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Here join the law and gofpel hands,
What this me teaches, that commands:
What virtuous forms the gospel please
The fame the law doth authorife.

And thus the law-commandment feals
Whatever gospel-grace reveals:
The gofpel alfo for my good

Seals all the law-demands with blood.
The law most perfect ftill remains,
And ev'ry duty full contains:
The gofpel its perfection speaks,
And therefore gives whate'er it feeks.
Next, what by law I'm bound unto,
The fame the gospel makes me do:
What preceptively that can crave,
This effectively can ingrave.

All that by precepts Heav'n expects,
Free grace by promifes effects:
To what the law by fear may move,
To that the gofpel leads by love.
To run to work, the law commands;
The gofpel gives me feet and hands:
The one requires that I obey;
The other does the pow'r convey.
What in the law has duty's place,
The gofpel changes to a grace:
Hence legal duties therein nam'd,
Are herein gofpel-graces fam'd.
The precept checks me when I ftray;
The promise holds me in the way:
That fhews my folly when I roam;
And this moft kindly brings me home.
Law-threats and precepts both, I fee,
With gofpel-promises agree;
They to the gospel are a fence,
And it to them a maintenance.

The law will justify all those
Who with the gospel-ranfom.clofe;
The gofpel too approves for ay
All thofe that do the law obey.

The righteous law condemns each man
That dare reject the gofpel-plan:
The holy gofpel none will fave,
On whom it won't the law ingrave.'
When Chrift the tree of life did climb,
I fee both law and grace in him:
In him the law its end does gain;
In him the promise is Amen.

The law makes grace's pafture fweet,
Grace makes the law my fav'ry meat;
Yea, fweeter than the honey-comb,
When grace and mercy brings it home.
The precepts of the law me fhow
What fruits of gratitude I owe;
But gofpel-grace begets the brood,
And moves me to the gratitude.
Law-terrors panfe the putrid fore;
And gofpel-grace applies the cure:
The one plows up the fallow-ground;
The other fows the feed around.
A rigid mafter was the law,
Demanding brick, denying ftraw;
But when with gofpel-tongue it fings,
It bids me fly, and gives me wings.

In ŞU M.

Both law and gofpel clofe unite,

Are feen with more folace,
Where truth and mercy kindly meet,
In fair IMMANUEL's face.

SECT. IV.

The proper PLACE and STATION of the Law and the Gospel.

Note, That in the four following Paragraphs, as well as in the three preceding Sections, by Law is mostly understood the doctrine of the Covenant of Works; and by Gospel, the doctrine of the Covenant of Grace.

PARAGRAPH I.

The Place and Station of Law and Gospel in general.

WHEN we the facred record view,

W

Or divine Teft'ments old and new;

The matter in moft pages fix'd,
Is law and gofpel intermix'd.
Yet few, ev'n in a learned age,
Can fo refolve the facred page,
As to difcern with equal eye,
Where law, where gofpel fever'd lie.
One divine text with double claufe
May fpeak the gofpel's voice and laws :
Hence men to blend them both are apt,
Should in one fentence both be wrapt.
But that we may the truth purfue,
And give both law and grace their due,
And God the glory there difplay'd;
The following rules may give us aid.
Where-e'er in facred writ we fee
A word of grace or promife free,
With bleffings dropt for Jesus' fake;
We thefe for gofpel-news may take.
But where a precept ftrict we find
With promise to our doing join'd,
Or threat'ning with a wrathful frown;
This as the law we juflly own.

Ex. Gr. Lev. xx. 7. 8. Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be ye holy; for I am the Lord your God. And ye fhall keep my ftatutes, and do them: I am the Lord which fanctifieth you. 1 John iv. 7. Beloved, let us love one-another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth, is born of God, and knoweth God. Rom. v. 21. That as fin hath reigned unto death, even fo might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life, by Jefus Chrift our Lord. Chap. vi. 23. For the wages of fin is death: but the gift of God is eternal life, thro' Jefus Chrift our Lord. Mark xvi. 15, 16. And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gofpel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized, shall be saved; but he that believeth not, shall be damned. John iii. 18. He that believeth on him, is not condemned but he that believeth not, is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God, &c.

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PARAGRAPH II.

The Place and Station of Law and Gofpel in particular. Where the Difference is noted betwixt the Gospel largely viewed in its Difpenfation, and ftrictly in itself; and betwixt the Gospel and faith receiving it.

WOULDST

OULDST thou diftin&tly know the found
Of law and grace, then don't confound

The difpenfation with the grace;
For thele two have a diftin&t place.
The gofpel thus difpens'd we fee,

66

Believe, and thou fhalt faved be;
"If not, thou fhalt be damn'd to hell,
"And in eternal torments dwell."
Here precepts in it are difpens'd,
With threat'nings of damnation fenc'd;
The legal fan&tion here takes place,
That none may dare abuse free grace.
Yet nor does that command of faith,
Nor this tremendous threat of wrath,
Belong to gospel strictly fo;
But to its difpenfation do.
The method of dispensing here,
Does law and gofpel jointly bear;
Because the law's fubfervient,

Unto the gofpel's bleft intent.

Precepts and threat'nings both make way

The golpel bleffings to convey;

Which differs much, though thus difpens'd, From laws and threats whereby 'tis fenc'd. "Believe, and thou fhalt faved be,"

Is gofpel, but improperly;

Yet fafely men may call it thus,
Because 'tis fo difpens'd to us.
But fure, the gofpel-news we fing,
Muft be fome other glorious thing,
Than precepts to believe the fame,
Whatever way we blend their name.

1

The gofpel-treafure's fomething more
Than means that do apply the store:
Believing is the method pav'd;
The gofpel is the thing believ'd.
The precious thing is tidings fweet,
Of Chrift a Saviour moft complete,
To fave from fin, and death, and wrath;
Which tidings tend to gender faith.
Faith comes by hearing God's record
Concerning Jefus Christ the Lord;
And is the method Heav'n has bleft
For bringing to the gospel-reft.
The joyful found is news of grace,
And life to Adam's guilty race,
Through Jefus' righteousness divine,
Which bright from faith to faith does fhine.
The promife of immortal blis

Is made to this full righteoufnefs:
By this our right to life is bought;
Faith begs the right, and buys it not.
True faith receives the offer'd good,
And promife feal'd with precious blood:
It gives no title to the blifs,

But takes th' entitling righteoufnefs.
This object great of faving faith,
And this alone the promife hath;
For 'tis not made to faith's poor act
But is the prize that faith does take :
And, only as it takes the fame,
It bears a great and famous name;
For felf and all its grandeur down

It throws, that Chrift may wear the crown.
But if new laws and threats were all
That gofpel properly we call,
Then were the precept to believe,
No better news than Do and Live.
If then we won't diftinguish here,
We cloud, but don't the gofpel clear;
We blend it with the fiery law,
And all into confufion draw.

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