Thee may I ever keep in view

Verse 1
Thee may I ever keep in view
Crush’d by abus’d authority,
The evil instruments look thro’,
The wisdom of my Father see
Which lets the world thy church oppress,
Or kill thy passive witnesses.

Verse 2
Thy power doth now their rage confine,
Fast bound as by a secret chain:
And till thy hand the warrant sign,
Their malice threatens us in vain;
We know our hairs are numbred all,
Nor one without thy leave can fall.

Verse 3
Wherefore on Thee we fix our eyes,
And wait the counsels of thy will,
Assur’d that all in earth and skies
Shall only thy design fulfil,
To thine eternal glory tend,
And in our full salvation end.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above.’—[John 19,] v. 11." This hymn appears in the 1763-64 manuscript “MS John.” 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 1977/573, 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. 12 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1871), page 81.
Publishing: Public Domain