Verse 1
Why should a living child of man
Beneath the scourge repine,
Or dare with impious grief t’ arraign
The righteousness divine?
Why should I murmur at my load,
And farther still rebel,
So lightly chasten’d by my God,
And not thrust down to hell?

Verse 2
What are the sorest plagues I bear
To those the damn’d sustain?
What is my temporal despair
To their eternal pain?
My sins demand their dreadful hire,
My sins for vengeance call,
And short of that infernal fire
’Tis grace and mercy all.

Verse 3
What though my soul with shame is fill’d,
My heart o’erwhelm’d with dread,
What though my tender joys are kill’d,
And every comfort fled;
What though my darling Isaac I
Am forc’d to offer up,
And live, when all my blessings die,
And drink the bitterest cup:

Verse 4
Shall I resent my slighted love,
Or mourn my murther’d fame,
Worthy the hate of all above,
And everlasting shame!
The loss of one weak, faithless friend
Still, still shall I bemoan,
When God, whose favours never end,
May yet be all my own?

Verse 5
God of my life, to thy decree
I humbly now submit,
Accept my punishment from thee,
And tremble at thy feet:
Whate’er thy will inflicts I take,
’Till all thy plagues are past;
But while my soul I render back,
O give me peace at last.

Verse 5 [MS Richmond version]
GOD of my life and refuge, hear
A Child of misery,
And bless me with an heart sincere
To languish after thee,
Thou only Thou my Thoughts engross,
And claim my whole Distress,
Till Jesus recompence my Loss
With everlasting Peace.

Verse 6 [MS Richmond Version]
Confirm the gracious Wish I feel,
For Thee alone to mourn,
Till Thou the ransom’d Sinner seal,
And bid my Soul return
Till Thou my Heavenly Hope appear,
Thy glorious Face display
And banish every Sigh and Tear
At that Triumphant Day.