CHEAP REPOSITORY.

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    A New Chriſtmas Carol,

                    CALLED

 The Merry Chriſtmas, and Happy New Year.

I SING (O ye neighbours come lend me
your ear)
Of a good merry Chriſtmas and happy new
year ;
But left ye ſhould blunder and take me
quite wrong,
Ye muft liften awhile to the turn of my ſong,

There is frolickſome Jack, he will hear with
ſurprize
That by merry I mean being merry and
wife ;
And by happy new year what I with and
intend
Is, may Jack be ſo happy this year as to
mend.

See there's Dick at the alehouſe who counts
it no crime ;
For Chriſtmas he argues is holiday time ;
Dick's holiday thus is a drunken day ſolely,
Whereas holiday ſure means a day that is
holy.

But here with moll humble ſubmiſſion I
crave
The kind leave of my Readers to grow
rather grave ;
And I hope it can't hurt you, ye ſons of
good cheer !
To hear a grave truth juſt for once in a
year.

In the days of old time (as we find from a
book
Into which it is not much the faſhion to look)
There liv'd (you may read it yourſelf if
you chuſe)
A moſt famous and much favour'd nation
of Jews.

Theſe Jews (of whoſe children you ſtill may
fee ſome)
Believ'd in a Chriſt and a Chriſtmas to come ;
And were thought one and all to be Jews
good and true ;
As well might one doubt that good Chriſ-
tians are you,

And yet it did prove to their horrible ſhame,
When this Chriſt long expected and Chriſt-
mas day came,
Tho' inſtructed before in the whole of the
plan,                     
That theſe Jews did ſo blunder they knew
not the man.

For in truth they were wanton and worldly
at heart,
And of ſome worldly kingdom they wanted
a part ;
They deſir'd a falſe Chriſt who might pleaſe
each gay ſenſe,
And the true one of courſe gave them
dreadful offence.

His mercy they ſcorn'd, from his truths they
diſſented,
If he warn'd them of danger their paſſion
they vented ;
Nay they dy'd their own hands in this Holy
One's blood,
So the wrath of juſt Heaven ſwept them off
like a flood,

Ye Chriſtians fo gay, who believe without
thinking,
And ſtill keep your Chriſtmas by dancing
and drinking !
As you read this ſhort ſtory, perhaps it
may ſtrike,
That a Jew and a Chriſtian may blunder
alike.

For they both to true faith may make civil
pretenſion,
Yet may both truſt a Chriſt of their own vain
invention ;
And when told of their blunder they both
may feel fore,
And the Chriſtian reſent what the Jew did
before.

Then ceaſe, drunken Dick ! by your diſſo-
lute mirth
To record the bleſt day of your Jeſus's
birth ;
And take heed, giddy Jack ! how your
dance you purfue,
Left your keeping of Chriſlmas ſhould prove
you a few.