1 Farewel, vain World, from thee I cease,
Having survey'd thee round;
Thy Honour, Wealth, thy Joy and Peace,
I've now a Bubble found.
2 Thou hast disosn'd and ahted me,
Whilst I to please thee strove;
Now I disown and flee from thee,
And from thy hated Love.
3 To my thy Rage, and cruel Hate,
In infant Years began;
Nor did it in the least abate,
When I grew up to Man.
4 Thro' Disappointments all my Days,
I've been by thee opprest:
Yea, curs'd and cross'd in all the Ways,
Where other Men were blest.
5 The Good I sought, was still deny'd
By thee, vain World, with Scorn,
Until my Soul, in Anguish cry'd,
O Lord, why was I born?
6 Then, lifting up my weeping Eye,
I saw my Saviour stand,
Array'd in glorious Majesty,
The Balance in his Hand.
7 This World, and all its Glories high,
He weigh'd with prudent Care,
Against the lightest Vanity,
And found it lighter far.
8 His Love-Designs he made me know:
Then that fictitious Dream,
This World, with all the painted Show,
Flew up and kick'd the Beam.
9 Now art thy crucify'd to me;
Yet I've sustain'd no Loss:
And I am crucify'd to thee,
Thanks to my Saviour's Cross!
10 No more deluded by thy Smiles,
Nor crush'd beneath thy Frown;
My Jesus blasts thy Cobweb Wiles,
And gives the glorious Crown.
Source: Christian Hymns, Poems, and Spiritual Songs: sacred to the praise of God our Saviour #I.LVII
James Relly was born about 1722 at Jeffreston, Pembrokeshire, Wales, and died in 1778. He was converted to Christianity during the Great Awakening ushered in by George Whitefield. He worked under George Whitefield as a Calvinistic Methodist preacher and missionary. However, Whitefield and Relly separated ways over Relly's seemingly universalist teaching that all humanity was elect (i.e. saved) when Christ took the punishment for all sin when he died. He also departed from both the Calvinists and Methodists by taking the doctrine of Justification further, in teaching that believers no longer sin and the Law's sole purpose is to condemn humanity and point them to Christ.
He was the mentor of John Murray, the founder of the Universalist Ch… Go to person page >
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