God permits His works to be

Verse 1
God permits his works to be
By worldly judges tried,
Shall not ours the scrutiny
Of sinful men abide?
Though thy hand therein appears,
Thy hand, O God, they will not own,
Sentencing the messengers,
For what our Lord hath done.

Verse 2
Who our conduct scrutinize
For this we dare not blame,
But because they shut their eyes,
Determin’d to condemn:
To the truth they will not yield,
Or proof infallible receive,
Though ten thousand souls are heal’d,
And to thy glory live.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘And when they had set them in the midst, they asked, By what power, or by what name have ye done this?’—[Acts 4,] v. 7.” 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 170.
Publishing: Public Domain