The poetical works of John and Charles Wesley

Say, ye assembled sons of men,
Is it your labour and delight
Virtue and justice to maintain,
And vindicate the injured right?
Or love your cruel hearts to' oppress,
Your hands to work unrighteousness?

129

Far from the true and living Way,
Conceived in sin, nursed up in lies,
The wicked haste to go astray,
And still to bolder mischiefs rise;
Their tongues like serpents' stings they dart,
And vent the poison of their heart.

No mercies can their rage disarm,
Deaf adders to the Charmer's cry,
Not all His gracious words can charm,
His softest calls “Why will ye die?”
They stop their ears, and haste away—
The slander'd innocent to slay.

But Thou, O God, confound their power;
And save the humbled soul from death,
Baffle when ready to devour,
And break the ramping lions' teeth,
And just when they their arrows shoot,
Do Thou destroy them branch and root.

As waters let them pass away,
And never, never more return,
Waste as the snail with swift decay,
As embryos out of season born;
O'erwhelm, before they see the light,
Their counsels in eternal night.

The Lord shall suddenly reveal
His fierce vindictive wrath from heaven,
Sweep all their guilty souls to hell
As chaff before the whirlwind driven,
His wrath the wicked shall destroy,
His mercy fill the saints with joy.

130

Whoe'er beholds the' event shall say
Holy and righteous is the Lord,
Who oft forestalls the judgment-day,
And doth even here His saints reward,
And casts the proud oppressors down,
And reigns o'er all the earth alone.

University of Virginia Library

PSALM LVIII.

[Say, ye assembled sons of men]