Hymn 88. The Incarnate Saviour

John 1. 14.

         Awake, awake the sacred song,

                     To our incarnate Lord:

         Let every heart, and every tongue,

                     Adore th’eternal Word.

         That awful Word, that sovereign power,                                 

                     By whom the worlds were made;

         (O happy morn!  illustrious hour!)

                     Was once in flesh array’d.

         Then shone almighty power and love,

                     In all their glorious forms,                                                         

         When Jesus left his throne above,

                     To dwell with sinful worms.

         To dwell with misery below,

                     The Saviour left the skies;

         And sunk to wretchedness and woe,                                                                

                     That worthless man might rise.

         Adoring angels tun’d their songs

                     To hail the joyful day:

         With rapture then, let mortal tongues

                     Their grateful worship pay!                                                                   

         What glory, Lord, to thee is due?

                     With wonder we adore;

         But could we sing as angels do,

                     Our highest praise were poor.

Text: Timothy Whelan, gen. ed., Nonconformist Women Writers, 8 vols. (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2011), vol. 1, pp. 90-91; Collection of Hymns Adapted to Public Worship, no. 88 (all stanzas); Poems, 1780, vol. 1, pp. 84-85; MS, Steele Collection, STE 3/1/1 no. 45, Angus Library, Regents Park College,  Oxford.