Verse 1
Break stubborn heart, and sigh no more
To mock me with a shew of good,
To make me think the conflict o’er
The strength of inbred sin subdu’d;
Or let me cease from every ill,
Or bear the nether-milstone still.

Verse 2
Away my flatt’ring hopes, and fears
The transports of my short-liv’d grief,
Away my unavailing tears,
Nor mock me with your vain relief,
Dissembling tears, ’tis past your art
To melt the marble of my heart.

Verse 3
My heart, which now to God aspires,
The following moment cleaves to dust,
My firm resolves, my good desires,
My holy frames—no more I trust,
Poor feeble broken reeds, to you:
My goodness melts as morning-dew.

Verse 4
Hardly convinc’d I own at last,
No will to good abides in me,
My latest rag away I cast,
The rag of my sincerity,
I bear my double sin, and shame,
Beast, beast, and legion is my name.

Verse 5
Full of concupiscence and pride,
Fit fuel for eternal fire,
With virtuous shew I strive to hide
The baseness of impure desire;
Conceal’d it lies, yet not supprest;
The devil blushes for the beast.

Verse 6
I start from the contempt of men,
But shameless in his sight appear
By whom my every thought is seen;
My heart is harden’d from his fear,
Nor care I from his view to hide
My foulest filthiness of pride.

Verse 7
O what a loathsome hypocrite
Am I! A child of wrath and sin,
An heir of hell, a son of night,
An outward saint, a fiend within,
A painted tomb, a whited wall,
A worm, a sinner stript of all.

Verse 8
Lay to thy[1] hand, O God of grace;
O God, the work is worthy thee;
See at thy feet of all our race
The chief, the vilest sinner see,
And let me all thy mercy prove,
Thy[2] utmost miracle of love.

Verse 9
Speak; and an holy thing and clean
Shall strangely be brought out of me,
My Ethiop-soul shall change her skin,
Redeem’d from all iniquity,
I, even I shall then proclaim,
The wonders wrought by Jesu’s name.

Verse 10
Thee I shall then forever praise,
In spirit and in truth adore,
While all I am declares thy grace,
And born of God I sin no more,
The pure and heavenly nature share,
And fruit unto perfection bear.

[1] Wesley changed “thy” to “thine” in 1745.
[2] Wesley changed “thy” to “thine” in 1745.