God of all power, and truth, and love, why doest thou not

Verse 1
God of all power, and truth, and love,
Why dost thou not my sin forgive,
While yet I may thy mercy prove,
While yet I in the body live?
A moment sinks me into dust,
A moment ends my course below
And then, inexorably just,
Thou never canst thy mercy show.

Verse 2
What can I say, what can I do
But humbly still for mercy sue,
Persisting in the sinner’s plea
My God, be merciful to me!
I use the humble words in vain,
Unless the penitential pain,
Jesus, thy pitying eye impart,
And cast the look that breaks my heart.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘Why dost Thou not pardon my transgression?’—Job 7:21.” This hymn appears in the ca. 1786 manuscript “MS Miscellaneous Hymns.” This manuscript is part of the collection of the Methodist Archive and Research Centre in The John Rylands Library, The University of Manchester (accession number MA 1977/556, Charles Wesley Notebooks Box 2). Accessed through the website of The Center for Studies in the Wesleyan Tradition, Duke Divinity School. Published in The Poetical Works of John and Charles Wesley, Collected and Arranged by G. Osborn, Vol. 9 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1870), page 236.
Publishing: Public Domain