So slow and backward to believe

So slow and backward to believe
The rise of Jesus crucified,
They stronger testimony give
To what they had themselves denied;
And while his witnesses maintain
The truth they first had disallow’d,
The incredulity of man
Confirms the faithfulness of God.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘They went and told it unto the residue: neither believed they them.’—[Mark 16,] v. 13.” This hymn appears in the 1766 manuscript “MS Mark.” 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 1977/574, Charles Wesley Notebooks Box 3). 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. 11 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1871), page 96.
Publishing: Public Domain