The Unity of God

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Eternal God! Almighty cause

Author: Simon Browne
Published in 156 hymnals

Representative Text

1 Eternal God! almighty cause
Of earth and seas, and worlds unknown!
All things are subject to thy laws:
All things depend on thee alone.

2 Thy glorious being singly stands,
Of all within itself possessed;
By none controlled in thy commands,
And in thyself completely blessed.

3 To thee alone ourselves we owe;
Let heaven and earth due homage pay;
All other gods we disavow,
Deny their claims, renounce their sway.

4 In thee, O Lord, our hope shall rest,
Fountain of peace and joy and love!
Thy favor only makes us blest;
Without thee all would nothing prove.

5 Worship to thee alone belongs;
Worship to thee alone we give;
Thine be our hearts and thine our songs,
And to thy glory let us live.

5 Spread thy great name through heathen lands;
Their idol deities dethrone;
Subdue the world to thy commands,
And reign, as thou art, God alone.

Source: The Voice of Praise: a collection of hymns for the use of the Methodist Church #30

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Author: Simon Browne

Simon Browne was born at Shepton Mallet, Somersetshire, about 1680. He began to preach as an "Independent" before he was twenty years of age, and was soon after settled at Portsmouth. In 1716, he became pastor in London. In 1723, he met with some misfortunes, which preyed upon his mind, and produced that singular case of monomania, recorded in the text-books of Mental Philosophy; he thought that God had "annihilated in him the thinking substance, and utterly divested him of consciousness." "Notwithstanding," says Toplady, "instead of having no soul, he wrote, reasoned, and prayed as if he had two." He died in 1732. His publications number twenty-three, of which some are still in repute. --Annotations of the Hymnal, Charles Hutchins,… Go to person page >

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First Line:	Eternal God! Almighty cause
Title:	The Unity of God
Author:	Simon Browne
Meter:	8.8.8.8
Language:	English
Copyright:	Public Domain

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Notes

Eternal God, Almighty Cause. S. Browne. [Unity of God.] Given in his Hymns and Spiritual Songs, &c, 1720 (3rd ed. 1760), Bk. i., No. 176, in 8 stanzas of 4 lines, and entitled, “One God." In its original form it is not in common use, and the centos from it differ in almost every hymn-book. Usually stanzas i., ii., iv., viii. are given, as in Dr. Hatfield's Church Hymn Book, 1872. The stanza which is given in some American Unitarian collections, “Worship to Thee alone belongs," is not in the original, but is based on stanza vi.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

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