Wesley Corpus

Terrible God, severely just, Inexorable judge of all, A sinner cleaving to the dust, And looking for a deeper fall, Thy awful justice I confess, And glorify thy righteousness. Righteous in all thy ways thou art; Long didst thou strive my soul to win, Tho' harden'd now I feel my heart Thro' the deceitfulness of sin, I clear thee in my latest groan, O God, my death is all my own. Ten thousand thousand times restor'd, Still into fouler sins I fell, Trod under foot my bleeding Lord, And labour'd to ensure my hell; How couldst thou still defer my fate? How couldst thou give me up so late? Page 4 I might have seen in that my day The things belonging to my peace, But would not let thy Spirit stay, But forc'd his striving love to cease, I forc'd him to withdraw his light, And take his everlasting flight. Most justly then my day is past, Mercy no more remains for me, Thy Spirit griev'd and quench'd at last With senseless unconcern I see, The measure of my sin fill'd up, Shipwreck'd my faith, extinct my hope. I see my doom, but I cannot feel, Or wish to want this hell within, I cannot ask thee to repeal My curse, or save me from my sin. I would not have my sin remove, My sin, my curse, my hell I love.2 No cloak for mine offence have I, I calmly sin against the light, Deliberately resolve to die, And sink into eternal night, The day is past, the strife is o'er, I will accept of grace no more. My hands hang down, my feeble knees Refuse to bear the sinful clay, My ineffectual strivings cease, I fall a final castaway; I fall, and own my God is just, No longer mine; for all is lost! Lost, and undone, and damn'd am I, But whence this unavailing tear? This struggling, faint, imperfect sigh? Can ought of good be harbour'd here? 2This entire stanza deleted from 3rd edn. (1770) and following. Page 5 O no! It cannot, cannot be; Mercy no more remains for me. Away, ye dreams of future rest! Why am I tempted to look up? What means this struggling in my breast? My flinty breast must never hope; Yet kindled my relentings are, And check'd I feel my just despair.