10    L.M.     J. Kent
The Everlasting Love of God. Jer. 31. 3; Eph. 2. 4, 5

1 ’Twas with an everlasting love
  That God his own elect embraced;
  Before he made the worlds above,
  Or earth on her huge columns placed.

2 Long ere the sun’s refulgent ray
  Primeval shades of darkness drove,
  They on his sacred bosom lay,
  Loved with an everlasting love.

3 Then in the glass of his decrees,
  Christ and his bride appeared as one;
  Her sin, by imputation, his,
  Whilst she in spotless splendour shone.

4 O love, how high thy glories swell!
  How great, immutable, and free!
  Ten thousand sins, as black as hell,
  Are swallowed up, O love, in thee!

5 [Loved, when a wretch defiled with sin,
  At war with heaven, in league with hell,
  A slave to every lust obscene;
  Who, living, lived but to rebel.]

6 Believer, here thy comfort stands –
  From first to last salvation’s free,
  And everlasting love demands
  An everlasting song from thee.