Thee, great tremendous Deity

Verse 1
Thee, great tremendous deity,
Whom Three in One, and One in Three
I to the world proclaim,
Inspire with purity and peace,
And add me to thy witnesses
By telling me thy name.

Verse 2
Fixt on the Athanasian mound,
I still require a firmer ground
My sinking faith to bear:
I want to feel my soul renew’d
In the similitude of God,
Jehovah’s character.

Verse 3
My notions true are notions vain;
By them I cannot grace obtain,
Or sav’d from sin arise:
Knowledge acquir’d by books or creeds
My learn’d self-righteous pride it feeds;
’Tis love that edifies.

Verse 4
The truth I seemingly possess,
But hold it in unrighteousness
Without experience sure:
Whoe’er the holy God contains,
He must be purg’d from all his stains,
A vessel clean and pure.

Verse 5
Furnish’d with intellectual light,
In vain I speak of thee aright,
While unreveal’d thou art:
That only can suffice for me,
The whole mysterious Trinity
Inhabiting my heart.

Verse 6
Come then, thou Tri-une God unknown,
Take full possession of thine own,
And keep me ever thine,
An heir of bliss, for glory seal’d,
A temple of the Lord, and fill’d
With all the life divine.

Hymnal/Album: Introduced in Charles Wesley, Hymns on the Trinity (Bristol: William Pine, 1767). Published in The Poetical Works of John and Charles Wesley, Collected and Arranged by G. Osborn, Vol. 7 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1870), page 314.
Publishing: Public Domain