Verse 1
The Shepherd good rejoic’d to keep,
While in the world, his numbred sheep,
The sheep his Father had bestow’d:
He kept them in his Father’s name,
The power and goodness to proclaim,
The truth and faithfulness of God:
Jesus to Thee the twelve were given,
Their names were all inscrib’d in heaven;
Yet Judas by transgression fell;
His name was blotted from thy book,
When his own mercies he forsook,
And challeng’d his own place in hell.

Verse 2
That none of thine elect may boast,
One of the chosen twelve was lost,
He made himself perdition’s son;
For whom Thou hadst a throne design’d,
He sold the Saviour of mankind,
And forfeited his promised crown:
Faithful he might have prov’d to thee,
But fell from his integrity
By no decree of thine compel’d;
He cast thy slighted grace away,
Gave himself up, the tempter’s prey,
And thus his own destruction seal’d.