Silenced, but not convinced, the foes

Verse 1
Silenc’d, but not convinc’d, the foes
Of Christ a surer method take,
Violence and fraud to truth oppose,
Slander and lies their refuge make,
And rouse the sons of wickedness,
The furious croud, their prey to seize.

Verse 2
Whose words they can no more withstand
They now their persons apprehend,
Attended with a ruffian band,
Like ravenous wolves the sheep they rend,
As guilty criminals entreat
And drag them to the judgment seat.

Verse 3
Elders and scribes be sure are there,
The hated witnesses condemn
Who Jesus pardning grace declare,
“But Moses and his law blaspheme,
“The merit of good works deny,
“As God could freely justify.

Verse 4
“The wretched hereticks profane
“Disown a local Deity,
“And dare ev’n in our ears maintain
“No holiness in walls can be,
“Our temples, rites, and forms shall fall,
“And Christ, they say, be all in all.[”]

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘Then they suborned men, which said, We have heard him speak blasphemous words &c.’—[Acts 6,] v. 11, 12.” 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 S.T. Kimbrough Jr. and Oliver A. Beckerlegge, eds., The Unpublished Poetry of Charles Wesley, vol. 2 (Nashville: Kingswood Books, 1990), page 309. Verses 1-2 were 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 199.
Publishing: Public Domain