The slave to nature’s filthy sin

Verse 1
The slave to nature’s filthy sin
(Fit mansion for the Spirit unclean)
Bewrays his foulest shame,
Wanders a phrenetic possest,
A furious, diabolic beast,
And Legion is his name.

Verse 2
Stript of his Maker’s character,
Of virtuous sense, and modest fear,
Far from himself he roams,
Far from the eye of man he flies,
Delights in rottenness and vice,
And dwells among the tombs.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘There met him a certain man which had devils long time, and wore no cloaths, neither abode in any house, but in the tombs.’—[Luke 8,] v. 27.” This hymn appears in the 1766 manuscript “MS Luke.” 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 1977/575, 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 172.
Publishing: Public Domain