We do not, Lord, in Thee confide

Verse 1
We do not, Lord, in Thee confide
But tempt, instead of honouring, Thee,
Who lay the common means aside,
Neglect our own security,
And look for thy protecting grace
In a presumptuous idleness.

Verse 2
The prudence, which thy love bestows,
As Providence points out, we use,
To disappoint our cruel foes
The most effectual methods chuse,
From danger and destruction run,
And then we trust thy love alone.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘When the Jews laid wait for him, as he was about to sail into Syria, he purposed to return through Macedonia.’—[Acts 20,] v. 3." 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 300.
Publishing: Public Domain