A dog, and worse, alas, am I

Verse 1
A dog, and worse alas, am I,
Who to my vomit turn again,
A thousand times with sin comply,
A thousand times repent in vain,
And then indulge my heart’s desire,
And wallow in the brutish mire.

Verse 2
Jesus, my refuge in despair,
While unconsum’d on earth I live,
If yet thou canst the sinner bear,
Canst so abundantly forgive
This only once my peace restore;
But lift me up, to fall no more.

Verse 3
Pardon itself avails me not,
Unless the pardon I retain;
My sins out of thy memory blot,
Out of my soul erase the stain,
The root uptear, the mount remove,
And save me by thine utmost love.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘The dog is turned to his own vomit again.’—[2 Pet.] 2:22.” This hymn appears in the 1783 manuscript “MS Scriptural 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 1977/576, 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. 13 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1872), page 192.
Publishing: Public Domain