Whate’er is not of God

Verse 1
Whate’er is not of God
Is labour lost and vain:
The works of men tho’ men applaud,
They cannot long remain:
Exulting in their power,
Who seem to reach the sky
Shall bloom and wither in an hour,
With all their works shall die.

Verse 2
The adversary’s seed
As thorns and briers abound,
The vineyard of our Lord o’respread,
And clog the sacred ground:
But Jesus shall at last
Reveal his righteous ire,
And root up Satan’s plants, and cast
Them all into the fire.

Verse 3
Who their own good declare,
Their height of grace possess,
May flourish for a season fair,
As trees of righteousness,
But God did never plant,
Nor will for his approve
Men that the children’s spirit want,
The meek and humble love.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘Every plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up.’—[Matt. 15,] v. 13.” This hymn appears in the 1766 manuscript “MS Matthew.” 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 1977/577, 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. 10 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1870), page 288.
Publishing: Public Domain