Teachers and priests corrupt assail
The truth, with rage implacable
Against the saints combine:
Their vehemence, which all bounds exceeds,
Their malice, which no answer needs,
Defeats its own design.
Teachers and priests corrupt assail
Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘The chief priests and scribes stood, and vehemently accused him.'—[Luke 23,] v. 10.” This hymn appears in the 1766 manuscript “MS Luke.” 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 1977/575, Charles Wesley Notebooks Box 3). 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 and Oliver A. Beckerlegge, eds., The Unpublished Poetry of Charles Wesley, vol. 2 (Nashville: Kingswood Books, 1990), page 199.
Publishing: Public Domain