Free from self-exalting pride

Verse 1
Free from self-exalting pride,
They their associates own,
Would not, tho’ inspir’d, decide
And rule the church alone:
Elders with themselves they join’d
Allow’d the meanest saint his part,
All who had the Spirit’s mind,
And knew the Saviour’s heart.

Verse 2
Thus from error’s endless maze
The faithful we secure,
Teaching them the ancient ways
We make their footsteps sure:
To the saints, where’er we go,
The Apostolic laws we give:
Walking by this rule, they know
The life that angels live.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘As they went through the cities, they delivered them the decrees to keep, that were ordained of the Apostles and elders.’—[Acts 16,] v. 4.” 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 312.
Publishing: Public Domain