Wesley Corpus

O! How shall I the rebels shun, Or whither for deliverance run? I neither can resist nor fly: O might I here sink down, and die! Thou Lord, who hast the keys of death, Take back my miserable breath, From all my fears, and sins release, And bid me now depart in peace. Before I all thy people shame, And bring reproach on thy great name, Redeem me from the foul offence, And snatch this moment snatch me hence. One only good I here would have, The blessing of a quiet grave; All my requests are lost in one I ask for death, and death alone. Eager I urge my sole request, I cannot, no I cannot rest, But evermore my wishes breathe, And spend my soul in groans for death. For this my streaming eyes o'erflow, My bosom heaves with endless woe: For this to thee I ever cry, Ah! Saviour, suffer me to die! Receive my gasping spirit home, Seize, snatch me from the ill to come, Now, give me now my heart's desire, And let me at thy feet expire. Page 102 Hymns for One Fallen from Grace. Hymn III.67 Fallen from thy pardning grace How shall I for mercy cry? How presume to seek thy face, I, the deep revolter I! Hard'ned in my sins I am, Conscience I, alas! Have none, Lost my sense of guilt and shame: All my heart is turn'd to stone. Now I sin without remorse, Greedily my death drink down, Now I as the headlong horse Violently in sin rush on; Shipwreck'd is my faith and hope, All my pangs, I find, are o'er, Doubly dead, and rooted up; Godly sorrow is no more. Once I could lament my state, At the feet of Jesus cast, Now my sins have lost their weight, All that blessed grief is past. Conscience sear'd no longer cries; Senseless I of ruin near See my doom with stony eyes, Eyes that cannot drop a tear. O that I at once had gone Singly damn'd to my own place! O that I had never known Christ the way of righteousness! 67Manuscript precursors of this hymn appear in MS Cheshunt, 112-15; and MS Clarke, 129-32. Page 103 Less my punishment had been, Had his blood been ne'er applied, Had I perish'd in my sin, Unconcern'd in Egypt died.