Supremely wise, supremely kind

Verse 1
Supremely wise, supremely kind
God doth not act by fancy blind
And most refuse to call:
The reasons of his choice are known
To his omniscient Spirit alone
Who loving is to all.

Verse 2
But men are blind, presumptuous men
Who would th’ Unsearchable explain
And prove his mercy free:
In vain they cloak their partial pride,
And forge, (their ignorance to hide,)
The horrible decree.

Verse 3
The friends whom most we wish to save
No power to serve their souls we have,
Nor know the reason why;
But know the reason cannot be
That God from all eternity
Had sentenc’d them to die.

Verse 4
Here then we humbly, Lord, confess
Our folly and shortsightedness,
For resignation pray;
Suffice it now, that Thou art Love,
And wilt, O God, the veil remove
In that decisive day.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘They assayed to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit suffered them not.’—[Acts 16,] 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 S.T. Kimbrough Jr. and Oliver A. Beckerlegge, eds., The Unpublished Poetry of Charles Wesley, vol. 2 (Nashville: Kingswood Books, 1990), page 371-72. 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 314.
Publishing: Public Domain