Wesley Corpus

"Tho' kings may not so far presume, Tis no presumption in a clown: And lo, without a call from Rome, My flail, or hammer I lay down! And if my order's name ye seek, Come see a new Melchizedeck!" "Uzziah was a leper unto the day of his death." II. Chron. xxvi. 21. Ye upstart priests, your sentence know, The marks you can no longer hide, Your daring deeds too plainly shew The loathsom leprosy of pride; And if ye still your crime deny, Who lepers live, shall lepers die. "In the time of his distress did he trespass yet more against the Lord." II. Chron. xxviii. 22. Just such a wretch am I, Who underneath the rod Sin on self-harden'd, and defy The utmost wrath of God: The deeper in distress, The farther I rebel, As bent to claim for my own place The hottest place in hell. Tis not in pain to move This most obdurate heart; Only the power of bleeding love Can stone to flesh convert, Page 208 Bid my rebellions end, And wash the Ethiop white, And change a foul incarnate fiend Into a child of light. "God left him to try him, that he might know all that was in his heart." II. Chron. xxxii. 31. Mayst thou not still conceal thy face, Withdraw the sweet delights of grace, And from thine own depart, To try, and seal them for thine own,58 To shew the sin which lurk'd unknown In my deceitful heart? Surely, before my Lord withdrew, Hid from myself I never knew What now I groan to feel: Thy absence hath my pride bewray'd, And thus convinc'd, I see display'd The depths of my own hell. Left to myself, I now confess, My heart is desperate wickedness, But trust thy gracious power To make an utter end of sin, Thou wilt at last appear within, And never leave me more. "When he was in affliction, he besought the Lord his God, c." II. Chron. xxxiii. 12, 13. Viler than Manasses I, Forc'd by deep affliction pray, Prostrate in thy presence cry Take thy heavy plague away, If thou canst intreated be, Hear, my God, and pardon me.