Repentance doth with fear begin

Verse 1
Repentance doth with fear begin,
We feel the baseness of our sin,
Not bold salvation to demand,
Or snatch the grace out of his hand,
Not worthy before God t’ appear,
We come, yet tremble to draw near.

Verse 2
Foul lepers, by ourselves abhor’d,
Asham’d to meet an holy Lord,
Our nature’s loathsomness we feel,
Our heart and life deserving hell,
And cry with lifted voice aloud,
Immeasurably far from God.

Verse 3
Saviour of men, to Thee we cry,
Whose blood was shed to bring us nigh:
Apply it, Lord, to purge our sin,
To make our filthy conscience clean;
Thy love infuse, thy mercy show,
And wash the lepers white as snow.

Verse 4
When Thou from sin hast set us free,
Our Master, and Instructor be,
Teach by thy salutiferous grace,
And guide us thro’ our happy days,
Let mercy all our steps attend,
Till time in life eternal end.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘There met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off. And they lifted up their voices, and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.'—[Luke 17,] v. 12, 13.” 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 S.T. Kimbrough Jr. and Oliver A. Beckerlegge, eds., The Unpublished Poetry of Charles Wesley, vol. 2 (Nashville: Kingswood Books, 1990), pages 162-63. The first three verses were 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 251.
Publishing: Public Domain