By wisdom pure, and humble love
Made slow and circumspect,
One of a thousand we approve,
And all the rest reject:
Visions, and extacies, and dreams
If others seek or shun,
We steer betwixt the two extreams
To credit all, or none.
By wisdom pure, and humble love
Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘In a trance I saw a vision.’—[Acts 11,] v. 5.” 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 254.
Publishing: Public Domain