Deceived by sub­tle snares of hell,
Adam, our head, our fa­ther, fell;
When Sa­tan, in the ser­pent hid,
Proposed the fruit that God for­bid.

Death was the threat­en­ing: death be­gan
To take pos­sess­ion of the man;
His un­born race re­ceived the wound,
And hea­vy curs­es smote the ground.

But Sa­tan found a worse re­ward:
Thus saith the ven­geance of the Lord:
“Let ev­er­last­ing hat­red be
Betwixt the wo­man’s seed and thee.

The wo­man’s seed shall be my Son;
He shall de­stroy what thou hast done;
Shall break thy head, and on­ly feel
Thy ma­lice rag­ing at His heel.

He spake; and bid four thou­sand years
Roll on; at length His Son ap­pears;
Angels with joy des­cend to earth,
And sing the young Re­deem­er’s birth.

Lo, by the sons of hell He dies;
But as He hung ’twixt earth and skies,
He gave their prince a fa­tal blow,
And tri­umphed o’er the pow­ers be­low.