But how can we their guilt retain?
The sons of infidelity
We tell, that still their sins remain
Uncancel’d, till they come to thee:
The sentence we pronounce beneath
Thou dost confirm it in the skies,
The infidel abides in death,
And, unconvinc’d, forever dies.
But how can we their guilt retain?
Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘And whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained.’—[John 20,] v. 23." This hymn appears in the 1763-64 manuscript “MS John.” 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 1977/573, Charles Wesley Notebooks Box 3). 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 108.
Publishing: Public Domain