Live, our Eternal Priest

Verse 1
Live our eternal priest
By men and angels blest!
Jesus Christ, the crucified,
He who did for all atone,
From the cross where once he died
Now he up to heaven is gone.

Verse 2
He ever lives, and prays
For all the faithful race;
In the holiest place above
Sinners’ advocate he stands,
Pleads for us his dying love,
Shews for us his bleeding hands.

Verse 3
His body torn and rent
He doth to God present;
In that dear memorial shews
Israel’s chosen tribes imprest:
All our names the Father knows,
Reads them on our Aaron’s breast.

Verse 4
He reads, while we beneath
Present our Saviour’s death,
Do as Jesus bids us do,
Signify his flesh and blood,
Him in a memorial shew,
Offer up the Lamb to God.

Verse 5
From this thrice hallow’d shade
Which Jesu’s cross hath made,
Image of his sacrifice,
Never, never will we move,
Till with all his saints we rise,
Rise, and take our place above.

Hymnal/Album: Introduced in a hymnal jointly credited to John and Charles Wesley; it is likely though not fully certain that Charles wrote it. Introduced in Hymns on the Lord's Supper, published by John and Charles Wesley (Bristol: Felix Farley, 1745).Published in The Poetical Works of John and Charles Wesley, Collected and Arranged by G. Osborn, Vol. 3 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1869), page 303.
Publishing: Public Domain