The witnesses ye praise

Verse 1
The witnesses ye praise
Long since to glory gone,
Extol the saints of ancient days,
Of all, except your own:
Those murtherers of the good
Your ancestors ye blame,
Who shed the blessed martyrs blood;
And do yourselves the same.

Verse 2
“Ah, no: we disavow
“The bloody Popish crew,
“We tolerate all religions now,
“Or all’—except the true![”]
Your malice ye deny
In words as smooth as theirs,
And thus yourselves ye testify
Their genuin sons and heirs.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; because ye build the tombs of the prophets &c.’—[Matt. 23,] v. 29–31.” This hymn appears in the 1766 manuscript “MS Matthew.” This manuscript is part of the collection of the Methodist Archive and Research Centre in The John Rylands Library, The University of Manchester (accession number MA 1977/577, Charles Wesley Notebooks Box 3). Accessed through the website of The Center for Studies in the Wesleyan Tradition, Duke Divinity School. Published in The Poetical Works of John and Charles Wesley, Collected and Arranged by G. Osborn, Vol. 10 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1870), page 363.
Publishing: Public Domain