In that I have the patient's place, For there JEHOVAH's act is all; The first does slavish fear forbid, The former does annul my wo, By God's judicial sentence past; The first does divine pard'ning love The last makes shining graces prove My soul in justifying grace Does full and free acceptance gain; In sanctity I heav'nward press, By sweet assistance I obtain. The first declares I'm free of debt, The last makes me a debtor yet, My righteousness with wounds and blood SECTION II. THE HARMONY BETWEEN JUSTIFICATION AND SANCTIFICATION. He who me decks with righteousness, With grace will also clothe; For glorious Jesus came to bless By blood and water both. That in his righteousness I trust, My sanctity will show; Though graces cannot make me just, All those who, freely justifi'd, Are of the pardon'd race; Anon are also sanctifi'd And purifi'd by grace. Where justice stern does justify, There holiness is clear'd; Heav'n's equity and sanctity Can never be sever'd. Hence, when my soul, with pardon deck'd, Perceives no divine ire, Then holiness I do affect His justifying grace is such As wafts my soul to heav'n: I cannot choose but love him much, The Sun of righteousness, that brings Remission in his rays, The healing in his golden wings Of light and heat conveys. Wherever Jesus is a Priest, There will he be a King; He that assoils from sin's arrest, The title of a precious grace Because its open arms embrace From precious faith a precious strife A precious heart, a precious life, Wherever faith does justify, The pardon and the purity The happy state of pardon doth In subjects capable of both They never sunder'd were. Yet in defence of truth must we Distinctly view the twain; That how they differ, how agree, We may in truth maintain. Two natures in one person dwell, In our renown'd Immanuel, Without confusion too. Those that divide them grossly err, Though yet distinct they be ; Those who confusion hence infer, Thus righteousness and grace we must Else holy peace to us is lost, And sacred truth we wound. While we their proper place maintain, But or to part or blend the twain, To separate what God does join, To mix and mutilate his coin, Is damnable and vain. Though plain distinction must take place, Yet no division here, |