Six centuries of select hymns and spiritual songs collected out of the Holy Bible together with a catechism, the canticles, and a catalogue of vertuous women / by William Barton.

HYMN 258. The Brother-hood.

Give laud, &c.

Zech. 7.9.

THUS speaks the Lord of Hosts, let every man of you, In all the Lands and Coasts, just judgment now pursue, And mercy show, Even all ye can, to every man; both friend and foe.

And do not ye oppress the Widow any more, Nor wrong the Fatherless the Stranger nor the Poor: Let none of you His Brother judge, nor bear him grudge whate're ye do.

But they refus'd to hear, and pull'd their neck away, And stopt their willfull ear from all that I did say▪ Yea every one Did quite depart, and make their heart as th' Adamant Stone.

Lest they should hear the Law, and Words which God had sent, Which former Prophets saw, and call'd them to repent: Therefore there came On Israel's Land by God's command great Wrath to flame.

And therefore as He cry'd, and yet they would not hear, So was their cry deny'd, and I would not give ear, Saith God of Hosts: And thus alas! It came to pass in Israel's Coasts.

So I did scatter them as when fierce whirlwinds blow, Among all Nations then, and whom they did not know; And thus their Land And whole Estate lay desolate by God's Command.

Thus was it with the Jew, their Land was left forlorn, That no man might pass through, nor any might return: For their own hand Lay'd desolate that delicate and pleasant Land.