My thoughts on aweful subjects roll,
Damnation and the dead;
What horrors seize the guilty soul
Upon a dying bed!

Ling'ring about these mortal shores,
She makes a long delay,
Till, like a flood, with rapid force
Death sweeps the wretch away.

Then swift and dreadful she descends
Down to the fiery coast,
Amongst abominable fiends,
Herself a frightful ghost.

There endless crowds of sinners lie,
And darkness makes their chains;
Tortured with keen despair they cry,
Yet wait for fiercer pains.

Not all their anguish and their blood
For their old guilt atones,
Nor the compassion of a God
Shall hearken to their groans.

Amazing grace! that kept my breath,
Nor bid my soul remove,
Till I had learned my Savior's death,
And well insured his love!