Happy loss of liberty
Which men with saints endure!
Captives, your deliverer see,
And rest, like Paul, secure;
Thro’ a prisoner of the Lord
Preserv’d from the tempestuous main,
From the peril of the sword
Ye live redeem’d again.
Happy loss of liberty
Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘But the centurion willing to save Paul, kept them from their purpose.’—[Acts 27,] v. 43." 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 445.
Publishing: Public Domain