Envy when time began

Verse 1
Envy, when time began,
The death of Jesus was,
From earth’s foundations slain
It nail’d him to the cross:
Thro’ envious pride the fiend came in,
And death with the malicious sin.

Verse 2
A murtherer from the first
In Cain the devil stood:
And still the wicked thirst
To shed their brethren’s blood,
And daily by the priestly vice
The Saviour in his members dies.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘He knew that the chief priests had delivered him for envy.’—[Mark 15,] v. 10.” This hymn appears in the 1766 manuscript “MS Mark.” 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 1977/574, 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. 11 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1871), page 85.
Publishing: Public Domain