’Tis thus our fierce, unrighteous foes
Their enmity declare,
Guilty of blackest crimes suppose,
And drag us to the bar:
The tedious forms of justice vain
They furiously pass by,
Pronounce us impious and profane,
And judge, before they try.
Tis thus our fierce unrighteous foes
Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘If he were not a malefactor, we would not have delivered him up unto thee.’—[John 18,] v. 30." 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 74.
Publishing: Public Domain