Scripture Verse

A man with an unclean spirit…always, night and day, he was in the mountains, and in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself with stones. Mark 5:2–5

Introduction

portrait
William Tans’ur (1700–1783)

Words: Is­aac Watts, Hymns and Spi­ri­tu­al Songs, Book 2, 1707–09, num­ber 153. The dis­tem­per, fol­ly, and mad­ness of sin.

Music: St. An­drew (Tan­s’ur) Will­iam Tan­s’ur, 1735 (🔊 pdf nwc).

portrait
Isaac Watts (1674–1748)

Lyrics

Sin, like a venomous disease,
Infects our vital blood;
The only balm is sovereign grace,
And the physician, God.

Our beauty and our strength are fled,
And we draw near to death;
But Christ the Lord recalls the dead
With His al­migh­ty breath.

Madness by nature reigns within,
The passions burn and rage,
Till God’s own Son, with skill divine,
The inward fire assuage.

We lick the dust, we grasp the wind,
And solid good despise;
Such is the folly of the mind,
Till Je­sus makes us wise.

We give our souls the wounds they feel,
We drink the poisonous gall,
And rush with fury down to hell;
But Heav’n prevents the fall.

The man possessed among the tombs
Cuts his own flesh, and cries;
He foams and raves, till Je­sus comes,
And the foul spirit flies.