Beneath a mask of piety

Verse 1
Beneath a mask of piety
Their worst designs the wicked hide:
Yet (for their hearts we cannot see,
Till actions cast the veil aside)
Love all things hopes, and all believes,
Rejecting and suspecting none:
And thus the hypocrite deceives,
And makes us trust in God alone.

Verse 2
The wisdom from above restrains,
And governs our credulity,
It guards the simple, and explains
How caution may with love agree:
With candor then we all receive,
Yet safe beyond th’ impostor’s power
We none implicitly believe,
We trust appearances no more.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘They sent forth spies, which should feign themselves just men.'—[Luke 20,] v. 20.” 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 The Poetical Works of John and Charles Wesley, Collected and Arranged by G. Osborn, Vol. 11 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1871), page 271.
Publishing: Public Domain