The poetical works of John and Charles Wesley

I felt my heart, and found a chillness cool
Its purple channels in my frozen side;
The spring was now become a standing pool,
Deprived of motion and its active tide.
O, stay! O, stay!
I ever freeze if banish'd from Thy ray:
A lasting warmth Thy secret beams beget;
Thou art a Sun which cannot rise or set.

Then thaw this ice, and make my frost retreat,
But let with temperate rays Thy lustre shine:
Thy judgments lightning, but Thy love is heat;
Those would consume my heart, but this refine.
Inspire! inspire!
And melt my soul with Thy more equal fire;
So shall a pensive deluge drown my fears,
My ice turn water, and dissolve in tears.

After Thy love, if I continue hard,
If sin again knit and confirm'd be grown,
If guilt rebel, and stand upon his guard,
And what was ice before freeze into stone;
Reprove! reprove!
Thy power assist Thee to revenge Thy love.
Lo, Thou hast still Thy threats and thunder left;
The heart that can't be melted may be cleft!

University of Virginia Library

GOD'S LOVE AND POWER.