They, only they, the Lord invite

Verse 1
They, only they the Lord invite
Their hallow’d nuptials to attend,
Who seek in Him their chief delight,
Their Bridegroom and celestial Friend,
Who ask his love their feast to crown,
In wrestling faith their wants declare,
And bring the blisful Spirit down
By all the powers of humble prayer.

Verse 2
They bid the Lord’s disciples too,
Who marry as his saints approve,
Expose their hearts to open view,
Set on th’ eternal things above,
Who not with flesh and blood confer,
But counsel with the faithful take,
And call the church their bliss to share,
And love them all for Jesus sake.

Verse 3
How fatal, and unlike to these
The world’s alliances profane,
Where sinners match, themselves to please,
And lust and foul intemperance reign,
By avarice, or ambition join’d,
They banish God from all their thought,
And madly cast his fear behind,
While Mammon4 ties the hellish knot.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘And both Jesus was called, and his disciples to the marriage.’—[John 2,] v. 2." This hymn appears in the 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. 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 333.
Publishing: Public Domain