Wesley Corpus

Then shall we exercise The hellish art no more, While thou our long-lost paradise Dost with thyself restore; Fightings and wars shall cease, And in thy Spirit given Pure joy, and everlasting peace Shall turn our earth to heaven. "Come ye, and let us walk in the light of the Lord." Isa. ii. 5. Come, if the Sun of righteousness Hath chas'd our nature's night, Let us his chearing influence bless, And walk in Christ the light, Page 306 Warm'd and directed by his rays, His Spirit and his word, Walk after Christ to see the face Of our triumphant Lord. "The loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low." Isa. ii. 17. Thou who all our works hast wrought Should'st be extol'd alone: Every self-exalting thought In us, O Christ, bring down; Nature's subtlest pride abase, The self-deluded croud reprove Boasters of their richest grace,87 And of their perfect love. "The Lord alone shall be exalted in that day." Isa. ii. 17. Son of man, we long to see Thy last and brightest day: When, O when shall all things be Subjected to thy sway? On all flesh thy Spirit shower, That every soul its Lord may own Seated in full glorious power On thy millennial throne! "The idols he shall utterly abolish." Isa. ii. 18. But when, most gracious God, and true, Wilt thou the work of wonder shew, The man of sin reveal, And then thy glorious power exert, Destroy the idols in my heart, And their destruction seal? Manner and time I leave to thee, Humbly assur'd the thing shall be, Thro' love's almighty power, Thou wilt destroy whate'er is I, Self, nature, unbelief shall die, And pride shall be no more. 87John Wesley underlined "self-deluded croud" in line 6 and "Boasters of" in line 7 of this stanza in his personal copy, commenting in the margin "Wo i.e., who are they?" Page 307 "They shall go into the holes of the rocks for fear of the Lord, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth." Isa. ii. 19. When the just God, the Lord most-high, Rises to shake both earth and sky, How shall the world his anger shun, Or whither for protection run!