Isaac by faith declared his race

Verse 1
Isaac by faith declar’d his race
In Jacob and in Esau blest,
The younger by peculiar grace
A nobler heritage possess’d.

Verse 2
By faith expiring Jacob knew
Distinguish’d mercies to pronounce,
His hands found out the happy two,
And bless’d his fav’rite Joseph’s sons.

Verse 3
He rais’d himself upon the bed,
Prop’d on a staff he own’d his Lord,
The patriarch bow’d his hoary head,
His body with his soul ador’d.

Verse 4
Joseph by faith the flight foretold
Of Israel’s afflicted race;
God their hard bondage should behold,
And lead them to the promis’d place.

Verse 5
Thither he will’d his bones to go,
And take possession in their stead;
His bones the promis’d land shall shew,
He claims his Canaan, tho’ dead.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “The Life of Faith, Exemplified in the Eleventh Chapter of St. Paul’s Epistle to the Hebrews.” Introduced in Hymns and Sacred Poems (1740), published by John and Charles Wesley (London: William Strahan, 1740). Published in The Poetical Works of John and Charles Wesley, Collected and Arranged by G. Osborn, Vol. 1 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1868), page 216.
Publishing: Public Domain