Groaning for Redemption, Part 3

Break, stubborn heart; and sigh no more
To mock me with a show of good,
To make me think the conflict o'er,
The strength of inbred sin subdued:
Or let me cease from every ill,
Or bear the nether mill-stone still.

Away my flattering hopes and fears,
The transports of my short-lived grief;
Away my unavailing tears,
Nor mock me with your vain relief!
Dissembling tears, 'tis past your art
To melt the marble of my heart.

My heart, which now to God aspires,
The following moment cleaves to dust;
My firm resolves, my good desires,
My holy frames — no more I trust,
Poor, feeble, broken reeds, to you;
My goodness melts as morning dew.

Hardly convinced, I own at last
No will to good abides in me;
My latest rag away I cast,
The rag of my sincerity:
I bear my double sin, and shame;
Beast, beast, and legion is my name.

Full of concupiscence and pride,
Fit fuel for eternal fire,
With virtuous show I strive to hide
The baseness of impure desire;
Conceal'd it lies, yet not supprest:
The devil blushes for the beast.

I start from the contempt of men,
But shameless in His sight appear
By whom my every thought is seen;
My heart is harden'd from His fear,
Nor care I from His view to hide
My foulest filthiness of pride.

O what a loathsome hypocrite
Am I! A child of wrath and sin,
An heir of hell, a son of night,
An outward saint, a fiend within,
A painted tomb, a whited wall,
A worm, a sinner stript of all!

Lay to Thine hand, O God of grace;
O God, the work is worthy Thee;
See at Thy feet of all our race
The chief, the vilest sinner see,
And let me all Thy mercy prove,
Thine utmost miracle of love.

Speak; and an holy thing and clean
Shall strangely be brought out of me;
My Ethiop soul shall change her skin;
Redeem'd from all iniquity.
I, even I, shall then proclaim
The wonders wrought by Jesu's name.

Thee I shall then for ever praise,
In spirit and in truth adore,
While all I am declares Thy grace,
And, born of God, I sin no more;
The pure and heavenly nature share,
And fruit unto perfection bear.