Wesley Corpus

Imitated.2 Farewell, my dearest child, farewell! Wise, pious, good, beyond thy years! Thy ravish'd excellence I feel Bereav'd dissolv'd in softest tears. But soon, if worthy of the grace,3 I shall again behold thee nigh, Again my dearest child embrace: "Haste to my arms, Maria, fly!" "To a fond father's arms return," (I then in ecstasies shall say) "No more to part, no more to mourn, But sing through one eternal day!" 2A Latin epitaph written by Mary's father, Robert Lowth was quoted on pp. 281-82, followed by this English imitation, which appears in MS Funeral Hymns, 74. Robert Lowth (1710-87), Bishop of London, was an uncle of Ebenezer Blackwell's second wife Mary Eden, whom Blackwell married in 1774. CW prepared this at the request of Rev. Dr. John Jones; see Jones to CW, June 17, 1780. 3Orig., "grave"; a misprint. Volume 1 (1778): 383-84 Address to the Calvinists.4 God has, you say, a two-fold will, One to preserve, and one to kill: That in his word to all reveal'd, This from the reprobate conceal'd: That would have all the fallen kind Repentance and salvation find; To hell's inevitable pains, This the far greater part ordains; Compell'd to sin by his decree, And damn'd from all eternity His written will to all displays Offers of life and pard'ning grace: His secret doth this life deny To most, yet asks, "Why will ye die?" His seeming will their good pretends, His real their damnation sends; Makes the devoted victims fit, And thrusts them down into the pit. 'Tis thus, O God, they picture thee, Thy justice and sincerity; Thy truth which never can remove, Thy bowels of unbounded love: Thy freedom of redeeming grace, "With-held from almost all the race, Made for Apollyon to devour, In honour of thy sovereign power!" Ye weak, mistaken worms, believe Your God, who never can deceive; Believe his word sincerely meant, Whose oath confirms his kind intent: Believe his tears: believe his blood: Both for a world of sinners flow'd; For those who nail'd him to the tree, For those who forg'd the dire decree, For ev'ry reprobate and me! 4Frank Baker refers to a fragment he has seen that confirms Charles Wesley's authorship of this poem in Representative Verse, 331. Volume 1 (1778): 430 Written after reading Mr. Hill's Remarks,