See the fierce beast, whose rage untamed

Verse 1
See the fierce beast, whose rage untam’d
Scatters the flock of Christ, and tears!
He rushes on, by hell inflam’d,
And neither age nor sex he spares:
In vain a single victim dies;
More thirsty thro’ a taste of blood,
He foams, and vows to sacrifice
The whole, extirminated brood.

Verse 2
Insatiate, fill’d with mad despight,
Threatnings he doth and slaughter breathe,
As murther were his soul’s delight,
Numbers he hales to bonds and death:
But let the Saviour speak with power,
“Thy persecuted Lord I am,”
The furious beast is fierce no more,
The wolf himself becomes a lamb!

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘As for Saul, he made havock of the church &c.’—[Acts 8,] v. 3.” 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 221.
Publishing: Public Domain