Whoe’er submits to sin’s commands

Verse 1
Whoe’er submits to sin’s commands,
His soul into the tempter’s hands
With full consent he gives,
He entertains the fiend abhor’d,
And Satan as his lawful lord
Into his heart receives.

Verse 2
Fit mansion for the spirit impure,
He sleeps in sinful peace secure
Till the Redeemer come,
Till Christ omnipotent in grace
Th’ usurper from his palace chase,
And take up all the room.

Verse 3
Saviour, the human house is thine:
To this poor, captive soul of mine
Thy sovereign right assert,
Resume thine own by entring in,
Bind the strong man intrench’d in sin,
And force him to depart.

Verse 4
My spirit’s whole capacity
By double right belongs to Thee;
The tyrant now expel,
Thy purchas’d goods again possess,
And in this house of holiness,
My Lord, forever dwell.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘How can one enter into a strong man’s house and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man? and then he will spoil his goods.’—[Matt. 12,] v. 29.” 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 261.
Publishing: Public Domain