While full of the malicious fiend,
Counsel they take against their Friend,
His thoughts to them are thoughts of peace,
Their hatred he with pity sees,
And bows his head, that they may find
His death the life of all mankind.
While full of the malicious fiend
Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘The chief priests and scribes sought how they might kill him.'—[Luke 22,] v. 2.” This hymn appears in the 1766 manuscript “MS Luke.” 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 1977/575, Charles Wesley Notebooks Box 3). Accessed through the website of The Center for Studies in the Wesleyan Tradition, Duke Divinity School. Published in S.T. Kimbrough Jr. and Oliver A. Beckerlegge, eds., The Unpublished Poetry of Charles Wesley, vol. 2 (Nashville: Kingswood Books, 1990), page 192.
Publishing: Public Domain