The poetical works of John and Charles Wesley

The fool hath in his heart denied
That Being whom His deeds defied:
Corrupt is the whole human race,
Not one his Maker-God obeys,
Plunged in the depths of Adam's fall,
Death, wrath, and curse o'erwhelm them all.

Jehovah from His throne survey'd
The creatures whom His hands had made,
Nor could His all-discerning eye
One less corrupted soul espy,
Willing his sovereign Lord to own,
Or humbly seek a God unknown.

They all have left the heavenly way,
And gone in actual sin astray,
Wholly corrupt, and born in sin,
Atheists, and beasts, and fiends within,
Not one, till from above renew'd,
Or does, or wills the smallest good.

Their brethren turn'd by grace Divine
They hate, and spitefully malign:
Their throat is as an open grave,
Their tongues are practised to deceive,
Their lips with adders' poison swell,
Their tongues are set on fire of hell.

Their mouth is full of bitterest lies,
Slanders, and oaths, and perjuries;
Swift are their feet to shed the blood
Of all the faithful sons of God:
They own Apollyon for their king,
And death is in their scorpion sting.

Their ways to swift destruction tend,
And sure damnation is their end;
Their life is sin and misery,
Their hearts are all a troubled sea,
Nor can they rest a moment here,
For God they neither love nor fear.

Poor desperate souls! they will not know
That Tophet yawns for them below,
Who exercise their hellish power
To hurt My people and devour,
But e'er to mention God disdain,
Unless to take My name in vain.

Poor guilty souls! they fear, they fly,
And fall with no pursuer nigh,
Who mock'd the counsel of the poor,
And vow'd his ruin to ensure,
Reviled the Lord's afflicted one,
The man that hoped in God alone.

But O, thou humbled soul, look up,
A glad partaker of thy hope!
The Lord hath thy besiegers shook,
And all their bonds to pieces broke,
Thy foes are put to endless shame,
And Jesus is thy Saviour's name.

University of Virginia Library

PSALM XIV.

[The fool hath in his heart denied]