Hymn 46. Desiring to Praise God

Almighty author of my frame,

To thee my vital powers belong;

Thy praise, (delightful, glorious theme!)

Demands my heart, my life, my tongue.

My heart, my life, my tongue are thine:                                  

Oh be thy praise their blest employ!

But may my song with Angels join?

Nor sacred awe forbid the joy?

Thy glories, the seraphic lyre

On all its strings attempts in vain;                                                       

Then how shall mortals dare aspire

In thought, to try th’unequal strain?

Yet the great Sovereign of the skies

To mortals bends a gracious ear;

Nor the mean tribute will despise,                                                       

If offer’d with a heart sincere.

Great God, accept the humble praise,

And guide my heart, and guide my tongue,

While to thy name I trembling raise

The grateful, though unworthy song.               

Text: Timothy Whelan, gen. ed., Nonconformist Women Writers, 8 vols. (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2011), vol. 1, pp. 31-32; Collection of Hymns Adapted to Public Worship, no. 46 (all stanzas); Poems, 1780, vol. 1, pp. 1-2; MS, Steele Collection, STE 3/1/1 no. 1, Angus Library, Regents Park College,  Oxford.