The root of every ill

Verse 1
The root of every ill
Thine eye discerns in me,
The wandring of my sinful will,
My inbred treachery:
Do Thou my will restrain,
Nor suffer it to rove,
But save the feeblest child of man
By pure almighty love.

Verse 2
Saviour, Thou seest the fear
Which haunts me night and day,
My heart so weak, my sin so near,
Shall I not Thee betray?
Ah, do not let me live
To cause the dire offence,
Rather this instant now forgive,
And snatch me spotless hence.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘One of you shall betray me.’—[Matt. 26,] v. 21.” Wesley originally published verse 2 in his 1762 hymnal "Short Hymns on Select Passages of the Holy Scriptures, Vol. 2" (Bristol: Farley, 1762). He later added verse 1 in his unpublished 1766 manuscript “MS Matthew.” 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 1977/577, 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. 10 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1870), page 399.
Publishing: Public Domain