Scripture Verse

I beheld Satan as lightning fall from Heaven. Luke 10:18

Introduction

portrait
Philip Doddridge (1702–1751)

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 180: The re­laps­ing de­mon­i­ac.

Music: Al­i­da D. B. Thomp­son, in Joy­ful Wing, ed­ited by John R. Swe­ney & Will­iam J. Kirk­pat­rick (Phi­la­del­phia, Penn­syl­van­ia: John J. Hood, 1889), page 173 (🔊 pdf nwc).

illustration
The Fall of Lucifer
Gustave Doré (1832–1883)

Lyrics

Sov’reign of Hea­ven, Thine em­pire spreads,
O’er all the worlds on high:
And at Thy frowns th’in­fer­nal pow­ers
In wild con­fu­sion fly.

Like light­ning from his glit­ter­ing throne
The great arch-trai­tor fell,
Driv’n with enor­mous ru­in down
To in­fa­my and hell.

Permitted now to range at large,
And tra­verse earth and air,
O’er cap­tive human souls he reigns,
And boasts his king­dom there.

Yet thence Thy grace can drive him out,
With one al­migh­ty word;
O send Thy po­tent scep­ter forth,
And reign vic­to­ri­ous, Lord.

Let wretch­ed pri­son­ers be re­leased,
The smil­ing light to view;
Nor let the van­quished foe re­turn
Their bond­age to renew.

May grace comp­lete that won­drous work,
Which Thine own pow­er be­gun;
And fill, from Sa­tan’s gloo­my realms,
The king­dom of Thy Son.