Are we not plainly here forbid
To trust a spirit untried?
But slow and safely we proceed
With a celestial guide:
We weigh with wisdom from above
The men that call thee Lord,
And all their lives and tempers prove
By thine unerring word.
Are we not plainly here forbid
Hymnal/Album: Originally titled “Try the spirits.”—[1 John] iv. 1. Introduced in Charles Wesley, Short Hymns on Select Passages of the Holy Scriptures, Vol. 2 (Bristol: Farley, 1762). Published in The Poetical Works of John and Charles Wesley, Collected and Arranged by G. Osborn, Vol. 9 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1870), page 207.
Publishing: Public Domain