Sovereign Of Heaven, Thine Empire Spreads

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Sov’reign of Heaven, Thine empire spreads

Author: Philip Doddridge, 1702-1751
Tune: ALIDA (American)
Published in 1 hymnal

Printable scores: PDF, Noteworthy Composer
Audio files: MIDI

Representative Text

1 Sov’reign of Heaven, Thine empire spreads,
O’er all the worlds on high:
And at Thy frowns th’infernal powers
In wild confusion fly.

2 Like lightning from his glittering throne
The great arch-traitor fell,
Driv’n with enormous ruin down
To infamy and hell.

3 Permitted now to range at large,
And traverse earth and air,
O’er captive human souls he reigns,
And boasts his kingdom there.

4 Yet thence Thy grace can drive him out,
With one almighty word;
O send Thy potent scepter forth,
And reign victorious, Lord.

5 Let wretched prisoners be released,
The smiling light to view;
Nor let the vanquished foe return
Their bondage to renew.

6 May grace complete that wondrous work,
Which Thine own power begun;
And fill, from Satan’s gloomy realms,
The kingdom of Thy son.

Source: The Cyber Hymnal #9077

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Author: Philip Doddridge, 1702-1751

Philip Doddridge (b. London, England, 1702; d. Lisbon, Portugal, 1751) belonged to the Non-conformist Church (not associated with the Church of England). Its members were frequently the focus of discrimination. Offered an education by a rich patron to prepare him for ordination in the Church of England, Doddridge chose instead to remain in the Non-conformist Church. For twenty years he pastored a poor parish in Northampton, where he opened an academy for training Non-conformist ministers and taught most of the subjects himself. Doddridge suffered from tuberculosis, and when Lady Huntington, one of his patrons, offered to finance a trip to Lisbon for his health, he is reputed to have said, "I can as well go to heaven from Lisbon as from Nort… Go to person page >

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Text Information

Text Information

First Line:	Sov’reign of Heaven, Thine empire spreads
Title:	Sovereign Of Heaven, Thine Empire Spreads
Author:	Philip Doddridge, 1702-1751
Meter:	8.6.8.6 D
Source:	Published posthumously in Hymns Founded on Various Texts in the Holy Scripture. By the Late Reverend Philip Doddridge, D. D., by Job Orton (J. Eddowes & J. Cotton: 1755)
Language:	English
Copyright:	Public Domain