The Sinner's Fears

Representative Text

1 Alas! for I have seen the Lord,
With a drawn sword he stood;
Now might he sheathe it in my flesh,
And bathe it in my blood.

2 I've dar'd him with my mighty sins,
As if he was to slow;
But now he comes both arm'd and girt,
As an enraged foe.

3 What shall a guilty sinner do,
When justice does appear?
O wither shall I flee from him,
Whose place is ev'ry where?

4 As I can neither stand nor fly,
So neither can I bear
The mighty hand which grinds the rocks,
And doth foundations tear.

5 My pale, my poor, my trembling soul,
Does start at ev'ry thing;
It hourly fears huge hosts of wrath
From this incensed King.

6 Should he but his commission grant,
All creatures would engage
Against me as their foe profess'd,
With an united rage.

7 My fears are just; I deserve hell,
And 'tis my proper hire;
But who can dwell; O! who can dwell
With everlasting fire?

Source: Divine Hymns or Spiritual Songs, for the use of religious assemblies and private Christians: being a collection #CXLVII

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Author: John Mason

Mason, John. The known facts of his life are scanty. He was the son of a Dissenting Minister, and the grandfather of John Mason, the author of A Treatise on Self-Knowledge. He was educated at Strixton School, Northants, and Clare Hall, Cambridge. After taking his M.A., he became Curate of Isham; and in 1668, Vicar of Stantonbury, Bucks. A little more than five years afterwards he was appointed Rector of Water-Stratford. Here he composed the volume containing The Songs of Praise, his paraphrase of The Song of Solomon, and the Poem on Dives and Lazarus, with which Shepherd's Penitential Cries was afterwards bound up. This volume passed through twenty editions. Besides the Songs of Praise, it contains six Penitential Cries by Mason, and it i… Go to person page >

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