Who lately shed the martyrs’ blood

Verse 1
Who lately shed the martyrs’ blood,
Is now himself to death pursued,
By day and night beset;
But Christ, he confidently knows,
Will rescue him from all his foes,
And break the hellish net.

Verse 2
Yet, conscious of his Lord’s design,
He will not human means decline
The threatned death to flee;
To ways most humbling he submits,
And by a basket’s help defeats
The dire conspiracy.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘They watched day and night to kill him. Then the disciples took him &c.’—[Acts 9,] v. 24, 25.” 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 239.
Publishing: Public Domain