Wherefore, ye saints, with resolute zeal

Verse 1
Wherefore, ye saints, with resolute zeal,
Your members to destruction give,
Which would on earthly objects dwell,
And thence their nourishment receive,
Vengeance on your oppressors take,
Actions and words and thoughts unclean,
Evil desires, which jointly make
The body foul of inbred sin.

Verse 2
Put him to death, the Adam old,
Passions inordinate and blind,
Lusts of the flesh to evil sold,
The selfish will, the carnal mind:
Nail’d to the cross if now they bleed,
Persist to persecute and kill,
Daily die on, already dead,
And mortify your members still.

Verse 3
Not out of nature’s reach, fight on,
Not from the grossest sins secure,
Your bodies with your arms lay down,
Nor think ’till death the crown is sure;64
’Till then for no dismission look,
Your victory o’er the flesh repeat,
And slay with a continual stroke,
’Till death be put beneath your feet.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled “Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, &c.”—[Col.] iii. 5. Introduced in Charles Wesley, Short Hymns on Select Passages of the Holy Scriptures, Vol. 2 (Bristol: Farley, 1762). Published in The Poetical Works of John and Charles Wesley, Collected and Arranged by G. Osborn, Vol. 13 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1872), page 87.
Publishing: Public Domain