the Lord Can search his secret will;

But they perform his heav'nly word, And sing his praises still.

4 Then let me join this holy train,
And my first off'rings bring;
Th' eternal God will not disdain
To hear an infant sing.

6 My heart resolves, my tongue obeys, And angels shall rejoice,

To hear their mighty Maker's praise
Sound from a feeble voice.

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PRAISE FOR CREATION AND PROVIDENCE.

1 I SING th' almighty pow'r of God, That made the mountains rise; That spread the flowing seas abroad, And built the lofty skies.

2 I sing the wisdom that ordain'd The sun to rule the day;

The moon shines full at his command, And all the stars obey.

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