Verse 1
Sinners, the call obey,
The latest call of grace;
The day is come, the vengeful day,
Of a devoted race:
Devils and men combine
To plague the faithless seed,
And vials full of wrath divine
Are bursting on your head.
Verse 2
Enter into the Rock,
Ye trembling slaves of sin,
The Rock of your salvation, struck,
And cleft, to take you in:
To shelter the distress’d,
He did the cross endure;
Enter into the clefts, and rest
In Jesus’ wounds secure.
Verse 3
Who would not fear the Lord,
Glorious in majesty!
His justice stern hath drawn the sword;
To his compassion flee:
Vengeance he comes to take,
He comes his wrath to shew;
He rises terribly to shake
The drowsy world below.
Verse 4
See how his meteors glare!
(The tokens understand)
Famine, and pestilence, and war
Hang o’er the guilty land!
Signs in the heavens see,
And hear the speaking rod;
Sinner, the judgment points to thee,
Prepare to meet thy God!
Verse 5
Terrible God! And true,
Thy justice we confess,
Thy sorest plagues are all our due,
We own our wickedness,
Worthy of death and hell,
Thee in thy judgments meet:
But lo! We to thy grace appeal,
And crowd thy mercy-seat.
Verse 6
Jesus, to thee we fly
From the devouring sword!
Our city of defence is high,[1]
Our help is in the Lord,
Or if the scourge o’erflow,
And laugh at innocence,
Thine everlasting arms, we know,
Shall be our soul’s defence.
Verse 7
We in thy word believe,
And in thy promise stay:
Our life, which still to thee we give,
Shall be to us a prey:
Our life with thee we hide
Above the furious blast,
And shelter’d in thy wounds abide,
Till all the storm is past.
Verse 8
Believing against hope,
We hang upon thy grace,
Thro’ every low’ring cloud look up,
And wait for happy days;
The days when all shall know
Their sins in Christ forgiven,
And walk a while with God below,
And then fly up to heaven.
[1] Wesley changed “high” to “nigh” in 1745.