By violence from the body driven

Verse 1
By violence from the body driven,
Where shall my naked soul appear?
A sinner, dying unforgiven,
I but begin my sufferings here.

Verse 2
Soon as I take my gloomy flight,
Vengeance will seize its destin’d prey,
And bound in chains of darkest night
Reserve me to that dreadful day.

Verse 3
All the foul secrets of my heart
And life that dreadful day shall show,
And God condemn me to depart
Accurst into eternal woe.

Verse 4
A moment here I still remain
(Before the Judge hath sentence past,)
T’ escape th’ intolerable pain,
The pain which shall forever last.

Verse 5
They tell me, who the Judge have known
Divinely good, humanely kind,
If I my sins and merits own,
Mercy ev’n I may hope to find.

Verse 6
They tell me, that my dying cry
For mercy He this moment hears,
And at the throne of God most high
The sinner’s Advocate appears.

Verse 7
Jesus, Jehovah, God supreme,
I all my crimes to Thee confess,
From sin and endless death redeem,
Forgive, and bid me die in peace.

Verse 8
My trust is in thy blood alone,
Whom I my Lord and God adore:
Thy will concerning me be done
In life and death I ask no more.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “For a Condemned Malefactor.” This hymn was included in a manuscript titled “Malefactors.” This manuscript is held by the Methodist Archive and Research Centre of the John Rylands Library at The University of Manchester (accession number 1977/583/7, Charles Wesley Notebooks Box 4). Accessed through the website of The Center for Studies in the Wesleyan Tradition, Duke Divinity School. Published in S.T. Kimbrough Jr. and Oliver A. Beckerlegge, eds., The Unpublished Poetry of Charles Wesley, vol. 3 (Nashville: Kingswood Books, 1992), pages 320-21.
Publishing: Public Domain