Wesley Corpus

Poor, guilty worms what can we plead, What in arrest of judgment say? The judge hath suffer'd in our stead, The Lamb hath borne our sins away, Justice divine is satisfied, And man may live, for God hath died! The co-eternal Son of God Hath laid the general ransom down, He bought our peace with all his blood, And pleads his death before the throne, The powerful Advocate above Of all who trust his dying love. How shall we in his merits trust? We dare not God our Father own: Till Christ the merciful and just, Convince, and break our hearts of stone, Our hearts are harden'd from his fear, And countless sins our conscience sear. Yet O! We would, we would believe: Thou, Lord, the double bar remove, The grace of true repentance give, And then reveal thy dying love; Thy love, which speaks a world forgiven, And lifts lost souls from hell to heaven. Just Before Their Being Led Out to Execution. Justice, thy summons we obey, And come our forfeit lives to pay, While God and man we justify, And by a righteous sentence die! Page 7 But the great God in whom we trust Is merciful, as well as just: And Jesu's blood for sin atones, And will not let us die but once! Jesus into thy hands we fall, With our last breath for mercy call, To thee our ransom'd spirits commend, And hope, that heaven is in our end. Because thou hangedst on a tree, And didst thyself expire for me, Me and my dying mates receive, And bid our souls for ever live! And let these wretched bodies die, If thou at last receive The souls thou didst so dearly buy, That we with God might live: Death as the wages of our sin, Our just desert we claim, But hope eternal life to win, Through grace and Jesu's name. Jesus, thou all-redeeming Lord, Remember Calvary, And think on sinners self-abhorr'd, Who gasp in death to thee: And while thy mercy's utmost power On us is magnified, O save us at our latest hour Who hast for felons died! Our punishment accepting here With penitent remorse; With bitter grief, and torturing fear, We end our shameful course: Page 8 Set forth a spectacle to all, The refuse of mankind; We on our guilty brethren call, And leave a word behind.