Taken, with minor spelling and grammatical adaptations, from the fourth edition of Hymns and Sacred Poems (1743) by John and Charles Wesley (pp. 169-181):

Author of faith, Eternal Word,
Whose Spirit breathes the Active Flame,
Faith, like its Finisher and Lord,
Today, as yesterday the same.
To thee our humble hearts aspire,
And ask the gift unspeakable:
Increase in us the kindled fire,
In us the work of faith fulfill.
By faith we know thee strong to save,
(Save us, a present Savior, thou!)
Whatever we hope, by faith we have,
Future and past subsisting now.
To him that in thy name believes,
Eternal life with thee is given,
Into himself he all receives,
Pardon and happiness and heaven.
The things unknown to feeble sense,
Unseen by reason's glimmering ray,
With strong, commanding evidence
Their heavenly origin display.
Faith lends its realizing light,
The clouds disperse, the shadows fly,
The invisible appears in sight,
And God is seen by mortal eye.

By faith the holy men of old
Obtained a never-dying name,
The sacred leaves their praise unfold,
And God himself records their fame.
Through faith we know the worlds were made,
By his great Word to being brought:
He spake: the earth and heaven obeyed;
The universe sprang forth from nought.
The heavens thy glorious power proclaim,
If thou in us thy power declare;
We know from whom the fabric came,
Our heart believes, when God is there.
Thee through thyself we understand,
When thou in us thyself hast shown,
We see thine all-creating hand,
And feel a God through faith alone.

Believing in the woman's seed,
And justified by faith alone,
Abel a nobler offering made,
And God vouchsafed his gifts to own.
Witness divine he thus obtained,
The gift of righteousness received;
And now he wears the crown he gained,
And sees the Christ he once believed.
Still by his faith he speaks though dead,
He calls us to the Living Way;
We hear, and in his footsteps tread.
We first believe and then obey.

Exempted from the general doom,
The death which all are born to know,
Enoch obtained his heavenly home
By faith, and disappeared below.
From earth unpainfully released,
Translated to the realms of light,
He found the God by faith he pleased,
His faith was sweetly lost in sight.
God, without faith, we cannot please:
For all who unto God would come
Must feelingly believe he is
And gives to all their righteous doom.
We feelingly believe thou art:
Behold, we ever seek thee, Lord,
With all our mind, with all our heart,
And find thee now our great reward.

Divinely warned of judgments near,
Noah believed a threatening God,
With humble faith and holy fear
He built the ark and escaped the flood.
He--while the world that disbelieved,
The careless world of sinners, died--
The righteousness of faith received:
Noah by faith was justified.
We too by faith the world condemn,
Of righteousness divine possessed,
Escape the wrath that covers them,
Safe in the ark of Jesus' breast.

Obedient to his God's command,
And influence by his faith alone,
Abraham left his native land,
Went out and sought a place unknown.
A place he should possess at last,
When full four hundred years were over:
Upon the Word himself he cast,
He followed God and asked no more.
As in a strange though promised land,
A land his distant heirs received,
He and his sons in tents remained;
He knew in whom he had believed.
A better heritage he sought,
A city built by God on high,
Thither he raised his towering thought,
He fixed on heaven his steadfast eye.
Whose firm foundations never move,
Jerusalem was all his care,
The New Jerusalem above;
His treasure, and his heart was there.
And shall not we the call obey,
And haste where God commands to go?
Despise these tenements of clay,
These dreams of happiness below?
Yes, Lord, we hearken to thy call,
As sojourners over earth we rove,
We have for thee forsaken all,
And seek the heaven of perfect love.

By faith the handmaid of the Lord,
Sarah, received a power unknown,
She judged him faithful to his word;
Barren and old she bore a son.
Nature had lost its genial power,
And Abraham was old in vain:
Impossibilities are over,
If faith assent and God ordain.
He glorified Jehovah's name--
God spake the word, it must be done--
Father of nations he became,
And multitudes sprang forth from one.
From one old man the race did rise,
A barren womb the myriads bore,
Countless as stars that deck the skies,
As sands that crown the ocean shore.

The worthies these of ancient days,
By faith they lived, in faith they died;
Not yet received the promised grace,
But darkly from afar descried.
Assured the savior should appear
And confident in Christ to come,
Him they embraced, though distant, near;
And languished for their heavenly home.
Pilgrims they here themselves confessed,
Who no abiding place must know,
Strangers on earth they could not rest,
Or find their happiness below.
Regardless of the things behind,
The earthly home from whence they came,
A better land they longed to find,
A promised heaven was all their aim.
Their faith the gracious Father sees,
And kindly for his children cares,
He condescends to call them his,
And suffers them to call him theirs.
For them his heaven he hath prepared,
His New Jerusalem above;
And love is there their great reward,
A whole eternity of love.

Abraham, when severely tried,
His faith by his obedience showed,
He with the harsh command complied,
And gave his Isaac back to God.
His son the father offered up,
Son of his age, his only son,
Object of all his joy and hope,
And less beloved than God alone.
His seed elect, his heir foretold,
Of whom the promised Christ should rise,
He could not from his God withhold
That best, that costliest sacrifice.
The father curbed his swelling grief,
'Twas God required, it must be done;
He staggered not through unbelief,
He bared his arm to slay his son.
He rested in Jehovah's power,
The word must stand which God hath said,
He knew the Almighty could restore,
Could raise his Isaac from the dead.
He knew in whom he had believed
And, trusting in omnipotence,
His son as from the dead received,
His steadfast faith received him thence.
O for a faith like his, that we
The bright example may pursue,
May gladly give up all to thee,
To whom our more than all is due!
Now, Lord, for thee our all we leave,
Our willing soul thy call obeys,
Pleasure and wealth and fame we give,
Freedom and life, to win thy grace.
Is there a thing than life more dear,
A thing from which we cannot part?
We can: we now rejoice to tear
The idol from our bleeding heart.
Jesus, accept our sacrifice,
All things for thee we count but loss;
Lo! at thy word our Isaac dies,
Dies on the altar of thy cross.
Now to thyself the victim take,
Nature's last agony is over,
Freely thine own we render back,
We grieve to part with all no more.
For what to thee, O Lord, we give,
A hundredfold we here obtain,
And soon with thee shall all receive,
And loss shall be eternal gain.

Isaac by faith declared his race
In Jacob and in Esau blessed,
The younger by peculiar grace
A nobler heritage possessed.
By faith expiring Jacob knew
Distinguished mercies to pronounce,
His hands found out the happy two
And blessed his favorite Joseph's sons.
He raised himself upon the bed,
Propped on a staff he owned his Lord,
The patriarch bowed his hoary head,
His body with his soul adored.
Joseph by faith the flight foretold
Of Israel's afflicted race;
God their harsh bondage should behold
And lead them to the promised place.
Thither he willed his bones to go
And take possession in their stead;
His bones the promised land shall show,
He claims his Canaan, though dead.

Moses by faith from death was saved,
While heedless of the tyrant's will,
His parents in their God believed,
And dared the lovely babe conceal.
By faith, when now to manhood grown,
A just contempt of earth he showed,
Refused a prince's name to own
And sought but to be great in God.
In vain its pomps ambition spreads,
Glory in vain displays her crown,
A brighter crown its luster sheds,
A purer flame his bosom warms.
Wisely he chose the better part.
Sufferings with God's elect to share,
To pleasures vain he steeled his heart,
No room for them when God is there.
Fleeting he deemed them all, and vain,
His heart on heavenly joys bestowed,
Partaker of his people's pain,
The afflicted people of his God.
Egypt unfolds her golden blaze,
Yet all for Christ he counts but loss;
A richer treasure he surveys,
His Lord's anticipated cross.
He triumphed in his glorious shame,
On pleasure, wealth, and fame looked down,
'Twas heaven at which his wishes aim,
Aspiring to a starry crown.
By faith he left the oppressive land
And scorned the petty rage of kings,
Supported by Jehovah's hand
And shadowed by Jehovah's wings.
His steady way he still pursued,
Nor hopes nor fears retard his pace,
The Invisible before him stood,
And faith unveiled the Savior's face.
By faith he slew the typic lamb
And kept the passover of God:
He knew from whence its virtue came,
The saving power of sprinkled blood.
With all the servants of the Lord,
He--while the firstborn victims died--
Dared the destroying angel's sword
And, armed with blood, its point defied!

While through the sea by faith they passed,
The sea retired at God's command,
The waves shrink back with trembling haste,
The waves a crystal barrier stand.
The Egyptians daring to pursue
With horror found a watery grave;
Too late their want of faith they knew,
And sunk beneath the overwhelming wave.

By faith, while Israel's host surrounds
Proud Jericho's devoted walls,
The ark stands still, the trumpet sounds,
The people shout, the city falls!
Rahab by faith deliverance found,
Nor perished with the accursed race;
The harlot for her faith renowned
Amongst the worthies takes her place.
Worthies who all recorded stand
And shine in everlasting lays;
And justly now might each demand
The tribute of distincter praise.
Gideon and Barak claim the song,
And David good, and Samuel wise,
And Jephthah bold, and Sampson strong,
And all the ancient prophets rise!
The battles of the Lord they fought
Through faith, and mighty states subdued,
And works of righteousness they wrought,
And proved the faithfulness of God.
They stopped the lions' mouths, the rage
Of fire they quenched, escaped the sword,
The weak grew strong and bold to engage
And chase the hosts that dared their Lord.
Women their quickened dead received,
Women the height of faith displayed,
With steadfast confidence believed,
Believed their children from the dead.

Others, as in a furnace tried,
With strength of passive grace endured,
Tortures and deaths, through faith defied,
Through faith resisted unto blood.
Earth they beheld with generous scorn,
On all its proffered goods looked down,
High on a fiery chariot borne,
They lost their life to keep their crown.
Secure a better life to find,
The path of varied death they trod,
Their souls triumphantly resigned,
And died into the arms of God.
The prelude of contempt they found,
A spectacle to fiends and men;
Cruelly mocked and scourged and bound
'Til death shut up the bloody scene.
Or stoned, they glorified their Lord,
Or joyed, asunder sawn, to expire,
Or rushed to meet the slaughtering sword,
Or triumphed in the torturing fire.

Naked or in rough goatskins clad,
In every place they long confessed
The God for whom over earth they strayed
Tormented, destitute, distressed.
Of whom the world unworthy was,
Whom only God their maker knew,
The world they punished with their loss,
The holy anchorites withdrew.
Lone unfrequented wilds they trod,
Over mountaintops the wanderers ran,
With milder beasts in dens abode,
And shunned the haunts of savage man.

Famed for their faith all these believed,
By justifying grace made whole;
Nor yet the promised grace received,
The Christ, the fullness in their soul.
A better gift he us provides,
On whom the gospel-times are come;
And lo! the Holy Ghost abides
In us, and makes our hearts his home.
We now our elder brethren meet,
Their faith and happiness improve,
And soon with them shall shine complete
In Christ, and perfected in love.