Wesley Corpus

What is man, that thou, O Lord, Hast such respect to him! Comes from heaven th' incarnate Word, His creature to redeem: Wherefore would'st thou stoop so low? Who the mystery shall explain? God is flesh, and lives below, And dies for wretched man. Jesus, his Redeemer dies, The sinner to restore, Falls that man again may rise, And stand as heretofore; Foremost of created things, Head of all thy works he stood, Nearest the great King of kings, And little less than God! Him with glorious majesty Thy grace vouchsaf'd to crown, Transcript of the One in Three, He in thine image shone: All thy works for him were made, All did to his sway submit, Fishes, birds, and beasts obey'd, And bow'd beneath his feet. Sovereign, everlasting Lord, How excellent thy name, Held in being by thy word Thee all thy works proclaim: Thro' this earth thy glories shine, Thro' those dazling worlds above, All confess the source divine, Th' Almighty God of love. So is it in the Hebrew note added in the errata. Page 68 24A manuscript version appears in MS Psalms, 32. 25"Pains" changed to "pangs" in 7th edn. (1765) and following. 26A manuscript version appears in MS Psalms, 52-53. Psalm XVIII, Ver. 1, c.24 Thee will I love, O Lord my power: My rock and fortress is the Lord, My God, my Saviour, and my tower, My horn and strength, my shield and sword; Secure I trust in his defence, I stand in his omnipotence. Still will I invocate his name, And spend my life in prayer and praise, His goodness own, his promise claim, And look for all his saving grace, Till all his saving grace I see, From sin and hell forever free. He sav'd me in temptation's hour, Horribly caught and compass'd round, Expos'd to Satan's raging power, In floods of sin and sorrow drown'd, Condemn'd the second death to feel, Arrested by the pains25 of hell. To God my God with plaintive cry I call'd, in agony of fear, My humble wailing pierc'd the sky, My groaning reach'd his gracious ear, He heard me from his glorious throne, And sent the timely rescue down. Psalm XXIV.26 The earth and all her fulness owns Jehovah for her Sovereign Lord; The countless myriads of her sons Rose into being at his word.