A POEM upon Ifa. liv. 5. Thy Maker is thy Hufband.

PREFACE.

HARK, dying mortal, if the Sonnet prove,
A fong of living and immortal love,

'Tis then thy grand concern the theme to know,
If life and immortality be fo.

Are eyes to read, or ears to hear a trust?

Shall both in death be cram'd anon with duft?
Then trifle not to please thine ear and eye,
But read thou, hear thou, for eternity.
Purfue not shadows wing'd, but be thy chafe,
The God of glory on the field of grace:
The mighty hunter's name is loft and vain,
That runs not this fubftantial prize to gain.
These humble lines affume no high pretence,
To please thy fancy, or allure thy fenfe;
But aim, if everlafting life's thy chafe,
To clear thy mind, and warm thy heart thro'
A marriage fo myfterious I proclaim,
Betwixt two parties of fuch diff'rent fame,
That human tongues may blufh their names to tell,
To wit, the Prince of heav'n, the heir of hell!

+ D

grace.

But, on fo vaft a fubject who can find

Words fuiting the conceptions of his mind?

Or, if our language with our thought could vie,
What mortal thought can raise itself so high?

When words and thoughts both fail, may faith and pray'r
Afcend by climbing up the fcripture-flair:
From facred writ thefe ftrange efpoufals may
Be explicated in the following way.

A general account of Man's fall in Adam, and the remedy provided in Chrift; and a particular account of man's being naturally wedded to the law, as a covenant of works.

OLD

SECT. I.

The Fall of Adam.

LD Adam once a heav'n of pleafure found,
While he with perfect innocence was crown'd:

His wing'd affections to his God could move
In raptures of defire, and ftrains of love.
Man ftanding fpotlefs, pure, and innocent,
Could well the law of works with works content;
Tho' then, (nor fince,) it could demand no lefs
Than perfonal and perfect righteoufnefs:
Thefe unto finlefs men were easy terms,
Tho' now beyond the reach of wither'd arms.
The legal cov'nant then upon the field,
Perfection fought, man could perfection yield.
Rich had he and his progeny remain'd,
Had he primeval innocence maintain'd:
His life had been a reft without annoy,
A fcene of blifs, a paradife of joy.
But fubtile Satan, in the ferpent hid,
Propofing fair the fruit that God forbid,
Man foon.feduc'd by hell's alluring art,
Did, difobedient, from the rule depart,

Devour'd the bait, and by his bold offence.

Fell from his blifsful ftate of innocence *.
Proftrate, he loft his God, his life, his crown,
From all his glory tumbled headlong down,
Plung'd in a deep abyfs of fin and wo,

Where, void of heart to will, or hand to do:
For's own relief he can't command a thought,
The total fum of what he can is nought.
He's able only now t' increase his thrall,
He can destroy himfelf, and this is all.
But can the hellish brat Heav'n's law fulfil? ·
Whofe precepts high furmount his ftrength and skill.
Can filthy drofs produce a golden beam?

Or poifon'd fprings a falutif'rous ftream?

Can carnal minds, fierce enmity's wide maw,
Be duly fubject to the divine law?

Nay, now its direful threatenings must take place
On all the difobedient human race,
Who do by guilt Omnipotence provoke,
Obnoxious ftand to his uplifted ftroke.
They must ingulf themselves in endless woes,
Who to the living God are deadly foes;
Who natively his holy will gainfay,
Mufl to his awful juftice fall a prey:
In vain do mankind now expect, in vain
By legal deeds immortal life to gain :

Nay, death is threatened, threats must have their due.
Or fouls that fin, muft diet; as God is true.

THE

HE fecond Adam, fov'reign Lord of all,
Did, by his Father's 'authorizing call,

From bofom of eternal love defcend,
To fave the guilty race that him offend;
To treat an everlasting peace with those,
Who were, and ever would have been his foes.

His errand, never-ending life to give

To them, whofe malice would not let him live;
To make a match with rebels, and efpoufe
The brat which at his love her fpite avows.
Himfelf he humbled, to deprefs her pride,
And make his mortal foe his loving bride.
But, ere the marriage can be folemniz'd,
All lets must be remov'd, all parties pleas'd.
Law-righteoufnefs requir'd, must be procur'd,
Law-vengeance threaten'd, must be full endur'd.
Stern juftice must have credit by the match,
Sweet mercy by the heart the bride muft catch.
Poor Bankrupt! all her debt muft first be paid,
Ha former husband in the grave be laid:
Her prefent Lover nuft be at the cost,
To fave and ranfom to the uttermoft.
If all these things this Suitor kind can do,
Then he may win her, and her blefling too.

Hard terms indeed! while death's the firft demand:
But love is ftrong as death *, and will not fland
To carry on the fuit, and make it goed,
Tho' at the dearest rate of wounds and blood.
The burden's heavy, but the back is broad,
The glorious Lover is the mighty God f.
Kind bowels yearning in the eternal Son,
He left his Father's court, his heav'nly throne:
Afide he threw his mot divine array,
And wrapt his Godhead in a vail of clay.
Angelic armies, who in glory crown'd,
With joyful harps his awful throne furround,
Down to the cryftal frontier of the sky,
To fee the Saviour born, did eager fly ;
And ever fince behold with wonder frefh
Their Sov'reign and our Saviour wrapt in flesh.
Who in this garb did mighty love difplay,
Reftoring what he never took away;
To God his glory, to the law its due,
To heav'n its honour, to the earth its hue;
To man a righteoufnefs, divine, complete,
A royal robe, to fuit the nuptial rite.

* Song viii. 6. † Ia. ix. 6. + Luke ii. 9,---14. § Pfal. ixix. 4

He in her favours, whom he lov'd fo well,
At once did purchafe heav'n, and vanquish hell.
O! unexampled love! fo vaft, fo ftrong,
So great, fo high, fo deep, fo broad, fo long!
Can finite thought this ocean huge explore,
Unconscious of a bottom or a fhore?
His love admits no parallel; for why,
At one great draught of love he drank hell dry.
No drop of wrathful gall he left behind,
No dreg to witnefs that he was unkind.
The fword of awful juflice pierc'd his fide,
That mercy thence might gufh upon the bride.
The meritorious labours of his life,

And glorious conquests of his dying ftrife;
Her debt of doing, fuff'ring, both cancell'd,
And broke the bars his lawful captive held.
Down to the ground the hellifh hofts he threw,
Then mounting high, the trump of triumph blew,
Attended with a bright feraphic band,

Sat down enthron'd fublime on God's right hand;
Where glorious choirs their various harps employ
To found his praifes with confed'rate joy.
There he, the bride's ftrong Interceffor fits,
And thence the bleffings of his blood tranfinits.
Sprinkling all o'er the flaming throne of God,
Pleads for her pardon his atoning blood;
Sends down his holy co-eternal Dove,
To fhew the wonders of incarnate love,
To woo and win the bride's reluctant heart,
And pierce it with his kindly killing dart:
By gofpel-light to manifeft that now
She has no further with the law to do;
That her new Lord has loos'd the fœd'ral tye,
That once hard bound her, or to do or die;
That precepts, threats, no fingle mite can crave.
Thus for her former fpoufe he digg'd a grave;
The law faft to his crofs did nail and pin,
Then bury'd the defunct his tomb within,
That he the lonely widow to himself might win.