Wesley Corpus

Grace Before Meat - Another (Part I) Source: Hymns and Sacred Poems (1739), Part I Author: Charles Wesley (attributed) --- 1 Enslav’d to sense, to pleasure prone, Fond of created good; Father, our helplessness we own, And trembling taste our food. 2 Trembling we taste: for ah! No more To thee the creatures lead; Chang’d they exert a fatal pow’r, And poison while they feed. 3 Cursed for the sake of wretched man, They now engross him whole, With pleasing force on earth detain, And sensualize his soul. 4 Grov’ling on earth we still must lie Till Christ the curse repeal; Till Christ descending from on high Infected nature heal. 5 Come then, our heav’nly Adam, come! Thy healing influence give; Hallow our food, reverse our doom, And bid us eat and live. 4Charles adapted stanzas 5-8 of this hymn for use in a later manuscript selection for his family: MS Family, 12-13. 6 The bondage of corruption break! For this our spirits groan; Thy only will we fain would seek; O save us from our own. 7 Turn the full stream of nature’s tide: Let all our actions tend To thee their source; thy love the guide, Thy glory be the end. 8 Earth then a scale to heav’n shall be, Sense shall point out the road; The creatures then5 shall lead to thee, And all we taste be God!