Imatges de pàgina
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Unable to give life, as once before;

Unfit to be a husband any more.

Yet proudly fhe the new address disdains,

And all the bleft Redeemer's love and pains;
Though now his head, that cruel thorns did wound,
Is with immortal glory circled round;
Archangels at his awful footftool bow,

And drawing love fits fmiling on his brow.
Though down he fends in gospel tidings good
Epiftles of his love, fign'd with his blood;
Yet lordly the the royal fuit rejects,
Eternal life by legal works affects;
In vain the living feeks among the dead,*
Sues quick'ning comforts in a killing head.
Her dead and bury'd husband has her heart,
Which can nor death remove, nor life impart.
Thus all-revolting Adam's blinded race

In their firft fpoufe their hope and comfort place.
They natively expect, if guilt them press,
Salvation by a home bred righteousness :
They look for favour in Jehovah's eyes,
By careful doing all that in them lies.
'Tis ftill their primary attempt to draw
Their life and comfort from the vet'ran law;
They flee not to the hope the gospel gives;
To truft a promise bare, their minds aggrieves,
Which judge the man that does, the man that lives.
As native as they draw their vital breath,
Their fond recourfe is to the legal path,

• Why,' fays old nature, in law wedded man,
'Won't Heav'n be pleas'd, if I do all I can?
If I conform my walk to nature's light,
• And strive, intent to practise what is right,
• Thus won't I by the God of heav'n be blefs'd,
And win his favour, if I do my best?

'Good God! (he cries) when press'd with debt and thrall,
• Have patience with me, and I'll pay thee all.'§
Upon their all, their best, they're fondly mad,
Though yet their all is naught, their best is bad.

* Luke xxvi. 5.

§ Matth. xviii. 26.

Proud man his can-does mightily exalts,

Yet are his brightest works but splendid faults.
A finner may have fhews of good, but still
The best he can, ev'n at his best, is ill.
Can heav'n or divine favour e'er be won
By thofe that are a mass of hell and fin?
The righteous law does num'rous woes denounce
Against the wretched foul that fails but once :
What heaps of curfes on their heads it rears,
That have amafs'd the guilt of num'rous years!

SECT. IV. Man's firit attachment to legal Terms, or to the law as a condition of life.

SAY, on what terms then Heav'n appeas'd will be? Why, fure perfection is the least degree.

Yea, more, full fatisfaction must be giv'n

For trefpafs done against the laws of Heav'n.

These are the terms: what mortal back fo broad,
But muft for ever fink beneath the load?

A ransom must be found, or die they must,
Sure, ev'n as juftice infinite is just.

But, fays the legal, proud, self-righteous heart,
Which cannot with her ancient confort part,
What! won't the goodness of the God of heav'n,
'Admit of smalls, when greater can't be given?
He knows our fall diminish'd all our funds,
• Won't he accept of pennies now for pounds?
Sincere endeavours for perfection take,
'Or terms more poffible for mankind make ?
Ah! poor divinity, and jargon loofe;

Such hay and straw will never build the house.
Mistake not here, proud mortal, don't mistake,
God changes not, nor other terms will make.
Will divine faithfulness itself deny,

Which fwore folemnly, Man fhall do, or die
Will God moft true extend to us, forfooth,
His goodness, to the damage of his truth?
Will fpotlefs holiness be baffled thus ?
Or awful justice be unjuft for us?

Shall faithfulness be faithlefs for our fake,

And he his threats, as we his precepts break?
Will our great Creator deny himself;
And for full payment take our filthy pelf?
Difpenfe with juftice, to let mercy vent?
And ftain his royal crown with 'minish'd rent?
Unworthy thought! O let no mortal clod
Hold fuch bafe notions of a glorious God.
Heaven's holy cov'nant, made for human race,
Confifts, or whole of works or whole of grace.
If works will take the field, then works must be
For ever perfect to the laft degree:

Will God difpenfe with lefs? Nay, fure he won't
With ragged toll his royal law affront.

Can rags, that Sinai flames will foon difpatch,
E'er prove the fiery law's adequate match?
Vain man must be divorc'd, and choose to take
Another husband, or a burning lake.

We find the divine volume no where teach
New legal terms within our mortal reach.

Some make, though in the facred page unknown,
Sincerity affume perfection's throne;

But who will boast this bafe ufurper's fway,
Save minifters of darkness, that display
Invented night, to ftifle fcripture day?
The nat'ralift's fincerity is naught,
That of the gracious is divinely taught;
Which teaching keeps their graces, if fincere,
Within the limits of the gofpel fphere,

}

Where, vaunting, none created graces fing,
Nor boast of streams, but of the Lord the fpring.
Sincerity's the foul of ev'ry grace,

The quality of all the ransom'd race,
Of promis'd favour 'tis a fruit, a clause;
But no procuring term, no moving cause.
How unadvis'd the legal mind confounds
The marks of divine favour with the grounds,
And qualities of covenanted friends

With the condition of the cov'nant blends?
Thus holding gospel truths with legal arms,
Mistakes new covenant fruits for fed❜ral terms,

The joyful found no change of terms allows,
But change of perfons, or another spouse.
The nature fame that finn'd must do or die;
No milder terms in gofpel offers lie.
For grace no other law abatement fhews,
But how law debtors may restore its dues
Reftore, yea, through a Surety in their place,
With double int'reft, and a better grace.
Here we of no new terms of life are told,
But of a husband to fulfil the old ;

With him alone by faith we're call'd to wed,

And let no rival *bruik the marriage bed. [* Enjoy.

SECT. V. Men's vain attempt to feek Life by Chrift's righteoufnefs, joined with their own; and legal hopes natural to all.

BUT ftill the bride reluctant difallows
The junior fuit, and hugs the fenior spouse.
Such the old felfish folly of her mind,
So bent to lick the duft, and grasp the wind,
Alledging works and duties of her own
May for her criminal offence atone;
She will her antic dirty robe provide,
Which vain fhe hopes will all pollutions hide.
The filthy rags that faints away have flung,
She, holding, wraps, and rolls herself in dung;
Thus maugre all the light the gospel gives,
Unto her natʼral confort fondly cleaves.
Though mercy fet the royal match in view,
She's loth to bid her ancient mate adieu.
When light of fcripture, reafon, common fenfe,
Can hardly mortify her vain pretence
To legal righteoufnefs; yet if at last

Her confcience rous'd begins to ftand aghaft,
Prefs'd with the dread of hell, fhe'll rafhly patch,
And halve a bargain with the profer'd match;
In hopes his help, together with her own,
Will turn to peaceful fmiles the wrathful frown.
Through grace the rifing Sun delightful fings,
With full falvation in his golden wings,

D.

And righteoufnefs complete; the faithless soul,
Receiving half the light, rejects the whole;
Revolves the facred page, but reads purblind
The gospel meffage with the legal mind.
Men dream their ftate, ah! too, too flightly view'd,
Needs only be amended, not renew'd;
Scorn to be wholly debtors unto grace,
Hopeful their works may meliorate their cafe.
They fancy prefent prayers, and future pains
Will for their former failings make amends:
To legal yokes they bow their fervile necks
And, left foul's flips their falfe repose perplex,
Think Jefus' merits make up all defects.
They patch his glorious robe with filthy rags,
And burn but incenfe to their proper_drags,*.
Difdain to use his righteoufnefs alone,
But as an aiding stirr'p to mount their own;

}

And vainly would, drefs'd up in legal trim,
Divide falvation 'tween themselves and him.
But know, vain man, that to his share must fall
The glory of the whole, or none at all.
In him all wifdom's hidden treafures lie,†
And all the fulness of the Deity.

}

This store alone, immenfe, and never spent,
Might poor infolvent debtors well content;
But to hell-prifon justly Heaven will doom
Proud fools that on their petty stock presume.
The fofteft couch that gilded nature knows,
Can give the waken'd confcience no repose.
When God arraigns, what mortal power can ftand
Beneath the terror of his lifted hand!

Our fafety lies beyond the natʼral line,
Beneath a purple covert all divine.

Yet how is precious Chrift, the way, defpis'd,
And high the way of life by doing priz'd!

But can its vot'ries all its levy show?

They prize it most who leaft its burden know:
Who by the law in part would fave his foul,
Becomes a debtor to fulfil the whole.§

* Hab. i. 16. + Col. ii. 3.

+ Col. 9.

§ Gal. v. 3

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