Wesley Corpus

Thro' racks and fires, into the arms of God. These are the Church of Christ, by torture driv'n To thrones triumphant with their friends in heav'n; Page 10 The Church of Christ (let all the nations own) The Church of Christ and England is but one! Yet vainly of our ancestors we boast, We who their faith and purity have lost, Degenerate branches from a noble seed, Corrupt, apostatiz'd, and doubly dead: Will God in such a church his work revive! It cannot be that these dry bones should live. But who to teach almighty grace shall dare? How far to suffer, and how long to spare? Shall man's bold hand our candlestick remove, Or cut us off from our Redeemer's love? Shall man presume to say, "There is no hope: God must forsake, for we have giv'n her up: To save a church so near the gates of hell, This is a thing with God impossible!" And yet this thing impossible is done, The Lord hath made his power and mercy known, Strangely reviv'd our long forgotten hope, And brought out of their graves his people up. Page 11 Soon as we prophesied in Jesu's name, The noise, the shaking, and the Spirit came! The bones spontaneous to each other cleav'd, The dead in sin his powerful word receiv'd, And felt the quickning breath of God, and liv'd. Dead souls to all the life of faith restor'd, (The house of Israel now) confess the Lord, His people and his Church, out of their graves They rise and testify that Jesus saves, That Jesus gives the multiplied increase, While one becomes a thousand witnesses. Nor can it seem to souls already freed Incredible, that God should wake the dead, Should farther still exert his saving power, And call, and quicken twice ten thousand more, Till our whole Church a mighty host becomes, And owns the Lord, the opener of their tombs. Servant of God, my yoke-fellow and friend, If God by us to the dry bones could send, By us out of their graves his people raise, By us display the wonders of his grace,