The heathen judge will not condemn
Before the cause he hears,
But innocent th’ accus’d esteem,
Till prov’d his guilt appears:
Yet Christian priests, by envy mov’d,
Their character fulfil,
And when our innocence is prov’d,
Suppose us guilty still.
The heathen judge will not condemn
Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘Go down with me, and accuse this man, if there be any wickedness in him.’—[Acts 25,] v. 5." 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 and Oliver A. Beckerlegge, eds., The Unpublished Poetry of Charles Wesley, vol. 2 (Nashville: Kingswood Books, 1990), page 420.
Publishing: Public Domain