The rich and great in every age

The rich and great in every age
Conspire to persecute their God,
Ambitious priests against him rage,
And scribes of empty learning proud,
They grieve him by his members pain,
And scourge, and crucify again.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘Jesus began to shew unto his disciples, how that he must go into Jerusalem and suffer many things of the elders and chief-priests and scribes, and be killed, and raised again the third day.’—[Matt. 16,] v. 21.” This hymn appears in the 1766 manuscript “MS Matthew.” 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 1977/577, 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. 10 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1870), page 301.
Publishing: Public Domain