False confidence the tempter gives,
To rob us of the true,
And oft unwary souls deceives
His wiles who never knew:
He fills us with presumption vain,
Who needless dangers dare,
Exalts, to cast us down again,
And sink us in despair.
False confidence the tempter gives
Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down.’—[Matt. 4,] v. 6.” This hymn appears in the 1766 manuscript “MS Matthew.” 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 1977/577, Charles Wesley Notebooks Box 3). 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. 10 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1870), page 153.
Publishing: Public Domain