Father of Mercy, hear our prayer

Verse 1
Father of mercy, hear our pray’r,
In thee we move and live:
How slow to wrath, how prone to spare,
And ready to forgive.

Verse 2
Thou chiefly dost thy boundless pow’r
In acts of goodness shew;
Thy mercy all thy works adore,
Thence all our blessings flow.

Verse 3
This still shall be our grateful theme,
Thy praise we’ll ever sing;
Our friends the kind refreshing stream,
But thou th’ unfailing spring.

Verse 4
Our joy would soon o’erflow the banks,
And inundations raise,
Did we not thus look down with thanks,
And look to heaven with praise.

Verse 5
To God the Father, God the Son,
And God the Holy Ghost,
Who yet are not three gods, but One
Rever’d by all his host.

Verse 6
The blest, eternal Trinity,
Whom earth and heaven[1] adore,
All honour, praise and glory be
Both now and evermore.

[1] Wesley changed “earth and heaven” to “heaven and earth” in 1743.

Hymnal/Album: Introduced in A Collection of Psalms and Hymns (1741), published by John Wesley (London: William Strahan, 1741). Published in The Poetical Works of John and Charles Wesley, Collected and Arranged by G. Osborn, Vol. 2 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1869), page 21.
Publishing: Public Domain