The men who public peace restrain

The men who public peace maintain,
And wisely resolute, restrain
The rabble’s furious will,
Should violent to the violent seem,
And still persist to wrest from them
The power of doing ill.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘The chief captain Lysias came upon us, and with great violence took him away out of our hands.’—[Acts 24,] 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 The Poetical Works of John and Charles Wesley, Collected and Arranged by G. Osborn, Vol. 12 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1871), page 409.
Publishing: Public Domain