Submission to Afflictive Providences

Naked as from the earth we came, And crept to life at first.

Author: Isaac Watts
Published in 117 hymnals

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Representative Text

Naked as from the earth we came,
And crept to life at first,
We to the earth return again,
And mingle with our dust.

The dear delights we here enjoy,
And fondly call our own,
Are but short favors borrowed now,
To be repaid anon.

'Tis God that lifts our comforts high,
Or sinks them in the grave;
He gives, and, blessed be his name!
He takes but what he gave.

Peace, all our angry passions, then;
Let each rebellious sigh
Be silent at his sovereign will,
And every murmur die.

If smiling mercy crown our lives,
Its praises shall be spread;
And we'll adore the justice too
That strikes our comforts dead.



Source: The Psalms and Hymns of Dr. Watts #331

Author: Isaac Watts

Isaac Watts was the son of a schoolmaster, and was born in Southampton, July 17, 1674. He is said to have shown remarkable precocity in childhood, beginning the study of Latin, in his fourth year, and writing respectable verses at the age of seven. At the age of sixteen, he went to London to study in the Academy of the Rev. Thomas Rowe, an Independent minister. In 1698, he became assistant minister of the Independent Church, Berry St., London. In 1702, he became pastor. In 1712, he accepted an invitation to visit Sir Thomas Abney, at his residence of Abney Park, and at Sir Thomas' pressing request, made it his home for the remainder of his life. It was a residence most favourable for his health, and for the prosecution of his literary… Go to person page >

Text Information

First Line: Naked as from the earth we came, And crept to life at first.
Title: Submission to Afflictive Providences
Author: Isaac Watts
Meter: 8.6.8.6
Language: English
Copyright: Public Domain

Notes

Naked as from the earth we came. I. Watts. [Submission.] First published in his Hymns and Spiritual Songs, 1707 (edition 1709, Bk. i., No. v.), on Job i. 21, in 5 stanzas of 4 lines, and entitled "Submission to afflictive Providence." In this form its use is limited. In the 1745 Draft Translations and Paraphrases of the Church of Scotland it was included, unaltered; but in the authorized edition of 1781, No. iii., it was given in a recast form, in which stanzas i.-iii. were Watts's rewritten, and stanza iv. was new. This recast, which has been in use in the Church of Scotland for more than one hundred years, is claimed for W. Cameron in the markings by his daughter of the 1781 Translations & Paraphrases.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

Tune

HATFIELD (Billings)

Hymn Tune Index #6444. Printed in Nehemiah Shumway, The American Harmony (Philadelphia: John M’Culloch, 1793). Attributed to William Billings in Solomon Howe, The Psalm-Singer’s Amusement (ca. 1804).

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ARLINGTON (Arne)


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The Cyber Hymnal #12232
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The Shenandoah Harmony #29

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The Cyber Hymnal #12232

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