Wesley Corpus

The Love-Feast. Part I. - Part V. 1 Peter 1:3, etc. Source: Hymns and Sacred Poems (1740), Part I Author: Charles Wesley (attributed) --- Part V. 1 Peter i. 3, &c. Father, hail, by all ador’d, Father of our bleeding Lord! God of mercy, thee we praise, Sav’d by thy abundant grace: To a lively hope begot, Into second being brought, Quicken’d by, and with, our head, Rais’d in Jesus from the dead. Rais’d t’ inherit glorious joys, Happiness that never cloys, Happiness without allay, Joys that never fade away; Manna such as angels eat, Pure delights for spirits fit, All to us thro’ Jesus given, All for us reserv’d in heaven. There we shall in glory shine, Kept on earth by power divine; Power divine thro’ faith receiv’d: We the promise have believ’d; Confident that Christ shall come, Make the faithful souls his home, Here in part himself reveal, Stamp us with the Spirit’s seal. This we now rejoice to know, Sorrowful howe’er we go, Exercis’d, if need require, Purg’d in the refining fire: Faith the trial shall abide, Shine, as gold, when fully tried, Glory, honour, praise receive, Which the righteous judge shall give. Him we love as yet unseen, (Flesh is interpos’d between:) Only faith’s interior eye, Darkly can its Lord descry: Gladden’d by the partial sight, Swells our soul with vast delight, Glorious and unspeakable-- Heaven begun on earth we feel. Here the sinner that believes, Everlasting life receives, Here angelic bliss we find, Bliss, the same with theirs in kind, Only differing in degree: Lengthen’d out it soon shall be; All our heaven we then shall prove, All th’ eternity of love.