SECT. III.
Man's legal difpofition.
BUT, after all, the bride's fo malecontent,
No argument, fave pow'r, is prevalent
To bow her will, and gain her heart's confent.
The glorious Prince's fuit the disapproves,
The law her old primordial husband loves;
Hopeful in its embraces life to have,
Though dead and bury'd in her Suitor's grave;
Unable to give life, as once before;
Unfit to be a husband any more.
Yet proudly fhe the new addrefs difdains,
And all the bleft Redeemer's love and pains;
Tho' 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.
Tho' down he fends in gofpel-tidings good
Epiftles of his love, fign'd with his blood:
Yet lordly fhe the royal fuit rejects,
Eternal life by legal works affects;
In vain the living feeks among the dead *,
Sues quickning 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 prefs,
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 trult a promife 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 beft?
"Good God! he cries, when prefs'd with debt and thrall,
"Have patience with me, and I'll pay thee all *."
Upon their all, their best, they're fondly mad,
Tho' yet their all is naught, their beft is bad.
Proud man his can-does mightily exalts,
Yet are his brightest works but fplendid faults.
A finner may have fhews of good, but flill
The best he can, even at his best, is ill.
Can heav'n or divine favour e'er be win
By thofe that are a mafs 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 tears,
That have amafs'd the guilt of num'rous years!
Man's ftrict 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 leaft degree.
Yea, more, full fatisfaction must be giv'n
For trefpafs done againft the laws of Heav'n.
These are the terms: what mortal back fo broad,
But muft for ever fink beneath the load?
A ranfom muft be found, or die they muft,
Sure, even as juftice infinite is juft.
But, fays the legal, proud, felf-righteous heart,
Which cannot with her ancient confort part,
"What! won't the goodnefs of the God of heav'n
"Admit of fmalls when greater can't be given?
"He knows our falls 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 ftraw will never build the houfe..
Miftake not here, proud mortal; don't mistake;
God changes not, nor other terms will make.
Will divine faithfulness itfelf 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 holinefs be baffled thus?
Or awful juflice be unjust for us?
Shall faithfulnefs be faithlefs for our fake,
And he his threats, as we his precepts break?
Will our great Creditor deny himself?
And for full payment take our filthy pelf?
Difpenfe with juftice, to let mercy vent?
And ftain his royal crown with 'minifh'd rent?
Unworthy thought! Olet no mortal clod
Hold fuch bafe notions of a glorious God.
Heav'n's holy covenant, 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 muft be divorc'd, and choofe 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, tho' in the facred page unknown,
Sincerity affume perfection's throne:
But who will boaft this bafe ufurper's fway,
Save minifter's of darkness, that display,
Invented night to flifle 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 ranfom'd race.
Of promis'd favour 'tis a fruit, a claufe;
But no procuring term, no moving caufe.
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 gofpel-truths with legal arms,
Mistakes new.cov'nant fruits for fœd'ral terms.
The joyful found no change of terms allows,
But change of perfons, or another spouse.
The nature fame that finn'd muft do or die;
No milder terms in gofpel-offers lie.
For grace no other law-abatement fhews,
But how law-debtors may reflore its dues;
Reftore, yea, thro' 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.
Men's vain attempt to feek life by Chrift's righteousness, joined with their own; and legal bopes natural to all.
OUT fill the bride reluctant difallows
The junior fuit, and hugs the fenior spouse.
Such the old felfifh folly of her mind,
So bent to lick the duft, and grafp the wind,
Alledging works and duties of her own
May for her criminal offence atone;
She will her antic dirty robe provide,
Which vain the hopes will all pollution hide.
The filthy rags that faints away have flung,
She holding, wraps and rolls herfelf in dung.
Thus, maugre all the light that gospel gives,
Unto her nat❜ral confort fondly cleaves.
Though mercy fet the royal match in view,
She's loth to bid her ancient mate adieu.
When light of fcripture, reason, common sense,
Can hardly mortify her vain pretence
To legal righteoufnefs; yet if at laft
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 proferr'd match;
In hopes his help, together with her own,
Will turn to peaceful fmiles the wrathful frown.
Though grace the rifing fun delightful fings,
With full falvation in his golden wings,
And righteoufnefs complete; the faithless foul,
Receiving half the light rejects the whole;
Revolves the facred page, but reads purblind
The gofpel-meffage with a 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 pray'rs and future pains,
Will for their former failings make amends:
To legal yokes they bow their fervile necks,
And, leaft foul flips their falfe repofe 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 ftirr'p to mount their own;
Thus in Chrift's room his rival felf enthrone,
And vainly would, drefs'd up in legal trim,
Divide falvation 'twixt themfelves and him.
But know, vain man, that to his fhare muft fall
The glory of the whole, or none at all.
In him all wifdom's hidden treasures lie, †
And all the fulnefs of the Deity. ‡
This ftore alone, immenfe and never spent,
Might poor infolvent debtors well content;
Hab. i. 16. + Col. ii. 3. Col. ii. 9.
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