When man presumes a law t’enjoin

Verse 1
When man presumes a law t’ enjoin
Which contradicts the law Divine,
Shall we a moment doubting stay
Which to reject, and which obey,
Or bold before the world avow
To God’s, not man’s commands we bow.

Verse 2
Zeal to prefer our Maker’s will
With modest confidence shall fill,
Shall own, in all our gestures seen,
That we who have with Jesus been
His will our only rule receive,
Or die for Him, by whom we live.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘Then Peter, and the other Apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men.’—[Acts 5,] v. 29.” 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 190.
Publishing: Public Domain