Elders commend their Catholick zeal,
Devoted hereticks to kill,
With joy the Reverend conclave join
T’ advance their laudable design;
The Pontiff too his help affords
To gird their consecrated swords,
Their meritorious deed to bless;
And all the saints insure success.
Elders commend their catholic zeal
Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘And they came to the chief priests and elders, and said, We have bound ourselves &c.’—[Acts 23,] v. 14." 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 404.
Publishing: Public Domain