71

The Covenant

I

The Lord proclaims his grace abroad!
“Behold, I change your hearts of stone;
Each shall renounce his idol-god,
And serve, henceforth, the Lord alone.

II

“My grace, a flowing stream, proceeds
To wash your filthiness away;
Ye shall abhor your former deeds,
And learn my statutes to obey.

III

“My truth the great design ensures,
I give myself away to you;
You shall be mine, I will be yours,
Your God unalterably true.

IV

“Yet not unsought or unimplored
The plenteous grace shall I confer;
No⁠—your whole hearts shall seek the Lord,
I’ll put a praying spirit there.

V

“From the first breath of life divine,
Down to the last expiring hour,
The gracious work shall all be mine,
Begun and ended in my power.”

Where this text comes from

First published in Olney Hymns (1779). First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established. [1] [2] [3]

Structure read from the source's markup; the words have not been compared against a page scan. Last checked 2026-08-15.

Taken from Standard Ebooks, standardebooks/john-newton_william-cowper_olney-hymns, book-1.xhtml. Rights: public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931).

Earlier sources (2)

This poem as JSON or plain text. Line anchors #L1–#L20.

Cite this poem

William Cowper (1731–1800). “The Covenant.” First published in Olney Hymns (1779). Text: Poem Index, https://poemindex.org/william-cowper/the-covenant/. Append #L14 to cite line 14, or #L4-L9 for lines 4–9.

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