Let heaven and earth united sing

Representative Text

1 Let Heav'n and Earth united sing
The Praises of the God of Love,
Our Husband, Saviour, God and King,
Whose Name and Nature such we prove.

2 But Zion, Church and Bride of God,
Withdrawing from the joyful Throng,
Bewails her State of Widownhood,
And vents Complaints instead of Song.

3 For Grief, an absent God's her Plea,
In deepest Sorrow thus she cries,
The Lord he hath forsaken me,
Dissolv'd are all the solemn Ties.

4 I of my God forgotten am,
Tho' once belov'd, and nam'd his Bride;
My Glory's turned into Shame,
Where from my Mis'ries may I hide?

5 Cease Virgin-spouse, why shouldst thou grieve,
And Causelsss mourn in Tears of Blood?
Thy Joy is full, only believe,
And hear what says thy Husband, God.

6 Can Mothers find forgetful prove,
Of Sucklings nourish'd at the Breast,
Maternal Bowels cease to move
To Infants when with Pain oppress'd?

7 Or can Compassion leave the Heart
Whilst they their smiling Babes expose
To Death, without b'ing kill'd with Smart,
And feel again their Bangs and Throes?

8 Those, worse than brutal, may forget,
Who having Nature's Laws withstood;
Thro' curs'd Impulse, strange, nameless great,
Imbrue their Hands in Infant's Blood.

9 But I will ne'er forget my Bride,
Says Jesus, God of Love and Truth,
Taken, when sleeping, from my side,
Then, born to bear, eternal Youth.

10 I'll not forget my Word, my Oath,
I'll not forget my Wounds, my Blood;
My Friendship makes but one of both,
And I am still thy Saviour, God.

11 Wrote on my Hands thy much lov'd Name,
My Zion, glorious is thy State!
I see thee always without Blame,
And his own Body none can hate.

12 Thy Walls before me always are;
Bounds to thy Dwelling I have set;
My Zion's my peculiar Care,
My Zion I will ne'er forget.

13 O happy Zion! see and prove
How groundless all thy Sorrows are;
Live in thy Husband's Nature, Love,
And that shall cast out all thy Fear.

Source: Christian Hymns, Poems, and Spiritual Songs: sacred to the praise of God our Saviour #I.XII

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Author: James Relly

James Relly was born about 1722 at Jeffreston, Pembrokeshire, Wales, and died in 1778. He was converted to Christianity during the Great Awakening ushered in by George Whitefield. He worked under George Whitefield as a Calvinistic Methodist preacher and missionary. However, Whitefield and Relly separated ways over Relly's seemingly universalist teaching that all humanity was elect (i.e. saved) when Christ took the punishment for all sin when he died. He also departed from both the Calvinists and Methodists by taking the doctrine of Justification further, in teaching that believers no longer sin and the Law's sole purpose is to condemn humanity and point them to Christ. He was the mentor of John Murray, the founder of the Universalist Ch… Go to person page >

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