Baptizing Hymn

Celestial witness of this holy sign,

Whose brightness shone on Jordan’s silver wave,

Today attendant on the rite divine,

With secret raptures fill the silent watry grave.   

That grave how glorious when the solemn shore

Confess'd the presence of the triune God:

Let faith review that hour of wonder o'er

Then press delighted to the smiling flood.

Still let the Father’s voice be heard above,

Below the Son’s obedient form be seen,                         10

While the bright pinions of the mystic dove

Wave with soft grandeur on the ray serene.

Tho^ugh^ on the deed untutored folly frown,

By saints no more be this fair tomb despised,

Since heaven itself in radiant pomp came down,

To see its sacred majesty baptized.

May these who venture down the wat’ry way,

Have sweet communion with their Lord beneath,

And know for them in sadder depths he lay,

Oppressed by sorrows, and o’erwhelmed in death.        20

That dying love, that rising power of thine,

Jesus through all the gracious scene impart;

’Till prejudice confess its pure design,

           And transport kindles in the coldest heart.

Text: Timothy Whelan, ed., Nonconformist Women Writers, 1720-1840, 8 vols. (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2011),  vol. 5, p. 85; Attwater Papers, acc. 76, II.A.2, p. 13.