Adam, our father and our head,
Transgressed, and justice doomed us dead;
The fiery law speaks all despair:
There's no reprieve nor pardon there.
But, O unutterable grace
The Son of God takes Adam's place;
Down to our world the Savior flies,
Stretches his arms, and bleeds, and dies.
Justice was pleased to bruise the God,
And pay its wrongs with heav'nly blood:
What unknown racks and pangs he bore!
Then rose; the law could ask no more.
Amazing work! look down, ye skies,
Wonder and gaze with all your eyes;
Ye heav'nly thrones, stoop from above,
And bow to this mysterious love.
Lo! they adore th' incarnate Son,
And sing the glories he hath won;
Sing how he broke our iron chains,
How deep he suiik, how high he reigns!
Triumph and reign, victorious Lord,
By all the flaming hosts adored;
And say, dear Couqueror, say how long
Ere we shall rise to join their song.
Send down a chariot from above,
With fiery wheels, and paved with love
Raise us beyond th' ethereal blue,
To sing and love as angels do.
First Line: | Adam our father and our head |
Title: | Original Sin, or The First and Second Adam |
Author: | Isaac Watts |
Meter: | 8.8.8.8 |
Language: | English |
Copyright: | Public Domain |
Adam, our father and our head. I. Watts. [The Fall.] Appeared in his Horae Lyricae, 1706, in 13 stanzas of 4 lines, and entitled "Jesus the only Saviour." Its use as a complete hymn is unknown. A cento therefrom of 5 stanzas was given in Rippon's Baptist Selection, 1787, No. US, composed of stanzas i., ii., iv., v., and vii. This has passed into common use to a very limited extent.
-- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)