Deceit and force are still employed

Deceit and force are still employ’d
Against the church, and truth of God
And its defenders here:
The Lord permits it so to be,
That in our last extremity
He may himself appear.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘The same dealt subtilly with our kindred, and evil entreated our fathers.’—[Acts 7,] v. 19.” 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 206.
Publishing: Public Domain