Envious and wicked priests appear
In every age, the church t’ oppose,
’Gainst every gospel-minister
They head the troop of Jesus foes;
Zealots and Sadducees combine
The truth by violence to suppress,
Deists and priests their forces join
To silence all the witnesses.
Envious and wicked priests appear
Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘And as they spake unto the people, the priests, and the Sadducees came upon them.’—[Acts 4,] v. 1.” 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 169.
Publishing: Public Domain