Hymn III

1.O
THOU who seest what is in man,

And shew’st myself to me,

Suffer a sinner to complain

And groan his griefs to thee.

2.
A sinner, that has cloak’d his shame

With self-deceiving art,

Thy worshipper reform’d in name,

But unrenew’d in heart.

3.
The servants most unlike their Lord,

How oft did I condemn;

The persecuting church abhorr’d,

Nor saw myself in them!

4. The ♦spirit
of my foes I caught,

The angry bitter zeal,

And fierce for my own party fought,

And breath’d the fire of hell

5.
Threatning I did and slaughter breathe,

(The flail of heresy)

And doom the sects to bonds, or death,

That did not think with me.

6.
To propagate the truth, I fought

With fury and despight,

And in my zeal for Israel fought,

To slay the Gibeonite.

7.
“The temple of the Lord are we!”

And all who dared deny,

I would not have their conscience free,

But force them to comply.

8.
With wholsome discipline severe

To conquer them I strove,

And drive into the pale thro’ fear,

Who would not come thro’ love.

9.
How vainly then the zealots blind

Of Rome did I disclaim?

Still to the church of Satan join’d,

And differing but in name.

10.
How could I, Lord, myself deceive

While unreform’d within,

Protest against their creed, and cleave

The closer to their sin?

11.
Their foulest sin my own I made,

(And humbly now confess)

While by my anger I essay’d

To work thy righteousness.

12.
A murtherer convict I come

My vileness to bewail,

By nature born a son of Rome,

A child of wrath and hell,

13.
Lord, I at last recant, reject,

Thro’ thy great strength alone,

The madness of the Romish sect,

The madness of my own.

14.
Lord, I abhor, renounce, abjure

The fiery spirit unclean,

The persecuting zeal impure,

The sin-opposing sin.

15.
Let others draw with fierce despight,

Th’ eradicating sword,

And with the devil’s weapons fight

The battles of the Lord:

16.
But Oh! my gracious God, to me

A better spirit impart,

The gentle mind that was in thee,

The meekly loving heart:

17.
The heart whose charity o’erflows

To all, far off, and near,

True charity to friends and foes,

Impartially sincere.

18.
Heathens, and Jews, and Turks, may I

And Heretics embrace,

Nor ev’n to Rome the love deny

I owe to all the race.