O most compassionate High Priest. C. Wesley. [For Pardon.] "First published in 1743, as ‘A Prayer for those who are Convinced of Sin,' at the end of The Nature, Design, and General Rules of the United Societies, &c.; and to be found there in most if not all the editions of that tract published during Wesley's life" (Poetical Works, 1868-72, vol. v. p. 230). It was also included in Hymns and Sacred Poems, 1749, vol. ii., No. 63, in 18 stanzas of 4 lines, as No. 3 of "Hymns of Intercession." In 1780, stanzas vi.-xiv. were given as: "O let the prisoners' mournful cries," in the Wesleyan Hymn Book, No. 450, and from thence passed into other collections. The revised edition of the Wesleyan Hymn Book, 1875, omits the last two stanzas of the 1780 text.
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)