Every evil thought and vain

Verse 1
Every evil Thought and vain
Lord, Thou knowst I disapprove,
Sin with all my Heart disdain,
Only thy pure Law I love.
Thou my Shield on every side,
Thou my sure Asylum art,
In thy Promise I confide,
Will not from thy Word depart.

Verse 2
Sinners, hence, be far away,
Ye that evil Paths pursue,
I will only GOD obey,
I will His Commandments do.
Hold my feeble Goings up,
Lord, thy Promise I receive,
I shall then obtain my Hope,
Free from Sin forever live.

Verse 3
O support me with thy Hand,
And I then shall walk secure,
Keep thy every kind Command,
Faithful to the End endure;
All who from thy Statutes stray
Thou in Wrath hast trodden down,
False deceitful Souls are They,
They and Wickedness are One.

Verse 4
Them Thou dost as Dross at last
From the Face of Earth remove,
Therefore will I hold Thee fast,
Thee, and thy Commandments love.
Thee with Reverential Fear
Just and Merciful I see,
Tremble at thy Judgments near,
Triumph in thy Grace to me.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “Psalm 119. XV.” This hymn was appears in the mid-to-late-1740s manuscript “MS Fish.” 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 1977/566, Charles Wesley Notebooks Box 2). Accessed through the website of The Center for Studies in the Wesleyan Tradition, Duke Divinity School. Introduced in Versions and Paraphrases of Select Psalms. Published in The Poetical Works of John and Charles Wesley, Collected and Arranged by G. Osborn, Vol. 8 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1870), page 225.
Publishing: Public Domain