Joseph Boyse › Recommendations

Boyse, Joseph, was born at Leeds in 1660, received a good education, and in 1683 became a Presbyterian minister in Dublin, a position he maintained with honour and usefulness until his death in 1728. His prose works, chiefly sermons and controversial treatises, were collected and published by himself in two large folios, London, 1728. He was the author of two collections of hymns. The first, printed in Dublin, in 1693 (small 8vo) with another title-page (London, 1693, Thomas Parkhurst, Cheapside), is entitled as follows:—
"Sacramental Hymns collected chiefly out of such passages of the New Testament as contain the most suitable matter of Divine Praises in the celebration of the Lord's Supper. To which is added one hymn relating to Baptism and another to the Ministry. By J. Boyse, with some by other hands."
Those by "other hands" are 3 in number, viz. one by G. Herbert, and two by Patrick. Of the remaining 21 by Boyse himself, 18 are for use at the Lord's Supper. From the fact that in the hymn on Baptism immersion is the only mode recognized, it is pretty certain that the author was Baptist in sentiment, though Presbyterian in ecclesiastical position. The other collection by Boyse was printed at Dublin in 1691. It contains 76 hymns, in three parts, with music, and is entitled: —
Family Hymn for Morning and Evening Worship, with some for the Lord's days . . . All taken out of the Psalms of David. A copy is in the Antrim Presbytery Library at Queen's College, Belfast.
Boyse's hymns are interesting from their early date, but have no merit as poetry. The hymn "Come pay the worship God requires" (Divine Worship), in Martineau's Hymns, 1840, No. 42, is by this author. [Rev. W. R. Stevenson, M.A.]

-- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)