The Word, the uncreated Son

Verse 1
The Word, the uncreated Son,
When finite things began to be,
Existing, God with God alone,
Thou wast from all eternity!
God in thy Father’s bosom laid,
Ineffably begot by Him,
Thou wast, before the worlds were made,
God independent and supreme.

Verse 2
All-wise, all-good, almighty Lord,
God over all Thou always art,
Jehovah’s everlasting Word,
Spoken into thy creature’s heart:
With God essentially the same,
Distinct in personality,
Thou art the absolute I AM,
And all things made were made by Thee.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, &c.”—John i. 1, 2, 3. Introduced in Charles Wesley, Short Hymns on Select Passages of the Holy Scriptures, Vol. 2 (Bristol: Farley, 1762). Published in The Poetical Works of John and Charles Wesley, Collected and Arranged by G. Osborn, Vol. 11 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1871), page 318. Wesley later altered this hymn in his 1763-64 manuscript “MS John.” This manuscript is part of the collection of the Methodist Archive and Research Centre in The John Rylands Library, The University of Manchester (accession number MA 1977/573, Charles Wesley Notebooks Box 3). Accessed through the website of The Center for Studies in the Wesleyan Tradition, Duke Divinity School.
Publishing: Public Domain