We long to worldly pleasures cleave

Verse 1
We long to worldly pleasures cleave,
Nor will our evil habits leave,
Most gracious Lord, for Thee,
Preferring the delights of sin
Th’ intoxicating joys unclean
To joys of piety.

Verse 2
But when Thou dost our souls convert,
Tasting how excellent Thou art,
How full of pardning grace
We let the world and creature go,
The sweetness of religion know,
And all its pleasant ways.

Verse 3
We every earthly love forsake,
When of thy Spirit we partake,
And drink thy purity;
We own reclining on thy breast,
The old, celestial wine is best,
The love that flows from Thee.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘No man having drunk old wine straitway desireth new: for he saith, The old is better.’—[Luke 5,] v. 39.” 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 149.
Publishing: Public Domain