Victim Divine, Thy grace we claim

Verse 1
Victim divine, thy grace we claim
While thus thy precious death we shew,
Once offer’d up a spotless Lamb
In thy great temple here below,
Thou didst for all mankind atone,
And standest now before the throne.

Verse 2
Thou standest in the holiest place,
As now for guilty sinners slain,
Thy blood of sprinkling speaks, and prays
All-prevalent for helpless man,
Thy blood is still our ransom found,
And spreads[1] salvation all around.

Verse 3
The smoke of thy atonement here
Darken’d the sun and rent the vail,
Made the new way to heaven appear,
And shew’d the great invisible:
Well pleas’d in thee our God look’d down,
And call’d his rebels to a crown.

Verse 4
He still respects thy sacrifice,
Its savour sweet doth always please,
The offering smoaks thro’ earth and skies,
Diffusing life and joy and peace,
To these thy lower courts it comes,
And fills them with divine perfumes.

Verse 5
We need not now go up to heaven
To bring the long-sought Saviour down,
Thou art to all already given:
Thou dost ev’n now thy banquet crown,
To every faithful soul appear,
And shew thy real presence here.

[1] Wesley changed “spreads” to “speaks” in 1776.

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 301.
Publishing: Public Domain