When blinded with pride

Representative Text

1 When blinded with Pride,
How vainly we try'd
To find upon Earth the Lamb's beautiful Bride.

2 Of Man we enquir'd,
For her we admir'd,
Whose Peace and Communion we greatly desir'd.

3 Some said we should find,
If we were inclin'd,
The Bride amongst Men of an orthodox Mind.

4 We sought amongst them,
The Bride of the Lamb,
But heard them contend, and their Brethren condemn:

5 Their Hatred and Strive,
And bigotted life,
Made us to conclude they were not the Lamb's Wife.

6 Much griev'd and perplex'd,
We sought for her next
Where Practice of Piety's always the Text.

7 Of Holiness there
We always did hear,
And carefully watched to see it appear.

8 To witness their Grace,
Soft Words and Grimace,
Still dropt from the Tongue, and appear'd on the Face.

9 Of Fasting and Pray'r,
Of watching with Care,
And proving Men's Piety by his Despair.

10 Of Gesture and Dress,
As Matters of Stress;
The pow'rful Ingredients of Self-Righteousness.

11 Self-goodness and Pride,
And Evils beside,
The Beast upon which the Whore drunken doth ride.

12 'Twas now we retir'd,
And deeply despair'd
To find upon Earth what we so much desir'd.

13 We sought her by Name,
As one without Blame:
For such is the Darling, the Spouse of the Lamb.

Source: Christian Hymns, Poems, and Spiritual Songs: sacred to the praise of God our Saviour #I.XXIX

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Author: James Relly

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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