When gospel soldiers, that divide the word,
Scarce brandish any but the legal sword.
While Christ the author of the law they press,
More than the end of it for righteousness;
Christ as a seeker of our service trace,
More than a giver of enabling grace.
The King commanding holiness they show,
More than the Prince exalted to bestow;
Yea, more on Christ the sin-revenger dwell,
Than Christ Redeemer both from sin and hell.
With legal spade the gospel field he delves,
Who thus drives sinners in unto themselves;
Halving the truth that should be all reveal'd,
The sweetest part of Christ is oft conceal'd,
We bid men turn from sin, but seldom say,
Behold the Lamb that takes all sin away!*
Christ, by the gospel rightly understood,
Not only treats a peace, but makes it good.
Those suitors, therefore, of the bride, who hope
By force to drag her with the legal rope,
Nor use the drawing cord of conqu❜ring grace,
Pursue with flaming zeal a fruitless chase;
In vain lame doings urge, with solemn awe,
To bribe the fury of the fiery law:
With equal success to the fool that aims
By paper walls to bound devouring flames.
The law's but mock'd by their most graceful deed,
That wed not first the law-fulfilling Head;
It values neither how they wrought nor wept,
That slight the ark wherein alone 't is kept.
Yet legalists, Do, do, with ardor press,
And with prepost'rous zeal and warm address
Would seem the greatest friends to holiness:
But vainly (could such opposites accord)
Respect the law, and yet reject the Lord.
They show not Jesus as the way to bliss,
But Judas-like betray him with a kiss
Of boasted works, or mere profession puft,
Law-boasters proving but law-breakers oft.
THE HURTFULNESS OF NOT PREACHING CHRIST, AND DISTINGUISHING DULY BETWEEN LAW AND GOSPEL.
HELL cares not how crude holiness be preach'd, If sinners' match with Christ be never reach'd;
Knowing their holiness is but a sham,
Who ne'er are married to the holy Lamb.
Let words have never such a pious show,
And blaze aloft in rude professor's view,
With sacred aromatics richly spic'd,
If they but drown in silence glorious Christ;
Or, if he may some vacant room supply,
Make him a subject only by the by;
They mar true holiness with tickling chat,
To breed a bastard Pharisaic brat.
They wofully the gospel message broke,
Make fearful havoc of the Master's flock;
Yet please themselves, and the blind multitude,
By whom the gospel's little understood.
Rude souls perhaps imagine little odds,
Between the legal and the gospel roads :
But vainly men attempt to blend the two;
They differ more than Christ and Moses do.
Moses, evangelizing in a shade,
By types the news of light approaching spread:
But from the law of works by him proclaim'd,
No ray of gospel grace or mercy gleam'd.
By nature's light the law to all is known,
But lightsome news of gospel grace to none.
The doing cov'nant now, in part or whole,
Is strong to damn, but weak to save a soul.
It hurts, and cannot help, but as it tends
Through mercy to subserve some gospel ends.
Law thunder roughly to the gospel tames,
The gospel mildly to the law reclaims.
The fiery law, as 't is a covenant,
Schools men to see the gospel aid they want;
Then gospel aid does sweetly them incline
Back to the law as 't is a rule divine.
Heav'n's healing work is oft commenc'd with
Terror begins what loving kindness crowns.
Preachers may therefore press the fiery law,
To strike the Christless man with dreadful awe.
Law threats which for his sins to hell depress,
Yea, damn him for his rotten righteousness;
That while he views the law exceeding broad,
He fain may wed the righteousness of God.
But, ah! to press law works as terms of life,
Was ne'er the way to court the Lamb a wife.
To urge conditions in the legal frame,
Is to renew the vain old cov'nant game
The law is good, when lawfully 't is us d,*
But most destructive when it is abus'd.
They set no duties in their proper sphere,
Who duly law and gospel do n't sever;
But under massy chains let sinners lie,
As tributaries, or to do or die.
Nor make the law a squaring rule of life,
But in the gospel throat a bloody knife.
SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS, SO NATURAL TO
ALL MEN, HAS LITTLE NEED TO BE ENCOURAGED BY LEGAL
PREACHING.
THE legal path proud nature loves so well,
(Though yet 't is but the cleanest road to hell
That lo! e'en these that take the foulest ways,
Whose lewdness no controlling bridle stays:
If but their drowsy conscience raise its voice,
'T will speak the law of works their native choice.
And echo to the rousing sound, "Ah, true!
I cannot hope to live, unless I do."
|