Zealots though unregenerate men

Verse 1
Zealots though unregenerate men,
Will for a zealot fight:
Is he of our opinion? then
He must be in the right:
We can in him no evil see,
We can no longer blame;
Let the well-meaning man go free:
He thinks with us the same.

Verse 2
Defenders of his witnesses
The God of truth and power
Out of their enemies can raise
In the distressing hour:
But suffering saints on Christ depend,
And rest in Christ alone,
Their sure Protector to the end
Who always saves his own.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘The scribes strove, saying, We find no evil in this man.’—[Acts 23,] v. 9." 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 403.
Publishing: Public Domain