Verse 1
So be it, Lord! If thou ordain,
We come to suffer all thy will,
The utmost violence to sustain
Of those that can the body kill,
But having push’d us to the shore,
The feeble worms can do no more.

Verse 2
We come, depending on thy name,
For we have counted first the cost:
Let ease, and liberty, and fame,
And friends, and life itself be lost,
We come our faithfulness t’ approve,
And pay thee back thy dying love.

Verse 3
Not in a confident conceit
Of our own strength, and virtuous power,
We offer up ourselves, to meet
The fierceness of that fiery hour:
Left to ourselves we all shall fly,
And I shall first my Lord deny.

Verse 4
I first, of ill o’ercome, shall yield,
Apostate from thy glorious cause,
Shall vilely cast away my shield,
And hate the haters of thy cross,
Retort the sharp opprobrious word,
Or smite with the offensive sword.

Verse 5
Strange fire will in this bosom burn,
Unless thou quench it with thy blood;
Impatient of their cruel scorn
My spirit will throw off the load,
“And Baal’s priests with wrath repel,
And send th’ accursed brood to hell.”

Verse 6
Or I shall gaul the mitred race
By satire keen, and railings rude,
By proud contempt, and malice base,
Scurrilous wit, and laughter lewd,
Laughter which soon itself bemoans,
And ends in everlasting groans.

Verse 7
But do not, Lord, from us remove,
While sin and Satan are so near,
But arm us with thy patient love,
That only to ourselves severe
The world we may, like thee, oppose,
And die, a ransom for our foes.