Their sin extorts the’ indignant groan

Verse 1
Their sin extorts th’ indignant groan,
Their proud obduracy of heart,
Which scorns his benefits to own,
Which will his saving grace pervert,
Though God himself, in person come
To call their souls from nature’s tomb.

Verse 2
He curbs the strugling grief within,
That thus we may our zeal suppress,
Urg’d to resent our neighbour’s sin,
Shock’d by a world of wickedness,
And silently the anguish bear,
Or vent our burthen’d souls in prayer.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘Jesus therefore again groaning in himself, cometh to the grave.’—[John 11,] v. 38." This hymn appears in the 1763-64 manuscript “MS John.” 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 1977/573, 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 476.
Publishing: Public Domain