"His Spirit send into our hearts, / Engraving on our inward parts / The living law of holiest love"

— Wesley, John and Charles


Place of Publication
Bristol
Publisher
Printed by E. Farley
Date
1762
Metaphor
"His Spirit send into our hearts, / Engraving on our inward parts / The living law of holiest love"
Metaphor in Context
Now the God of peace, that brought, &c.

--xiii. 20, 21.

O God of peace, and pardoning love,
Thy bowels of compassion move
  To every sinful child of man;
Jesus our Shepherd great and good,
Who dying bought us with His blood,
  Thou hast brought back to life again:
His blood to all our souls apply;
His only blood can sanctify,
  (Which first did for our sins atone,)
The covenant of redemption seal,
The depths of God, of love, reveal,
  And speak us perfected in one.

O might our every work and word
Express the tempers of our Lord,
  The nature of our Head above!
His Spirit send into our hearts,
Engraving on our inward parts
  The living law of holiest love
:
Then shall we do with pure delight
Whate'er is pleasing in Thy sight,
  As vessels of Thy richest grace;
And having Thy whole counsel done,
To Thee, and Thy co-equal Son
  Ascribe the everlasting praise.
Provenance
Searching "heart" and "engrav" in HDIS (Poetry)
Citation
3 entries in ESTC (1762, 1796).

See Short Hymns on Select Passages of the Holy Scriptures, 2 vols. (Bristol: Printed by E. Farley, 1762). <Link to ESTC><Link to ECCO>

Text from The Poetical works of John and Charles Wesley, Ed. G. Osborn, 13 vols. (London: The Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1868). <Link to Hathi Trust>

More than 5,100 hymns written by Wesley, with six books of material left (over 1,000 hymns) in manuscript. Unpublished were the hymns on the "Four Gospels and the Acts of Apostles."
Date of Entry
03/08/2005

The Mind is a Metaphor is authored by Brad Pasanek, Assistant Professor of English, University of Virginia.