The witnesses by Jesus sent

The witnesses by Jesus sent
Have always counted been
As only fit for punishment,
By all the slaves of sin;
And urging them the faith t’ abjure,
With dire malicious joy
They then behold their ruin sure,
They then their souls destroy.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘And I punished them oft in every synagogue, and committed them to blaspheme.’—[Acts 26,] v. 11." 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 425.
Publishing: Public Domain