Wesley Corpus

How can it be, our reason cries, That God should leave his throne above? Is it for man th' Immortal dies! For man, who tramples on his love! For man, who nail'd him to the tree! O love! O God! He dies14 for me! Why then, if thou for me hast died, Dost thou not yet thyself impart? We hop'd to feel thy blood applied, To find thee risen in our heart, Redeem'd from all iniquity, Sav'd, to the utmost sav'd, thro' thee. Have we not then believ'd in vain, By Christ unsanctified, unfreed? In us he is not ris'n again, We know not but he still is dead, No life, no righteousness we have, Our hopes seem buried in his grave. Ah! Lord, if thou indeed art ours, If thou for us hast burst the tomb, Visit us with thy quickning powers, Come to thy mournful followers come, Thyself to thy weak members join, And fill us with the life divine. 13Manuscript precursors of this hymn appear in MS Cheshunt, 184-87; MS Clarke, 192-94; and MS Shent, 74b-75a. 14"Dies" changed to "died" in 1748 edn. and in 1764 and later edns. Page 8 Thee, the great Prophet sent from God, Mighty in deed and word we own; Thou hast on some the grace bestow'd, Thy rising in their hearts made known; They publish thee, to life restor'd, Attesting they have seen the Lord. Alas for us, whose eyes are held! Why cannot we our Saviour see? With us thou art, yet still conceal'd: O might we hear one word from thee! Speak, and our unbelief reprove, Our baseness to mistrust thy love. Fools as we are, and slow of heart, So backward to believe the word! The prophets' only aim thou art: They sang the sufferings of their Lord, Thy life for ours a ransom given, Thy rising to insure our heaven. Ought not our Lord the death to die, And then the glorious life to live? To stoop; and then go up on high? The pain, and then the joy receive? His blood, the purchase-price lay down, Endure the cross, and claim the crown? Ought not the members all to pass The way their head had pass'd before? Thro' sufferings perfected he was, The garment dipt in blood he wore, That we with him might die, and rise And bear his nature to the skies!