Wesley Corpus

Ye hate my truths and witnesses, Me, me, in them ye vex and grieve, My members persecute, oppress, And reckon them not fit to live, Murtherers, who in your works confide, As God were pleas'd with fratricide! Page 304 "Wash ye, make you clean, put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes, cease to do evil, learn to do well." Isa. i. 16, 17. Ourselves how can we purify? Thy word doth power convey, And while we on thy word rely, We cast our sins away; From sinful acts our hands we cleanse, The cursed thing remove, Bring forth the fruits of penitence, And wait thy pard'ning love. Jesus, if thou thy power bestow, From evil deeds we cease, And learn in all the paths to go Of legal righteousness: But draw us on by hope and fear, 'Till weary and opprest, The reconciling word we hear, And find the gospel-rest. "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord." Isa. i. 18. Who would not quit his sins for thee, Who would not, Lord, believe, If such thy cogent reason be "Come, for I will forgive?" Thy reason shall the world convince, When they thy reason know, And purge them from their crimson sins, And make them saints below. "Tho' your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; tho' they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." Isa. i. 18. Jesus, to thy wounds I fly, Purge my sins of deepest die, Lamb of God, for sinners slain, Wash away my crimson stain, Page 305 Plunge me in the sacred flood, In that fountain of thy blood; Then thy Father's eye shall see No one spot of guilt in me. "Neither shall they learn war any more." Isa. ii. 4. Messias, Prince of Peace, Where men each other tear, Where war is learnt, they must confess Thy kingdom is not there: Who prompted by thy foe Delight in human blood, Apollyon is their king, they shew, And Satan is their god. But shall he still devour The souls redeem'd by thee? Jesus, stir up thy glorious power, And end th' apostasy; Come, Saviour, from above O'er all the earth to reign, And plant the kingdom of thy love In every heart of man.