Wesley Corpus

Page 102 We fear'd to wait thy leizure, Lord, Or make the crown thro' sufferings sure, Nature the killing word abhor'd, Nor would we to the end endure, But snatch a cheap fallacious peace, And rest in fancied holiness. Ah! Do not let thy sheep depart, Wide-scatter'd, in the cloudy day, But cross th' angelic tempter's art, But spoil the lion of his prey, Nor let us from our hope remove, Our gospel-hope of perfect love. Us, and our brethren in distress, Patient within thy kingdom keep, Sure all thy fulness to possess, Our harvest in the end to reap, Thy sinless nature to retrieve, And glorious in thine image live. Hymns of Intercession. Hymn XII.115 Saviour, to thee we humbly cry: The brethren we have lost restore, Recall them by thy pitying eye, Retrieve them from the tempter's power, By thy victorious blood cast down, Nor suffer him to take their crown. Beguil'd, alas, by Satan's art We see them now far off remov'd, The burthen of our bleeding heart, The souls whom once in thee we lov'd, Whom still we love with grief, and pain, And weep for their return in vain. 114John Wesley crossed out this stanza in his personal copy of the 2nd edn. (1756). 115Published previously in Short View of the Difference Between the Moravian Brethren and the Rev. Mr. John and Charles Wesley (London: Strahan, 1745), 23-24. Page 103 In vain, 'till thou the power bestow, The double power of quickning grace, And make the happy sinners know Their tempter with his angel-face, Who leads them captive at his will, Captive but happy sinners still: O wouldst thou break the fatal snare Of carnal self-security, And let them feel the wrath they bear, And let them groan their want of thee, Robb'd of their false pernicious peace, Stript of their fancied righteousness. The men of careless lives, who deem Thy righteousness accounted theirs, Awake out of the soothing dream, Alarm their souls with humble fears, Thou jealous God, stir up thy power, And let them sleep in sin no more. Long as the guilt of sin shall last, Them in its misery detain, Hold their licentious spirits fast, Bind them with their own nature's chain, Nor ever let the wanderers rest, 'Till lodg'd again in Jesus' breast. Hymns of Intercession. Hymn XIII.