As the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.
Hebrews 2:14–15
Words: Philip Doddridge (1702–1751). Published posthumously in Hymns Founded on Various Texts in the Holy Scriptures, by Job Orton (Shropshire, England: Joshua Eddowes & John Cotton, 1755), number 308: Satan and death conquered by the death of Christ.
Music: Ach Gott und Herr, in As Hymnodus Sacer, edited by Christian Gall (Leipzig, Germany: 1625). Adapted & harmonized by Johann S. Bach (🔊 pdf nwc).
Satan, the dire invader, came
Our new made world t’annoy;
And death marched dreadful in his rear;
His captives to destroy.
Caught in his snares, our father sank;
With him his children fell;
And death his fatal shaft prepared
To smite them down to hell.
Jesus with pitying eye beheld,
And left His starry crown;
Turned his own weapons on the foe,
And mowed his legions down.
By death the Savior death disarmed,
That we in light may shine;
And fixed this great, mysterious law,
That dust should dust refine.
No more the pointed shaft we fear;
Nor dread the monster’s boast;
No more the pious dead we mourn,
As friends for ever lost.
Their tongues, great Prince of life, shall join
With our recovered breath,
And all th’immortal host, t’ascribe
Our victory to Thy death.