Wesley Corpus

Divided 'gainst itself so long How could a kingdom stand, Had we not a Redeemer, strong To prop our tottering land? Had he not left himself a seed Who deprecate the woe, Who day and night for mercy plead, And still suspend the blow. Page 12 Still let thy praying seed prevail Our evils to remove, Till mercy turns the hovering scale, And justice yields to love; His king till every Briton owns With warmest loyalty, And faction's and rebellion's sons Stretch out their hands to thee. Now, Lord, a gracious token show, The stoutest hearts incline Their own true happiness to know, Their common foes' design; Against ourselves who turn our swords, That they the spoils may gain, And rise at last despotic lords, And by our ruin reign. Why should the specious fiend deceive The many by the few? Saviour, the multitude forgive; They know not what they do; They fancy those their country's friends, Who hasten on its doom, And blindly serve the treacherous ends Of tyranny and Rome. Open their eyes almighty grace, The latent snare to see, That brethren may again embrace In closest amity; Britons no more with Britons fight, No more our God oppose, Let Europe then their powers unite, And all the world be foes. Page 13 Hymn VIII. A Prayer for the Congress. True is the oracle divine, The sentence which thy lips hath past, Tho' hand in hand the wicked join, They shall not, Lord, escape at last; Who for a while triumphant seem, Curst with their own false heart's desire, Their empire is a fleeting dream, Their hopes shall all in smoke expire. Surely thou wilt full vengeance take On rebels 'gainst their king and God, And strictest inquisition make For rivers spilt of guiltless blood, By men who take thy name in vain, By fiends in sanctity's disguise, As thou wert serv'd with nations slain, Or pleas'd with human sacrifice. Thou know'st thine own appointed time Th' ungodly homicides to quell, Chastise their complicated crime, And break their covenant with hell: Thy plagues shall then o'erwhelm them all, From proud ambition's summit driven; And faith foresees th' usurpers fall, As Lucifer cast down from heaven.