Great before God is great indeed

Verse 1
Great before God is great indeed!
Prophet miraculously born,
Jehovah’s harbinger, decreed
Rebellious multitudes to turn,
Their hearts to soften and prepare,
That God may make his entrance there.

Verse 2
Greater and more than man is he,
Who dead to the desires of men
Lives to declare the Deity,
And shews the Lamb for sinners slain,
Fill’d with the Spirit of his God,
And bold to seal the truth with blood.

Verse 3
Jesus, thy preaching servants raise
Who real greatness may pursue,
May before Thee themselves abase,
Thine all-atoning passion shew,
Thee before kings undaunted own,
And die to make their Saviour known.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘He shall be great in the sight of the Lord &c.'—[Luke 1,] v. 15, 16.” This hymn appears in the 1766 manuscript “MS Luke.” This manuscript is part of the collection of the Methodist Archive and Research Centre in The John Rylands Library, The University of Manchester (accession number MA 1977/575, Charles Wesley Notebooks Box 3). Accessed through the website of The Center for Studies in the Wesleyan Tradition, Duke Divinity School. Published in The Poetical Works of John and Charles Wesley, Collected and Arranged by G. Osborn, Vol. 11 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1871), page 103.
Publishing: Public Domain