If Thou ordain the minister,
His word doth guilty souls release,
Doth with authority declare
Th’ appointed terms of gospel peace;
The poor self-desperate sinner feels
The truth we in thy name assert,
And our report thy Spirit seals
In pardon on the faithful heart.
If Thou ordain the minister
Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them.’—[John 20,] v. 23." 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 108.
Publishing: Public Domain