A righteous judge can never boast,
Or glory in his boundless power,
Can never do a deed unjust,
Or let the wolf the lamb devour:
He only from above receives
A power to make the laws take place,
The laws whose minister he lives
The laws he first himself obeys.
A righteous judge can never boast
Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘Speakest thou not unto me? knowest thou not, that I have power to crucify thee, and have power to release thee?’—John 19, v. 10.” 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 S.T. Kimbrough Jr. and Oliver A. Beckerlegge, eds., The Unpublished Poetry of Charles Wesley, vol. 2 (Nashville: Kingswood Books, 1990), page 274.
Publishing: Public Domain