We ought to wash before we eat

Verse 1
We ought to wash before we eat;
We should our former sins confess,
Who oft have snatch’d th’ unhallow’d meat,
Indulg’d our nature’s greediness,
And feeding without fear or thought
Ungratefully our God forgot.

Verse 2
This filth we first should purge away
In Jesus’ all-atoning blood,
For pardon, and his Spirit pray
To bless and sanctify our food,
And then the gifts of God partake
Vouchsaf’d us for our Saviour’s sake.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘Why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashen hands?’—Mark 7, v. 5.” This hymn appears in the 1766 manuscript “MS Mark.” 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 1977/574, Charles Wesley Notebooks Box 3). 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. 11 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1871), page 4.
Publishing: Public Domain