Great God, thy peerless excellence

Representative Text

1 Great God! thy peerless excellence
Let all created natures own:
Deep on our minds impress the sense
Of glories which are thine alone.

2 Let these our admiration raise,
And fill us with religious awe;
Tine all our hearts and tongues to praise,
And bend us to thy holy law.

3 Pure may we be, averse to sin,
Just, holy, merciful, and true;
And let thine image, form'd within,
Shine out in all we speak and do.

Source: A Collection of Hymns and A Liturgy: for the use of Evangelical Lutheran Churches; to which are added prayers for families and individuals #307

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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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