Slaves we all by nature are

Verse 1
Slaves we all by nature are,
To every vice inclin’d,
Foil’d, and prisoners took in war,
Our conqueror’s yoke we find:
We to sin ourselves have sold,
And basely bow’d to passion’s sway;
By a thousand lusts controul’d,
We dar’d not disobey.

Verse 2
By the guilt and tyranny
Of cruel sin opprest,
Lord, we will not come to Thee
For freedom and for rest:
Break this adamantine chain,
Who only canst the soul release,
Change the stubborn will of man,
And bid us go in peace.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘Whosoever committeth sin, is the servant of sin.’—[John 8,] v. 34." 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. 11 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1871), page 427.
Publishing: Public Domain