Forgiveness is the foremost grace

Forgiveness is the foremost grace,
Which God vouchsafes a sinful race;
But none the pardon shall receive,
Who will not, as his God, forgive.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘Forgive, that your Father may forgive you.’—[Mark 11,] v. 25.” This hymn appears in the 1766 manuscript “MS Mark.” 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 1977/574, 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. 11 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1871), page 48.
Publishing: Public Domain