A pastor should his flock prepare

A pastor should his flock prepare,
And arm against the trying hour:
Forewarn’d the rude assault they bear,
Their Lord’s Divinity and power
With stronger confidence confess
With fuller joy their Saviour bless.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘Now I tell you before it come, that when it is come to pass, ye may believe that I am He.’—[John 13,] v. 19." This hymn appears in the 1763-64 manuscript “MS John.” 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 1977/573, 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 505.
Publishing: Public Domain