As for religion’s cause
The slaves of mammon fight;
“Our craft indeed may suffer loss,
“But that we seem to slight:
“The church in danger is!
“The vagrants undermine
“Our pomp, magnificence, and ease,
“And government divine!
“Their heresy they spread,
“By day and night employ’d:
“The church, if farther they proceed,
“The church will be destroy’d!
”Tis thus religion’s name
“We use our ends to screen;
“But when the temple we exclaim
“We our preferments mean.[”]
As for religion’s cause
Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘Not only this our craft is in danger; but that also the temple of the great Diana &c.’—[Acts 19,] v. 27." 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 The Poetical Works of John and Charles Wesley, Collected and Arranged by G. Osborn, Vol. 12 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1871), page 362.
Publishing: Public Domain