Wesley Corpus

According to thy will If now thy Spirit prays, The prayer of faith the sick shall heal, And lengthen out his days: Thou knowst the Spirit's mind To us, O Lord, unknown; But lo! We wait on thee, resign'd, 'Till all thy will be done. Hymns of Intercession. Hymn VII. Another For a Sick Friend. See, Lord, the object of thy love, And O come quickly from above, The blessing to impart, Him to thyself by faith unite, And in large bloody letters111 write Forgiveness on his heart. Feeble, and languishing in pain, He only longs thy love to gain, That medicine of the soul: Jesus, thy pardning love reveal, And give him now the balm to feel, Which made our spirits whole. Lo! In the arms of faith and prayer To thee his sin-sick soul we bear, And place beneath thine eye; Pronounce the comfortable word, And speak him now to health restor'd, And freely justify. 111John Wesley underlined "large bloody letters" in his personal copy of the 2nd edn. (1756). He also placed a "Q" in the margin. Page 97 Thou Son of man, with equal ease The body's and the soul's disease Canst in a moment heal, Canst from his bed of sickness raise, And by thine instantaneous grace His present pardon seal. But that the faithless world may know Thou canst forgive our sins below, Before we reach the skies, The double miracle repeat, Absolve the sinner at thy feet, And bid his body rise. Body, and soul at once restore, And bid him testify the power, That shews his sins forgiven, Bid him by faith take up the bed, On which thy sacred limbs were laid, And bear his cross to heaven. Hymns of Intercession. Hymn VIII. For a Backslider in Despair. See, Lord, with tenderest pity see A wandring sheep, cut off from thee, And from thy people driven, A fallen soul that did run well; Arrest her on the brink of hell, And snatch her up to heaven. Her to the throne of grace we bear, And strive, in agony of prayer, To tear her from the foe: Page 98 Break, Jesu, break the lion's teeth, And pluck her from the toils of death, And let the captive go.