And will ye go away? S. Deacon. [Falling away from Christ]. This is No. 273 of his Barton Hymns, 1797, in 6 stanzas of 4 lines, and is headed "A Serious Question." It was probably in the first edition of those hymns, 1785, but this we have not been able to ascertain. In 1804 it was repeated, without alteration, in John Deacon's New and Large Collection of Psalms and Hymns, No. 461. As known in a few modern collections, specially amongst the Baptists, it is rewritten and enlarged to 9 stanzas. This form was given to in Rippon's Selection 27th ed., 1827, No. 439, pt. ii., and retains only a few lines of S. Deacon's text. Its signature is "Anon., Rippon's Sel., 27th ed. 1827, based on S. Deacon, 1797."
-- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)