As soon as suffering saints require

Verse 1
As soon as suffering saints require
That Jesus may their foes forgive,
He satisfies his own desire,
He bids the persecutors live,
And lo, the vilest wretch and worst
Finds mercy and salvation first.

Verse 2
What but the power which wakes the dead
Could reach a stubborn goaler’s [gaoler’s/jailer’s] heart,
In cruelty and rapine bred
Who took the ancient murtherer’s part?
Could make an harden’d ruffian feel,
And shake him o’re the mouth of hell?

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘The keeper of the prison awaking out of his sleep &c.’—[Acts 16,] v. 27.” This hymn appears in the 1764 manuscript “MS Acts.” 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 1977/555, Charles Wesley Notebooks Box 1). 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. 12 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1871), page 320.
Publishing: Public Domain