Hymns for Love, 26

The knowledge of Thy love
O how shall I attain?
Its excellence is far above
The reach of fallen man:
For more than seventy years
I for the bliss have pined,
And sought, with ceaseless prayers and tears.
What I could never find.

Tremendous God unknown.
Hath Thy severe decree
Rejected as perdition's son.
And sternly pass'd by me;
Inserted in the " Arminian Magazine" for 1781, p. 63.
The saving grace withheld,
That left to Satan, I,
By Thy resistless will compell'd,
Might sin, despair, and die?

Blasphemous thought, away,
As hell itself abhorr'd!
Thy attributes the lie gainsay,
Thy nature and Thy word;
Thy oath forbids my fears,
And comforts all that grieve,
Thy bloody sweat, Thy cries and tears.
Thy death, would have me live;

Would have me love my God,
Who loved the world so well;
Surely I then, the grace bestow'd.
The purchased bhss shall feel!
Thou wilt the bUss confer
Before I hence depart.
And the abiding Comforter
Shall take up all my heart.