How wretched is the man

How wretched is the man,
How sure of ill success,
Who fondly seeks with effort vain
God and the world to please!
He soon thro’ servile fear
Gives up the injur’d side,
And Jesus in his members here
Again is crucified.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he was the more afraid.’—[John 19,] v. 8." This hymn appears in the 1763-64 manuscript “MS John.” 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 1977/573, 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. 12 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1871), page 81.
Publishing: Public Domain