Praise to God, immortal praise

Praise to God, immortal praise. Anna Letitia Barbauld* (1743-1825). First published in William Enfield*’s Hymns for Public Worship (Warrington, 1772), with the title ‘Praise to God in Prosperity and Adversity’, and then in Barbauld’s Poems (1773). It is based on Habbakuk 3: 17-18 (the same text that inspired Cowper*’s ‘Sometimes a light surprises’*). This text was used for a hymn by the Revd John Seddon, rector of Warrington Academy, in 1769, and Barbauld’s hymn may have been written in response to it (or his to hers: see McCarthy and Kraft, 1994, pp. 255-6). It was frequently reprinted in Unitarian books of the late 18th and early 19th centuries (McCarthy and Kraft, pp. 255-6) and is found...