Full of paternal tenderness
The pastor good will not expose
His children unconfirm’d in grace
To crafty, disputacious foes;
His faithful vig’lance he approves,
(Divinely taught the flock to lead,)
Beyond infection’s reach removes,
And parts the living from the dead.
Full of paternal tenderness
Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘He separated the disciples.’—[Acts 19,] v. 9." 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 359.
Publishing: Public Domain