O Thou, whose offering on the tree

Verse 1
O thou whose offering on the tree
The legal offerings all foreshew’d,
Borrow’d their whole effect from thee,
And drew their virtue from thy blood;
The blood of goats and bullocks slain
Could never for one sin atone;
To purge the guilty offerer’s stain
Thine was the work, and thine alone.

Verse 2
Vain in themselves their duties were,
Their services could never please,
’Till join’d with thine, and made to share
The merits of thy righteousness:
Forward they cast a faithful look
On thy approaching sacrifice,
And thence their pleasing savour took,
And rose accepted in the skies.

Verse 3
Those feeble types and shadows old
Are all in thee the truth fulfill’d,
And thro’ this Sacrament we hold
The substance in our hearts reveal’d;
By faith we see thy sufferings past
In this mysterious rite[1] brought back,
And on thy grand oblation cast
Its saving benefit partake.

Verse 4
Memorial of thy sacrifice
This eucharistick mystery
The full atoning grace supplies,
And sanctifies our gifts in thee:
Our persons and performance please,
While God in thee looks down from heaven,
Our acceptable service sees,
And whispers all our sins forgiven.

[1] Wesley spelled ‘rite” as “right” in three editions, 1747, 1751, and 1757, returning to “rite” in later editions.

Hymnal/Album: 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 307.
Publishing: Public Domain