Lord, I believe a rest remains

Verse 1
Lord, I believe a rest remains
To all thy people known,
A rest, where pure enjoyment reigns,
And thou art lov’d alone.

Verse 2
A rest, where all our soul’s desire
Is fixt on things above,
Where doubt, and pain, and fear expire,
Cast out by perfect love.

Verse 3
A rest of lasting joy and peace,
Where all is calm within:
’Tis then from our own works we cease,
From pride, and self, and sin.

Verse 4
Our life is hid with Christ in God;
The agony is o’er,
We wrestle not with flesh and blood,
We strive with sin no more.

Verse 5
Our sp’rit is right, our heart is clean,
Our nature is renew’d,
We cannot now,[1] we cannot sin,
For we are born of God.[2]

Verse 6
From ev’ry evil motion freed,
(The Son hath made us free)
On all the pow’rs of hell we tread,
In glorious liberty.

Verse 7
Redeem’d, we walk on holy ground,
On God we cast our care;
No lion in that way is found,
No rav’nous beast is there!

Verse 8
Safe in the way of life, above
Death, earth, and hell we rise;
We find, when perfected in love,
Our long-sought paradise.

Verse 9
Within that Eden we retire,
We rest in Jesu’s name:
It guards us, as a wall of fire,
And as a sword of flame.

Verse 10
O that I now the rest might know,
Believe, and enter in!
Now, Saviour, now the power bestow,
And let me cease from sin.

Verse 11
Remove this hardness from my heart,
This unbelief remove,
To me the rest of faith impart,
The Sabbath of thy love.

Verse 12
I groan from sin to be set free,
From self to be releas’d;
Take me, O take me into thee
My everlasting rest.

Verse 13
I would be thine, thou know’st I would,
And have thee all my own,
Thee, O my all-sufficient good,
I want, and thee alone.

Verse 14
Thy name to me, thy nature grant;
This, only this be given,
Nothing besides my God I want,
Nothing in earth or heaven.

Verse 15
Come, O my Saviour, come away,
Into my soul descend,
No longer from thy creature stay,
My author, and my end.

Verse 16
The bliss thou hast for me prepar’d
No longer be delay’d;
Come, my exceeding great reward,
For whom I first was made.

Verse 17
Come, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,
And seal me thine abode,
Let all I am in thee be lost,
Let all I am be God!

[1] Wesley changed “cannot now” to “cannot, no, “ in 1743.
[2] After a public debate about the theological accuracy of verses 4 and 5, John Wesley marked them for deletion in his personal copy of the 1756 fifth edition of this hymnal.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: "Hebrews iv. 9. “There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.”." 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 370.
Publishing: Public Domain