The rich who delicately live

Verse 1
The rich who delicately live
Are not worthy to receive
An Apostolic guest:
Nor will he seek a calm retreat,
In the proud mansions of the great,
Or share a glutton’s feast.

Verse 2
The fisher chuses to remain
With an upright man and plain,
The tanner’s house prefers,
And palaces, and thrones, and stalls,
Leaves to the men, whom Babel calls
His lawful successors.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘He tarried many days in Joppa with one Simon a tanner.’—[Acts 9,] v. 43.” 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 and Oliver A. Beckerlegge, eds., The Unpublished Poetry of Charles Wesley, vol. 2 (Nashville: Kingswood Books, 1990), page 334.Published in The Poetical Works of John and Charles Wesley, Collected and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 243.
Publishing: Public Domain