A sin there is which far exceeds

Verse 1
A sin there is which far exceeds
The tyrant’s most atrocious deeds;
Ambition, pride, and lust
They cannot with his guilt compare
Who hates the Saviour’s messenger,
And persecutes the just.

Verse 2
Shedding at length a martyr’s blood,
He quenches the last spark of good,
And can no longer feel,
He makes his sin and misery full,
Murthers his own immortal soul,
And shuts it up—in hell.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘Herod added this above all, that he shut up John in prison.'—[Luke 3,] v. 20.” This hymn appears in the 1766 manuscript “MS Luke.” 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 1977/575, 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 128.
Publishing: Public Domain