In him alone she sees herself complete;
Does his fair person with fond arms embrace,
And all her hopes on his full merit place;
Discard her former mate, and henceforth draw
No hope, no expectaion from the law.

Tho' thus her new created-nature soars,
And lives aloft on Jesus' heav'nly stores,
Yet, apt to stray, her old adult'rous heart
Oft takes her old renounced husband's part:
A legal cov'nant is so deep ingrained
Upon the human nature, laps'd and stain'd,
That, till her spirit mount the purest clime,
She's never totally divorc'd in time.
Hid in her corrupt part's proud bosom lurks
Some hope of life still by the law of works.
Hence flow the following evils, more or less;
Preferring oft her holy partial dress,
Before her Husband's perfect righteousness.
Hence joying more in grace already giv'n,
Than in her Head and stock that's all in heav'n.
Hence grieving more the want of frames and grace,
Than of himself the spring of all solace.

Hence guilt her soul imprisons, lusts prevail,
While to the law her rents insolvent fail,

And yet her faithless heart rejects her Husband's bail.
Hence foul disorders rise, and racking fears.
While doubtful of his clearing past arrears;
Vain dreaming, since her own obedience fails,
His likewise little for her help avails.

Hence duties are a task, while all in view
Is heavy yokes of laws, or old or new :
Whereas, were once her legal bias broke,
She'd find her Lord's commands an easy yoke.
No galling precepts on her back he lays,
Nor any debt demands, save what he pays
By promised aid, but lo! the grevious law
Demanding brick, wont aid her with a straw,

Hence also fretful, grudging, discontent,
Crav'd by the law, finding her treasure spent,
And doubting if her Lord will pay the rent.
Hence pride of duties too does often swell,
Presuming she performed so very well.

Hence pride of graces and inherent worth Springs from her corrupt legal bias forth; And boasting more a present with'ring frame, Than her exalted Lord's unfading name.

Hence many falls and plunges in the mire, As many new conversions do require : Because her faithless heart's sad follies breed Much lewd departure from her living Head,

Who to reprove her aggravated crimes,
Leaves her abandoned to herself at times:
That, falling into frightful deeps, she may
From sad experience learn more stress to lay,
Not on her native efforts, but at length

On Christ alone, her righteousness and strength:
Conscious, while in her works she seeks repose,
Her legal spirit breeds her many woes.

SECTION II.

Faith's victories over sin and Satan, through new and farther discoveries of Christ, making believers more fruitful in holiness than all other pretenders to works.

THE gospel-path leads heaven ward; hence the fray,
Hell-pow'rs still push the bride the legal way.

So hot's the war, her life's a troubled flood,

A field of battle, and a scene of blood.

But he that once commenced the work in her,
Whose working fingers drop the sweetest myrrh,
Will still advance it by alluring force,

And from her ancient mate, more clean divorce:
Since 'tis her antiquated spouse the law
The strength of sin and hell did on her draw.
Piece meal she finds hell's mighty force abate,
By new recruits from her Almighty Mate.
Fresh armour, sent from grace's magazine,
Makes her proclaim eternal war with sin.
The shield of faith dipt in the Surety's blood,
Drown's fiery darts, as in a crimson flood.
The Captain's ruddy banner lifted high,
Makes hell retire and all the furies fly.
Yea, of his glory every recent glance
Makes sin decay and holiness advance.
In kindness therefore does her heav'nly Lord
Renew'd discov'ries of his love afford,
That her enamour'd soul may with the view
Be cast unto his holy mould anew :
For when he manifests his glorious grace,
The charming favour of his smiling face,
Into his image fair transforms her soul',
And wafts her upward to the heav'nly pole,
From glory unto glory by degrees,
'Till vision and fruition shall suffice.
And thus in holy beauty Jesus' bride
Shines far beyond the painted sons of pride.
Vain merit-vouchers, and their subtile apes,
(1) 2 Cor. iii. 18

In all their most refin'd, delusive shapes.
No lawful child is ere the marriage born;
Though therefore virtues feign'd their life adorn,
The fruit they bear is but a spurious brood,
Before this happy marriage be made good.
And 'tis not strange, for from a corrupt tree
No fruit divinely good produced can be'.
But, lo! the bride, graft in the living root,
Brings forth most precious aromatic fruit:
When her new heart and her new husband meet,
Her fruitful womb is like a heap of wheat,
Beset with fragrant lilies round about",
All divine graces in a comely root,

Burning within, and shining bright without.
And thus the bride, as sacred scripture saith,
When dead unto the law through Jesus' death3,
And matched with him, bears to her God and Lord
Accepted fruit, with incense pure decor'd.
Freed from law-debt, and bless'd with gospel-ease,
Her work is now her dearest Lord to please
By living on him as her ample stock,
And leaning to him as her potent rock,
The fruit that each law-wedded mortal brings,
To self accresces, as from self it springs,
So base a rise must have a base recourse,
The spring can mount no higher than its source,
But Jesus can his bride's sweet fruit commend,
As brought from him the root, to him the end.
She does by such an offspring him avow
To be her Alpha and Omega too.

The work and warfare he begins, he crowns,

Though maugre various conflicts, ups and downs.

Thus through the darksome vale she makes her way,
Until the morning dawn of glorious day.

SECTION III.

True saving Faith magnifying the Law, both as a covenant and as a rule. False faith unfruitful and ruining.

PROUD nature may reject this gospel-theme,
And curse it as an Antinomian scheme.
Let slander bark, let envy grin and fight,
The curse that is so causeless shall not light*.
If they that fain would make by holy force
"Twixt sinners and the law a clean divorce,
And court the Lamb a virgin chaste to wife,
Becharged as foes to holiness of life,
Well may they suffer gladly on this score,
(3) Rom. vii. 4.

(1) Matth. vii. 17, 18. (2) Cant. vii. 2.

(4) Prov. xxvi. 2.

Apostles great were so maligned before.

"Do we make void the law through faith?" nay, why, We do it more fulfil and magnify

Than fiery seraphs can with holiest flash;
Avaunt, vain legalists, unworthy trash.

When as a cov'nant stern the law commands,
Faith puts her Lamb's obedience in its hands:
And when its threats hush out a fiery flood,
Faith stops the current with her victim's blood.
The law can crave no more, yet craves no less,
Than active, perfect righteousness.

Yet here is all, yea, more than its demand,
All rendered to it by a divine hand.
Mankind is bound law-service still to pay,
Yea, angel kind is also bound t' obey.
It may by human and angelic blaze
Have honour, but in infinite partial ways.
These natures have its lustre once defac'd,
'Twill be by part of both for aye disgrac'd.
Yet had they all obsequious stood and true,
They'd giv'n the law no more than homage due.
But faith gives't honour yet more great, more odd,
The high, the humble service of its God.

Again to view the holy law's command,

As lodged in a Mediator's hand;

Faith gives it honour, as a rule of life,

And makes the bride the Lamb's obedient wife.

Due homage to the law those never did,

To whom the obedience pure of faith is hid.
"Faith works by love', and purifies the heart3,"
And truth advances in the inward part;
On carnal hearts impresses divine stamps,
And sully'd lives inverts to shining lamps,
From Abram's seed, that are most strong in faith.
The law most honour, God most glory hath.
But due respect to neither can be found,
Where unbelief ne'er got a mortal wound,
To still the virtue-vaunter's empty sound.
Good works he boasts, a path he never trode,
Who is not yet the workmanship of God',

In Jesus thereunto created new;

Nois'd works that spring not hence are but a show.
True faith, that's of a noble divine race,

Is still a holy, sanctifying grace;
And greater honour to the law does share,
Than boasters all that breath the vital air.
E'en heathen morals vastly may outshine
The works that flow not from a faith divine.

1) Rom. iii. 21. (2) Gal. v. 6. (3) Acts xv. 9.

(4) Eph. ii. 9.

Pretensions high to faith a number have,

But ah! it is a faith that cannot save:

"We trust, say they, in Christ, we hope in God;" Nor blush to blaze their rotten faith abroad. Nor try the trust of which they make a show,

If of a saving or a damning hue.

They own their sins are ill; true, but, 'tis sad,
They never thought their faith and hope were bad.
How evident's their home-bred nat❜ral blaze,
Who dream they have believed well all their days;
Yet never felt their unbelief, nor knew
The need of pow'r their natures to renew?
Blind souls that boast of faith, yet live in sin,
May hence conclude their faith is to begin :
Or know they shall, by such an airy faith,
Believe themselves to everlasting wrath.
Faith that nor leads to good, nor keeps from ill,
Will never lead to heav'n nor keep from hell.
The body without breath is dead no less'; no less
Is faith without the works of holiness2.

How rare is saving faith, when earth is cramm'd
With such as will believe, and yet be damn'd;
Believe the gospel yet with dread and awe
Have never truly yet believ'd the law?
That matter shall be well, they hope to soon,
Who never yet have seen themselves undone.
Can of salvation their belief be true,
Who never yet believ'd damnation due?
Can these of endless life have solid faith,

Who never fear'd law-threats of endless death?
Nay, sail'd they ha'nt yet to the living shore,
Who never felt their sinful woful sore.

Imaginary faith is but a blind,

That bears no fruit, but of a deadly kind;
For can from such a wild, unwholesome root
The least production raise of living fruit.
But saving faith can such an offspring breed,
Her native product is a holy seed.

The fairest issues of the vital breath

Spring from the fertile womb of heav'n-born faith;
Yet boasts she nothing of her own, but brings
Auxiliaries from the King of kings,

Who graves his royal law in rocky hearts,
And gracious aid in soft'ning show'rs imparts.
This gives prolific virtue to the faith,
Inspir'd at first by his almighty breath,
Hence, fetching all her succours from abroad,
She still enploys this mighty pow'r of God.