The poetical works of John and Charles Wesley

The Shepherd good rejoiced to keep,
While in the world, His number'd sheep,
The sheep His Father had bestow'd:
He kept them in His Father's name,
The power and goodness to proclaim
The truth and faithfulness of God;
Jesus to Thee the twelve were given,
Their names were all inscribed in heaven;
Yet Judas by transgression fell,

His name was blotted from Thy book,
When his own mercies he forsook,
And challenged his own place in hell.

That none of Thine elect may boast,
One of the chosen twelve was lost,
He made himself perdition's son;
For whom Thou hadst a throne design'd,
He sold the Saviour of mankind,
And forfeited his promised crown:
Faithful he might have proved to Thee,
But fell from his integrity
By no decree of Thine compell'd;
He cast Thy slighted grace away,
Gave himself up, the tempter's prey,
And thus his own destruction seal'd.

University of Virginia Library

2177.

[The Shepherd good rejoiced to keep]