Analysis of Of Imputed Righteousness
John Bunyan 1628 (Elstow, Bedfordshire) – 1688 (London)
Now, if thou wouldst inherit righteousness,
And so sanctification possess
In body, soul, and spirit, then thou must
To Jesus fly, as one ungodly first;
And so by him crave pardon for thy sin
Which thou hast loved, and hast lived in;
For this cannot at all forgiven be,
For any righteousness that is in thee;
Because the best thou hast is filthy rags,
Profane, presumptuous, and most beastly brags
Of flesh and blood, which always cross doth lie
To God, to grace, and thy felicity.
Then righteousness imputed thou must have,
Thee from that guilt and punishment to save
Thou liest under as a sinful man,
Throughout polluted, and that never can
By any other means acquitted be,
Or ever have true holiness in thee.
The reason is, because all graces are
Only in Christ, and be infused where,
Or into those whom he doth justify,
By what himself hath done, that he thereby
Might be the whole of all that happiness
The sinner shall enjoy here, and in bliss.
Besides, if holiness should first be found
In those whom God doth pardon, then the ground
Why we forgiven are would seem to be,
He first found holiness in thee and me;
But this the holy Scriptures will refute,
And prove that righteousness he doth impute
Without respect to goodness first in man;
For, to speak truth indeed, no goodness can
Be found in those that underneath the law
Do stand; for if God goodness in them saw,
Why doth he once and twice say, There is none
That righteous be; no, not so much as one;
None understandeth, none seek after God,
His ways they have not known, but have abode
In wickedness, unprofitably they
Must needs appear to be then every way.
Their throats an open sepulchre, also
Their mouths are full of filthy cursings too;
And bitterness, yea, underneath their lips
The asp hath poison. O how many slips
And falls in sin must such poor people have!
Now here's the holiness that should them save,
Or, as a preparation, go before,
To move God to do for them less or more?
No, grace must on thee righteousness bestow,
Or, else sin will for ever thee undo.
Sweet Paul this doctrine also doth express,
Where he saith, Some may have righteousness,
Though works they have not; and it thus may stand,
Grace by the promise gives what the command
Requireth us to do, and so are we
Quitted from doing, and by grace made free.
Scheme | AB XX CC DD EE FD GH II DD XX FF AX JJ DD KK II LL MM XX NN OP QQ GH RR OP BA SS DD |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1111010100 01001001 0101010111 1101110101 0111110111 11110110 1110110101 1101001101 0101111101 0101000111 110111111 1111010100 1100010111 1111010011 111010101 0101001101 1101010101 1101110001 0101011101 100101011 101111110 1101111111 1101111100 0101011001 0111001111 0111110101 1101011111 1111000101 1101010101 0111001101 0101110101 1111011101 110110101 1111110011 1111011111 1101111111 1111101 1111111101 010011 11011111001 11110110 111111011 010010111 0111011101 0101111101 1101001111 110010101 1111111111 1111110001 1111110101 1111010101 111111100 1111101111 1101011001 11110111 111001111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 2,251 |
Words | 421 |
Sentences | 10 |
Stanzas | 28 |
Stanza Lengths | 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2 |
Lines Amount | 56 |
Letters per line (avg) | 32 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 65 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 15 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 2:06 min read
- 87 Views
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"Of Imputed Righteousness" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/22132/of-imputed-righteousness>.
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