Already ye the men behold

Verse 1
Already ye the men behold,
Who from among yourselves arise,
Loquacious, turbulent, and bold,
Far above all in their own eyes,
They proudly take the highest place,
And witness their own perfect grace.

Verse 2
Perverters of the sacred word
Th’ apostles false their teacher show,
The sons of Nicholas abhor’d
They scatter death where’er they go,
The flock determin’d not to spare,
But into sects and parties tear.

Verse 3
The church they labour to divide,
That each the largest share may seize,
May draw disciples to his side,
Challenge the separatists for his,
By error multiply his gain,
And Satan’s great vice-gerent reign.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.’—[Acts 20,] v. 30." This hymn appears in the 1764 manuscript “MS Acts.” 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 1977/555, Charles Wesley Notebooks Box 1). 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 and Oliver A. Beckerlegge, eds., The Unpublished Poetry of Charles Wesley, vol. 2 (Nashville: Kingswood Books, 1990), page 402-03.
Publishing: Public Domain