Who labour’d by the law to live

Verse 1
Who labour’d by the law to live
Did to its yoke in vain submit,
What it requir’d it could not give,
Or make its votaries compleat:
Their holiness was mixt with sin,
Their happiness with doubt and fear,
The most advanc’d came short within,
Nor reach’d the perfect character.

Verse 2
But now, the gospel-plan supplies
Sufficiency of richer grace,
It points us to the glorious prize,
The pure consummate righteousness,
To all who trust in Jesu’s name
It ministers the Spirit’s power,
To make us free from sin and blame,
And all the life of God restore.

Verse 3
We find the better hope brought in,
And boldly to our God draw near,
For grace to serve him without sin,
To love him without slavish fear:
And while we to the summit press,
He will the root of sin remove,
Preserve our minds in perfect peace,
And fill our hearts with perfect love.

Verse 4
Thro’ him who did for sinners die,
We stand before our Father’s throne,
Approach so intimately nigh,
That God and we in Christ are one;
One spirit with our spotless Lord,
The heavenly image we obtain,
In him the life of God restor’d,
In him the true perfection gain!

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled “The law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did; by the which we draw nigh unto God.”—[Heb.] vii. 19. 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. 13 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1872), page 135.
Publishing: Public Domain