Classic Poem

I, though from condemnation free,
Find such condemnables in me,
As make more heavy wrath my due
Than falls on all the damned crew.

But though my crimes deserve the pit,
I'm no more liable to it;
Remission, seal'd with blood and death.
Secures me from deserved wrath.

And having now a pardon free,
To hell obnoxious cannot be,
Nor to a threat, except anent [ about .]
Paternal wrath and chastisement.

My soul may oft be fill'd indeed
With slavish fear and hellish dread:
This from my unbelief does spring,
My faith speaks out some better thing.

Faith sees no legal guilt again,
Though sin and its desert remain:
Some hidden wonders hence result;
I'm full of sin, yet free of guilt;

Guilt is the legal bond or knot,
That binds to wrath and vengeance hot;
But sin may be where guilt's away,
And guilt where sin could never stay.

Guilt without any sin has been,
As in my Surety may be seen;
The elect's guilt upon him came,
Yet still he was the holy Lamb .

Sin without guilt may likewise be,
As may appear in pardon'd me:
For though my sin, alas! does stay,
Yet pardon takes the guilt away.

Thus freed I am, yet still involv'd;
A guilty sinner, yet absolv'd:
Though pardon leave no guilt behind,
Yet sin's desert remains I find.

Guilt and demerit differ here,
Though of their names confounded are,
I'm guilty in myself always,
Since sin's demerit ever stays.

Yet in my Head I'm always free
From proper guilt affecting me;
Because my Surety's blood cancell'd
The bond of curses once me held.

The guilt that pardon did divorce,
From legal threat'nings drew its force;
But sin's desert that lodges still,
Is drawn from sin's intrinsic ill.

Were guilt nought else but sin's desert,
Of pardon I'd renounce my part;
For, were I now in heaven to dwell,
I'd own my sins deserved hell.

This does my highest wonder move
At matchless justifying love,
That thus secures from endless death
A wretch deserving double wrath.

Though well my black desert I know,
Yet I'm not liable to woe;
While full and complete righteousness
Imputed for my freedom is.

Hence my security from wrath,
As firmly stands on Jesus' death,
As does my title unto heav'n
Upon his great obedience giv'n.

The sentence Heav'n did full pronounce,
Has pardon'd all my sins at once;
And ev'n from future crimes acquit,
Before I could the facts commit.

I'm always in a pardon'd state
Before and after sin; but yet,
That vainly I presume not hence,
I'm seldom pardon'd to my sense.

Sin brings a vengeance on my head,
Though from avenging wrath I'm freed.
And though my sins all pardon'd be,
Their pardon's not applied to me.

Thus though I need no pardon more,
Yet need new pardons every hour,
In point of application free:
Lord, wash anew, and pardon me