Favour against the good,
Not justice they desire;
The Jews to shed a martyr’s blood,
The priests again conspire,
By pride and envy wrought
To slay their guiltless foe:
Such evils (horrible to thought!)
From false religion flow!
Favour against the good
Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘They desired favour against him, that he would send for him to Jerusalem, laying wait in the way to kill him.’—[Acts 25,] v. 3." 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 416.
Publishing: Public Domain