The world unknowingly fulfill

Verse 1
The world unknowingly fulfil
The scriptures they deny,
Careless they hear, and read them still
With uninlighten’d eye:
They see the Way from which they err,
Nor yet the Truth perceive,
Nor will the inward Prophet hear,
Nor will in Christ believe.

Verse 2
Their gross, unfeeling hearts oppose,
And with their Saviour fight,
Their ears against his words they close,
Their eyes against his light;
By no decree of his compel’d
They spurn th’ incarnate God,
Refuse to let their souls be heal’d
By their Redeemer’s blood.

Verse 3
They might perceive that Christ is He,
And know the Shepherd’s voice,
They might thro’ faith converted be,
And in his love rejoice:
But if they still their God defy,
Till mercy’s day is past,
Unheal’d, unsav’d they justly die,
Die in their sins at last.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘In them is fulfilled the prophecy ... hearing ye shall hear &c.’—[Matt. 13,] v. 14, 15.” This hymn appears in the 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 269.
Publishing: Public Domain