THE FOUNDATION.
FAITH, though rational, is founded
Not on man, but God alone;
On the great Jehovah grounded,
Persons Three in essence One.
Who aright his Lord confesses,
Unremovable he stands,
Fixt on an eternal basis,
Stablished with almighty hands.
Not on vain imaginations
Do we, Lord, for proof depend; Not on fancied inspirations,
When Thou dost Thy Spirit send. Unenlightened reason leaves us
Nought to build our faith upon :
Evidence Thy Spirit gives us
Brighter than the mid-day sun.
Slighting nature's every feeling
We on grace alone rely:
God in us His Son revealing
Makes us Abba Father cry.
When we find the hidden Treasure,
Christ, discovered from above,
Then our souls perceive the pleasure,
Impulse sweet of Jesus' love.
O that all our blind gainsayers
Might the loving impulse feel!
Triune God, regard our prayers;
Thou in them Thyself reveal.
By the Spirit's demonstration
Teach their hearts the mystery;
Show to each the great salvation;
Tell him, I have pardoned thee.
Hymns on the Trinity, 1767.
RIGHT notions have their slender use,
But cannot a sound faith produce
Or vital piety:
They cannot make the Godhead known,
Or manifest Jehovah One
That virtue doth from Christ proceed;
That power which animates the dead
The Spirit of life exerts;
The Father His own Son reveals,
The triune God His image seals
With pardon on our hearts.
A fond imagination vain,
A shadow floating in the brain,
Which we for faith misdeem,
The mere result of nature's powers,
"T is not a work of God but ours,
'Tis all a waking dream.
The orthodox renowned in fight,
Fierce champions for opinions right,
May reason's strength display:
Their Arian and Socinian foes,
And heresy's whole household knows
The Truth as much as they.
The Truth that makes us free indeed,
We cannot learn it from our creed.
The Truth that sanctifies
To bring us faith returns from heaven,
And, Father, Son, and Spirit given,
Conducts us to the skies.
Jesus the Truth, the Life, the Way,
Thou in me with Thy Father stay,
Thou with Thy Spirit descend.
I then shall know Thee as Thou art,
The God who never will depart,
My soul's eternal Friend.
Hymns on the Trinity, 1767.
MYSTERIOUS God in Persons Three,
Stir up Thy judging power
'Gainst formal crowds who bow the knee,
And only seem to adore;
Who Father, Son, and Holy Ghost
Presume for theirs to claim,
Their zeal and orthodoxy boast,
Yet never knew Thy Name.
Full of themselves, with learned pride
Their talents they display,
And Thy true worshippers deride
That walk in Christ the Way,
That live by faith, the gift of God,
Confess Thee as Thou art,
And daily feel the sprinkled Blood
Which purifies our heart.
Concerning this we now agree,
Petitioners for them;
Who neither know themselves nor Thee,
The infidels condemn !
Convince them that their faith is vain,
A feeble, broken reed,
As standing in the words of men,
The letters of a creed.
Themselves they call the Church of God,
And heretics despise ;
But more contemptuously explode
The wisdom of the wise.
The heartfelt faith that works by love
They count a madman's dream,
And all Thy kingdom from above
With blindfold rage blaspheme.
Ah, Lord, in them the work begin,
Their confidence abase;
Drag out to light the hidden sin
Which poisons all our race.
Thy righteous wrath from heaven be shown, And fill their souls with grief,
And make the unbelievers groan
To feel their unbelief.
Now their foundation false o'erturn
With every show of good,
And all the superstructure burn,
The stubble, hay, and wood.
Let them with just abhorrence cast
Their virtuous rags away,
And humbled to the dust at last
For pardoning mercy pray.
When stript of all but sin they grieve
Their desperate state to see,
Spiritual understanding give
And real faith in Thee.
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