Wesley Corpus

Page 8 "Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God, among the trees of the garden." Gen. iii. 8. How soon the fruits of sin appear! Trouble, anxiety, and fear That to the covert flies, Sad guilt, and shameful nakedness, The forfeiture of life and peace, With loss of paradise! "The Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?" Gen. iii. 9. Farther, and farther still I run, Till God with eyes of mercy sees A wandering soul by sin undone, And stops my flight among the trees: Come to the slave of guilty fear, Now, Lord, arrest thy fugitive, And call me forth my doom to hear, And then my pardon to receive. "The man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me; she gave me of the tree, and I did eat." Gen. iii. 12. How backward man himself to blame! How ready I, like Adam, am To palliate what I first would hide, T' excuse what cannot be denied, Or dare with boldest blasphemy To charge my sin, O God, on thee! "The woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat." Gen. iii. 13. We blame the fiend, ourselves to clear, On man, on God the fault transfer, Our guilt, by lessening it, increase, But never will our sin confess, Till, conquer'd by the judge from heaven, We fall condemn'd, to rise forgiven. Page 9 "I will put enmity between thy seed, and her seed." Gen. iii. 15. Father, inspire my alter'd heart With hatred of the serpent's seed, Of all his works, and all his art, Of sin in thought, and word, and deed: Fix the good Spirit in my breast, The mind of Christ I then shall prove, Evil with all my soul detest, And love thee with a perfect love. "It shall bruise thy head." Gen. iii. 15. Awake, the woman's heavenly seed, Thou bruiser of the serpent's head, Redeem thy creature from his fall, And crush the fiend that crush'd us all, That author of our total ill, That poisoner of the human mind, Whom in our inmost souls we feel, Destroy him out of all mankind. "It shall bruise thy head." Gen. iii. 15. Heavenly principle within, Shew thine enmity to sin, Whom thou hast in us subdued, Slay the serpent and his brood;