O thou who hadst the world forsook

Verse 1
O thou who hadst the world forsook,
And set thy hand to Jesus’ plough,
If back thou cast a wishful look,
One earthly fond desire allow,
That one desire thy bane will be,
And ruin all his work in thee.

Verse 2
Who to the world restor’st thy heart,
Thou forfeitest the gracious power,
Unqualified for God thou art,
But ten times deader than before,
Fit with apostate spirits to dwell,
Fit for a burning throne in hell.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘No man having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.'—[Luke 9,] v. 62.” This hymn appears in the 1766 manuscript “MS Luke.” 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 1977/575, 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. 11 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1871), page 190.
Publishing: Public Domain