The sinful father of mankind

Verse 1
The sinful father of mankind
Could only sinful men beget,
Hence our whole race to ill inclin’d
Th’ offence original repeat,
In Adam’s fallen likeness born
We eat the interdicted tree,
Our will from our Creator turn,
And all thro’ pride as Gods would be.

Verse 2
Born of the flesh, to flesh alone
Our vile, corrupt affections cleave,
Our reason sensualiz’d we own,
To the desires of men we live;
Carnal alike in heart and mind,
Flesh, only flesh, ourselves we know,
And no good thing in us we find,
Till Thou, O Christ, thy Spirit bestow.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘That which is born of the flesh, is flesh &c.’—[John 3,] v. 6." 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 341.
Publishing: Public Domain