The mystical sign

Verse 1
The mystical sign
Which our Lord did injoin
Only once we receive;
But the Spirit, as oft as in Christ we believe:
He offers the Grace
To baptize our whole race,
The water to cleanse
Our original filth, and our actual offence.

Verse 2
In all places and times
He blots out our crimes,
His Spirit bestows;
And with water of life the believer o’reflows:
The Earnest we feel,
The Witness and Seal,
The joy He imparts
And the love shed abroad in our purified hearts.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost, not many days hence.’—[Acts 1,] v. 5. 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 135.
Publishing: Public Domain