Wesley Corpus

Eternal death's sad sentence I still, alas, receive, With fruitless, vain repentance For final mercy grieve; The ago'ny of temptation I every moment feel, As doom'd to desperation, As rushing into hell. My comforts all are blasted, My Comforter is gone: The joy which once I tasted, O that I ne'er had known! The gourd which sooth'd my anguish, Is wither'd o'er my head, And faint with grief81 I languish To sink among the dead. From all I suffer here, (If God my sins forgive) From all I feel, and fear I there redeem'd shall live: 77John Wesley underlined "fixt despair" in his personal copy of the 2nd edn. (1756). 78John Wesley underlined "only pleasure" in his personal copy of the 2nd edn. (1756). 79John Wesley underlined "mournful treasure" in his personal copy of the 2nd edn. (1756). 80John Wesley underlined "aggravate my" in his personal copy of the 2nd edn. (1756). 81John Wesley underlined "faint with grief" in his personal copy of the 2nd edn. (1756). Page 68 No serpent to deceive me, No sin to stain my thought, No loss, or wrong to grieve me, Where all things are forgot. No heart-distracting passion Is there to break my peace, But joy without cessation, And love without excess: Of paradise secure, I shall no longer mourn; The bliss is full, and sure, The rose without a thorn. Safe on the happy shore, My soul the storm defies, Where pain afflicts no more, And grief no longer cries: In that celestial city From all our toils we cease, And lose our sighing pity In universal bliss. In hope of that salvation I feel a moment's rest, The calm of expectation Has stole into my breast; I weep at rescue near, I struggle to be gone, And joy is in the tear, And God is in the groan! Hear then thy own petition, And suddenly release, And crown my sole ambition, And let me die in peace: Or lengthen out my care To threescore years and ten, But then in mercy spare, But O! Receive me then! Page 69 Desiring Death. Hymn VII. In Weariness.82 Worn out with long fatigue, and pain, Let my feeble flesh complain, Or fail beneath its load, My spirit shall superior rise, Regaining swift her native skies, And sooner reach her God.