A legal cov'nant is fo deep ingrain'd,
Upon the human nature, laps'd and ftain'd,
That, till her fpirit mount the pureft clime,
She's never totally divorc'd in time.
Hid in her corrupt part's proud bofom lurks
Some hope of life ftill by the law of works.
Hence flow the following evils more or less
Preferring oft her partial holy drefs,
Before her Hufband's perfect righteoufnefs.
Hence joying more in grace already given
Than in her Head and ftock that's all in heaven.
Hence grieving more the want of frames and grace,
Than of himself the spring of all folace.

Hence guilt her foul imprisons, lufts prevail,
While to the law her rents infolvent fail,

}

And yet her faithlefs heart rejects her husband's bail.
Hence foul diforders rife, and racking fears,
While doubtful of his clearing past arrears;
Vain dreaming, fince her own obedience fails,
His likewife 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 eafy yoke.
No galling precepts on her neck he lays,
Nor any debt demands, fave what he pays
By promis'd aid; but, lo! the grievous law,
Demanding brick, won't aid her with a straw.
Hence alfo 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,
Prefuming the perform'd fo very well.

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

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

}

Who, to reprove her aggravated crimes,
Leaves her abandon'd to herself at times;
That, falling into frightful deeps, she may
From fad experience learn more stress to lay,
Not on her native efforts, but at length
On Chrift alone, her righteousness and ftrength:
Confcious, while in her works fhe feeks repofe,
Her legal spirit breeds her many woes.

SECT. II. Faith's victories over fin and Satan, through new and farther difcoveries of Chrift, making Believers more fruitful in holiness than all other pretenders to works.

THE gospel path leads heaven ward; hence the fray,
Hell's powers ftill push the bride the legal way.
So hot. the war, her life's a troubled flood,
A field of battle, and a fcene of blood.
But he that once commenc'd the work in her,
Whose working fingers drop the sweetest myrrh,
Will ftill advance it by alluring force,

And, from her ancient mate, more clean divorce:
Since 'tis her antiquated spouse the law,
The ftrength of fin and hell did on her draw.
Piece-meal fhe finds hell's mighty force abate,
By new recruits from her almighty Mate.
Fresh armour fent from Grace's magazine,
Makes her proclaim eternal war with fin.
The fhield of faith, dipt in the Surety's blood,
Drowns 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 fin decay, and holiness advance.
In kindness therefore does her heav'nly Lord
Renew'd discov'ries of his love afford,
That her enamour'd foul may, with the view,
Be caft into his holy mould anew:

For when he manifefts his glorious grace,
The charming favour of his fmiling face,
Into his image fair transforms her foul,*

And wafts her upwards to the heav'nly pole,
From glory unto glory by degrees,
Till vifion and fruition fhall fuffice.
And thus in holy beauty Jefus' bride
Shines far beyond the painted fons of pride,
Vain merit vouchers, and their fubtle apes,
In all their most refin'd, delufive fhapes.
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 produc'd 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,
Befet with fragrant lillies round about,‡
All divine graces, in a comely rout,

}

Burning within, and fhining bright without.
And thus the bride, as facred fcipture faith,
When dead unto the law through Jefus' death,§
And match'd with him, bears to her God and Lord
Accepted fruit, with incenfe pure decor'd.
Freed from law debt, and blefs'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 felf accrefces, as from self it springs.
So base a rise must have a base recourse,
The stream can mount no higher than its fource.
But Jefus can his bride's fweet fruit commend,
As brought from him the root, to him the end.
She does by fuch 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 thro' the darkfome vale fhe makes her way,
Until the morning dawn of glory's day.

Matt. vii. 17, 18. + Cant. vii. 2.

$ Rom, vii. 4

SECT. III. True faving Faith magnifying the Law both as a covenant and as a rule. Falfe faith unfruitful and ruining.

PROUD nature may reject this gospel theme,
And curse it as an Antinomian scheme.
Let flander bark, let envy grin and fight,
The curfe that is fo causeless shall not light,*
If they that fain would make by holy force
'Twixt finners and the law a clean divorce,
And court the Lamb a virgin chaste to wife,
Be charg'd as foes to holinefs of life,

Well may they gladly fuffer on this fcore,
Apostles great were fo malign'd before.

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

Than fiery feraphs can with holiest flash;
Avaunt, vain legalifts, unworthy trash.

When as a co'nant ftern the law commands,
Faith puts her Lamb's obedience in its hands;
And when its threats gush out a fiery flood,
Faith ftops the current with her victim's blood.
The law can crave no more, yet craves no less,
Than active, paffive, perfect righteousness.
Yet here is all, yea, more than its demand,
All rendered to it by a divine hand.
Mankind is bound law fervice still to pay,
Yea, angel kind is also bound t' obey.
It may by human and angelic blaze
Have honour, but in finite partial ways.
Thefe natures have its luftre once defac'd,
'Twill be by part of both for ay difgrac'd,
Yet, had they all obfequious food 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 fervice 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 thofe never did,
To whom th' obedience pure of faith is hid,
Faith works by love,* and purifies the heart,†
And truth advances in the inward part;
On carnal hearts impreffes divine stamps,
And fully'd lives inverts to fhining lamps.
From Abram's feed that are most strong in faith,
The law moft honour, God most glory hath.
But due respect to neither can be found,
Where unbelief ne'er got a mortal wound,
To ftill the virtue vaunter's empty found.

Good works he boasts, a path he never trode
Who is not yet the workmanship of God,‡

In Jefus thereunto created new ;

}

Nois'd works that spring not hence are but a fhew,
True faith that's of a noble divine race,
Is ftill a holy fanctifying grace:

And greater honour to the law does fhare,
Than boafters all that breathe the vital air.
Ev'n heathen morals vaftly may outfhine
The works that flow not from a faith divine.
Pretenfions high to faith a number have,
But, ah! it is a faith that cannot fave:
We truft, fay they, in Christ, we hope in God:
Nor blush to blaze their rotten faith abroad.
Nor try the truft of which they make a fhew,
If of a faving or a damning hue.

They own their fins are ill; true, but 'tis fad
They never thought their faith and hope were bad.
How evident's their home-bred natʼral blaze,
Who dream they have believ'd well all their days;
Yet never felt their unbelief, nor knew

Their need of pow'r their nature to renew.
Blind fouls, who boast of faith, yet live in fin,
May hence conclude their faith is to begin.
Or know they fhall, by fuch an airy faith,
Believe themselves to everlafting wrath.

* Eph. ii. 10.

↑ Gal. v. 9.

Eph. iii. 9.