Fain would I, Lord, admittance find

Verse 1
Fain would I, Lord, admittance find
Among that church of the first-born,
But Thou must change my heart and mind,
Into a saint a sinner turn,
Inspiring with the strength of grace
To walk in all thy righteous ways.

Verse 2
All thy commands I shall fulfil,
Blest with the faith that works by love,
Meet Thee on that celestial hill,
Enter the holy gates above,
Eat th’ immortalizing Tree,
And live supremely blest in Thee.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.’—[Matt. 19,] v. 17.” Wesley originally published verse 2 in his 1762 hymnal "Short Hymns on Select Passages of the Holy Scriptures, Vol. 2" (Bristol: Farley, 1762). He later added the first verse in his unpublished 1766 manuscript “MS Matthew.” 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 1977/577, 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. 10 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1870), page 325.
Publishing: Public Domain