Drain'd clean of native pow'rs and legal aim,
No strength but in and from JEHOVAH claims.
And thus her service to the law o'ertops
The tow'ring zeal of Pharisaic fops.

SECTION IV.

The believer only, being married to Christ, is justified and sanctified; and the more gospel freedom, from the law as a covenant, the more holy conformity to it as a rule.

THUS doth the husband by his father's will
Both for and in his bride the law fulfil:
For her, as 'tis a covenant; and then
In her, as 'tis a rule of life to men.

First, all law-debt he most completely pays;
Then of law-duties all the charge defrays.
Does first assume her guilt, and loose her chains;
And then with living water wash her stains;
Her fund restore, and then her form repair,
And make his filthy bride a beauty fair;
His perfect righteousness most freely grant,
And then his holy image deep implant;
Into her heart his precious seed indrop,
Which, in his time, will yield a glorious crop.
But by alternate turns his plants he brings
Thro' robing winters and repairing springs.
Hence, pining oft, they suffer sad decays,
By dint of shady nights and stormy days.
But blest with sap, and influence from above,
They live and grow anew in faith and love;
Until transplanted to the higher soil,
Where furies tread no more, nor foxes spoil.
While Christ, the living root remains on high,
The noble plant of grace can never die :
Nature decays, and so will all the fruit,
That merely rises on a mortal root.

Their works, however splendid, are but dead,
That from a living fountain don't proceed;
Their fairest fruit is but a garnish'd shrine,
That are not grafted in the glorious vine.
Devoutest hypocrites are rank'd in rolls
Of painted puppets, not of living souls.
No offspring but of Christ's fair bride is good,
This happy marriage has a holy brood
Let sinners learn this mystery to read,
We bear to glorious Christ no precious seed,
"Till, thro' the law, we to the law be dead'.
(1) Gal. ii. 19.

No true obedience to the law, but forc'd,
Can any yield, 'till from the law divorc'd.
Nor to it as a rule, is homage giv'n,
Till from it, as a cov'nant, men be driv'n,
Yea more, till once they this divorce attain,
Divorce from sin they but attempt in vain ;
The cursed yoke of sin they basely draw,
'Till once unyoked from the cursed law.
Sin's full dominion keeps its native place,
While men are under law, not under grace'.
For mighty hills of enmity won't move,
"Till touch'd by sov'reign grace and mighty love.
Were but the gospel-secret understood,
How God can pardon where he sees no good;
How grace and mercy free, that can't be bought,
Reign thro' a righteousness already wrought:
Where woful reigning unbelief depos'd,
Mysterious grace to blinded minds disclos'd:
Did heav'n with gospel-news its pow'r convey,
And sinners hear a faithful God but say,
"No more law-debt remains for you to pay;
Lo! by the loving surety all's discharg'd."
Their hearts behov'd with love to be enlarg'd:
Love, the succinct fullfilling of the law2,
Were then the easy yoke they'd sweetly draw,
Love would constrain and to his service move
Who left them nothing else to do but love.
Slight now his loving precepts if they can ;
No, no; his conqu'ring kindness leads the van.
When everlasting love exerts the sway,

They judge themselves more kindly bound t' obey;
Bound by redeeming grace in stricter sense
Than ever Adam was in innocence,

Why now they are not bound, as formerly,
To do and live, nor yet to do or die;
Both life and death are put in Jesus' hands,
Who urges neither in his kind commands,
Not servile work their life and heav'n to win,

Nor slavish labour death and hell to shun.

Their aims are purer, since they understood

Their heav'n was bought, their hell was quench'd with blood. The oars of gospel-service now they steer,

Without or legal hope or slavish fear.

The bride in sweet security can dwell,

Nor bound to purchase heav'n nor vanquish hell:

But bound for him the race of love to run,
Whose love to her left none of these undone;

She's bound to be the Lamb's obedient wife:

And in his strength to serve him during life,
To glorify his loving name for ay,
Who left her not a single mite to pay
Of legal debt, but wrote for her at large,
In characters of blood, a full discharge.
Henceforth no servile task her labours prove,
But grateful fruits of revential love.

SECTION V.

Gospel-grace giving no liberty nor freedom to sin, but to holy service and pure obedience.

THE glorious husband's love can't lead the wife
To whoredom, or licentiousness of life:
Nay, nay; she finds his warmest love within,
The hottest fire to melt her heart for sin.
His kind embrace is still the strongest cord
To bind her to the service of her Lord,
The more her faith insures this love of his,
The more his law her delectation is.

Some dream, they might, who this assurance win,
Take latitude and liberty to sin.

Ah! such bewray their ignorance, and prove
They want the lively sense of drawing love,
And how its sweet constraining force can move.
The ark of grace came never in to dwell,
But Dagon-lusts before it headlong fell.
Men basely came into lasciviousness
Abuse the doctrine, not the work of grace.
Huggers of divine love in vice's path,
Have but the fancy of it, not the faith.
They never soar'd aloft on grace's wing,
That knew not grace to be a holy thing.
When regnant she the pow'rs of hell appals,
And sin's dominion in the ruin falls.
Curst is the crew, whose Antinomian dress
Makes grace a cover to their idleness.
The bride of Christ will sure be very loth
To make his love a pillow for her sloth.

Why, may'nt she sin the more that grace abounds?
Oh! God forbid! the very thought confounds.
When dead unto the law, she's dead to sin;

How can she any longer live therein'?

To neither of them now is she a slave,

But shares the conquest of the great, the brave,
The mighty Gen'ral, her victorious head,

(1) Rom. vi. 1, 2.

Who broke the double chain to free the bride.
Hence, prompted now with gratitude and love,
Her cheerful feet in swift obedience move,
More strong the cords of love to duty draw,
Than hell and all the curses of the law.
When with seraphic love the breast's inspir'd

By that are all the other graces fir'd;

These kindling round, the burning heart and frame

In life and walk send forth a holy flame.

CHAPTER IV.

A CAUTION TO ALL AGAINST A LEGAL SPIRIT; ESPECIALLY TO THOSE THAT HAVE A PRO-
FESSION WITHOUT POWER, AND LEARNING WITHOUT GRACE.

WHY, says the haughty heart of legalists,

Bound to the law of works by nat'ral twists,

Why such ado about a law-divorce;

Men's lives are bad, and would you have 'em worse?

Such Antinomian stuff, with laboured toil,

Would human beauty's native lustre spoil.
What wickedness beneath the cov'ring lurks,
That lewdly would divorce us from all works?
Why stir about the law and grace?

We know that merit cannot now take place.
And what need more ?" Well, to let slander drop,
Be merit for a little here the scope.

Ah! many learn to lisp in gospel terms,
Who yet embrace the law with legal arms.
By wholesome education some are taught
To own that human merit now is naught;
Who faintly but renounce proud merit's name,
And cleave refin'dly to the Popish scheme.
For graceful works expecting Divine bliss;
And, when they fail, trust Christ for what's amiss.
Thus to his righteousness profess to flee;
Yet by it still would their own saviours be.
They seem to works of merit bloody foes;
Yet seek salvation, as it were', by those.

Blind Gentiles found, who did not seek nor know;
But Isra'l lost it whole, who sought it so.
Let all that love to wear the gospel-dress,
Know that as sin, so dastard righteousness
Has slain its thousands: who, in tow'ring pride,
The righteousness of Jesus Christ deride:

(1) Rom. ix. 32. (2) Rom. ix. 30, 31.

A robe divinely wrought, divinely won,
Yet cast by men for rags that are their own.
But some to legal works seem whole deny'd,
Yet would by gospel works be justify'd,
By faith, repentance, love, and other such;
These dreamers being righteous overmuch',
Like Uzza give the ark a wrongful touch.
By legal deeds, however gospeliz'd,
Can e'er tremendous justice be appeas'd?
Or sinners justify'd before that God,
Whose law is perfect and exceeding broad??
Nay, faith itself, that leading gospel grace,
Holds, as a work, no justifying place.
Just Heav'n to man for righteousness imputes
Not faith itself, or in its acts or fruits;
But Jesus' meritorious life and death,
Faith's proper object, all the honour hath.
From this doth faith derive its glorious fame,
Its great renown and justifying name :
Receiving all things, but deserving nought;
By faith's all begged and taken, nothing bought.
Its highest name is from the wedding vote,
So instrumental in the marriage knot.
JEHOVAH, lends the bride, in that blest hour,
Th' exceeding greatness of his mighty pow'r";
Which sweetly does her heart-consent command
To reach the wealthy Prince her naked hand.
For close to his embrace she'd never stir,
If first his loving arms embrac'd not her:
But this he does by kindly gradual chase,
Of rousing, reaching, teaching, drawing grace.
He shews her, in his sweetest love address,
His glory, as the Sun of righteousness;
At which all dying glories earth adorn

Shrink like the sick moon at the wholesome morn.
This glorious Sun arising with a grace,

Dark shades of creature-righteousness to chase,
Faith now disclaims itself, and all the train
Of virtues formerly accounted gain;

And counts them dung, with holy, meek disdain.
For now appears the height, the depth immense
Of divine bounty and benevolence;

Amazing mercy, ignorant of bounds!

Which most enlarged faculties confounds.

How vain, how void now seem the vulgar charms,
The monarch's pomp of courts, and pride of arms?

The boasted beauties of the human kind,

The pow'rs of body, and the gifts of mind?

(1) Eccl. vii. 16. (2) Psal. xix. 7. Rom vii. 12. (3) Eph. i. 19. (4) Phil. iii. 7, 8.