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

Pretensions high to faith a number have,
But, ah! it is a faith that cannot fave :
“ 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 shew,
If of a faving or a damning hue.
They own their fins 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 believ'd well all their days,
Yet never felt their unbelief, nor knew
The need of pow'r their natures to renew ?
Blind fouls 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 holiness t.
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 too foon,
Who never yet have seen themselves undone.
Can of salvation their belief be true,
Who never yet believ'd damnation due ?
Can thefe of endless life have folid faith,
Who never fear'd law-threats of endless death?
Nay, fail'd they ha'nt yet to the healing shore,
Who never felt their sinful woful fore.

Imaginary faith is but a blind,
That bears no fruit, but of a deadly kind;
Nor can from such a wild, unwholesome root
The least production raise of living fruit.
James ü. 26.

# James ii. 17. 20

But saving faith can such an offspring breed,
Her native product is a holy feed.
The fairelt issues of the vital breath
Spring from the fertile womb of heav'n-born faith;
Yet boasts the nothing of her own, but brings
Auxiliaries from the King of kings,
Who graves his royal law in rocky hearts,
And gracious aid in sostning 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 employs this mighty pow'r of God.
Drain'd clean of native pow`rs and legal aims,
No strength but in and from Jehovah claims.
And thus her service to the law o'ertops
The tow'ring zeal of Pharisaic fops.

SECT. IV.'

The Believer only, being married to Christ, is justified

and sanctified; and the more gospel.freedom from tbe law as a covenant, the more boly conformity to it as a rule.

THUS
'HUS 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.
Firit 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 feed indrop,
Which, in his time, will yield a glorious crop.
But by alternate turns his plants he brings
Thro’ robbing winters and repairing springs.
Hence, pining oft, they suffer fad decays,
By dint of lady nights and stormy days.

Bat blest with fap, and influence from above,
They live and grow anew in faith and love ;
Until transplanted to the higher foil,
Where furies tread no more, nor foxes fpoil.
While Chrilt, the living root remains on high,
The noble plant of grace can never die :
Nature decays, and su will all the fruit,
That merely rises on a mortal roct.
Their works, however splendid, are but dead,
Tlat from a living fountain don't proceed;
Their fairest fruit is but a garnith'd shrine,
That are not grafted in the glorious vine.
Devouteft hypocrites are rank'd in rolls
Of painted puppets, not of living fouls.

No offspring but of Christ's fair bride is good,
This happy marriage has a holy brood.
Let finners learn this nıystery to read,
We bear to glorious Christ no precious feed,
Till, thro' the law, we to the law be dead. *.
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 fin they but attempt in vain;
The cursed yoke of fin 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 fou'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 :
Were woful reigning unbelief de pos'd,
Myftrious grace to blinded minds disclos'd :
Did heav'n with gospel-news its pow'r convey,
And finners hear a faithful God but say,
" No more law-debt remains for you to pay;
* Gal. ä. 19.

+ Roin. vi. 14.
+F

“ Lo! by the loving Surety all's discharg’d.”
Their hearts behov'd with love to be enlarg'd :
Love, the succinct fulfilling of the law *,
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 tobey;
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 fervile work their life and heav'n to win,
Nor flavish labour death and hell to fhun.
Their aims are purer, since they understood (blood.
Their heav'n was bought, their hell was quench'd with
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 hin the race of love to run,
Whofe 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 reverential love.

* Rom. xiii. 10.

SECT. SECT. V.

Gospel-grace giving no liberty nor freedom to fin, bus to

boly Service and pure obedience. THE "HE 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 fin.
Ah! such bewray their ignorance, and prove 2
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-lofts before it headlong fell.
Men basely can unto lasciviousness
Abuse the do&trine, not the work of

grace.
Huggers of divine love in vice's path,
Have but the fancy of it, not the faith.
They never fuar'd aloft on grace's wing,
That knew not grace to be a holy thing;
When regnant lhe the pow'rs of hell appals,
And fin's dominion in the ruin falls,
Curst is the crew, whore Antinomian dress
Makes grace a cover to their idleness.
The bride of Christ will fure be very loth
To make his love a pillow for her floth.
Why, inay’nt she fin the niore that grace abounds?
Oh! God forbid! the very thought confounds.
When dead unto the law, she's dead to fin;
How can fhe any longer live therein * ?
To neither of them is the now a slave,
But shares the conquest of the great, the brave,
The mighty Gen'ral, her victorious Head,
Who broke the double chain to free the bride,

# Rom. vi. 1, 2,