So

So thy deceitful lufts with cruel spite
Hide ghaftly danger under gay delight.
Art thou a legal zealot, foft or rude,
Renounce thy natural and acquired good.
As bafe deceitful lufts may work thy fmart,
may deceitful frames upon thy heart.
Seeming good motions may in fome be found,
Much joy in hearing, like the ftony ground ;*
Much forrow too in praying, as appears
In Efau's careful fuit with rueful tears. †
Touching the law, they blamelefs may appear,‡
From spurious views most specious virtues bear.
Nor merely be devout in man's esteem,
But prove to be fincerely what they seem,
Friends to the holy law in heart and life,
Surers of heaven with utmost legal ftrife;
Yet still with innate pride fo rankly fpic'd,
Converted but to duties, not to Chrift.
That publicans and harlots heaven obtain §
Before a crew fo righteous and so vain.
Sooner will those shake off their vicious drefs,
Than these blind zealots will their righteousness,
Who judge they have (which fortifies their pride)
The law of God itself upon their fide.

Old nature, new brufh'd up with legal pains,
Such ftrict attachment to the law retains,

No means, no motives can to Jefus draw

Vain fouls fo doubly wedded to the law.

But wouldft the glorious Prince in marriage have,
Know that thy natural husband cannot fave.
Thy beft effays to pay the legal rent

Can never in the least the law content.

Didft thou in prayers employ the morning light,
In tears and groans the watches of the night,
Pafs thy whole life in clofe devotion o'er;
'Tis nothing to the law ftill craving more.
There's no proportion 'twixt its high commands
And puny works from thy polluted hands;
Perfection is the leaft that it demands.

* Luke viii. 13.
Phil. iii. 9.

+ Heb. xii. 17.
§ Matth. xxi. 31.

}

Wouldft enter into life, then keep the law;†
But keep it perfectly without a flaw.
It won't have less, nor will abate at last
A drop of vengeance for the fin that's paft.
Tell, finful mortal, is thy stock fo large
As duly can defray this double charge?
Why thefe are mere impoffibles,' (fay'ft thou,)
Yea, truly fo they are, and therefore now,
That down thy legal confidence may fall,
The law's black doom, home to thy bofom call.
'Lo! I (the divine law) demand no less
Than perfect everlasting righteousness;
But thou haft fail'd, and loft thy ftrength to Do:
Therefore I doom thee to eternal wo;
In prison close to be shut up for ay,
Ere I be baffled with thy partial pay.
Thou always didft and doft my precepts break,
• I therefore curfe thee to the burning lake.
In God the great Lawgiver's glorious name,
I judge thy foul to everlasting fhame.
No flesh can by the law be juftified;‡
Yet dareft thou thy legal duties plead?
As Paul appeal'd to Cefar, wilt thou so,
Unto the law? then to it fhalt thou go,
And find it doom thee to eternal wo.

}

What! would ye have us plung'd in deep despair? Amen; yea, God himself would have you there, His will it is that you despair of life. And fafety by the law, or legal ftrife; That cleanly thence divorc'd at any rate, His faireft Son may have a faithful mate.. 'Till this law sentence pass within your You'll never wed the law discharging Priest. You prize not heaven, till he through hell you draw; Nor love the gospel, till you know the law.

breast,

Know then, the divine law most perfect cares

For none of thy imperfect legal wares;
Dooms thee to vengeance for thy finful state,
As well as finful actions fmall or great.

If any fin can be accounted fmall,

To hell it dooms thy foul for one and all.
For fins of nature, practice, heart, and way,
Damnation-rent it fummons thee to pay.
Yea, not for fin alone, which is thy fhame,
But for thy boasted service too fo lame,
The law adjudges thee and hell to meet,
Because thy righteoufnefs is incomplete.
As towering flames burn up the wither'd flags,
So will the fiery law thy filthy rags.

SECT. II. Direction given, with reference to the right ufe of the means, that we reft not on thefe inftead of Christ, the glorious Hufband, in whom our help lies.

ADAM, where art thou ?+ Soul, where art thou now? Oh! art thou faying, Sir, what fell I do ?

I dare not ufe that proud fef-raifing strain,
'Go help yourself, and God will help you then.'
Nay, rather know, O Ifrael, that thou haft
Deftroyed thy felf, and can'ft not in the leaft
From fin nor wrath thyfelf the captive free,
Thy help (fays Jefus) only lies in me.'§
Heaven's oracles direct to him alone;
Full help is laid upon this mighty One.
In him, in him complete falvation dwells;
He's God the helper, and there is none elfe.¶
Fig leaves wont hide thee from the fiery fhower.
'Tis he alone that faves by price and power.

Muft we do nothing then, (will mockers fay,)
But reft in floth till Heav'n the help convey;
Pray, ftop a little, finner, don't abuse

God's awful word, that charges thee to use
Means, ordinances, which he's pleased to place,
As precious channels of his powerful grace.
Reflefs improve all these, until from Heaven
The whole falvation needful thus be given.
Wait in this path, according to his call,
On him whofe power alone affecteth all.

Gen. iii. 9. Mark x. 17. § Hof. xiii. 9. Ifa. xlv. 22.

Wouldst thou him wed, in duties wait, I fay,
But marry not thy duties by the way.
Thou'lt wofully come fhort of faving grace,
If duties only be thy refting place.

Nay, go a little further+ through them all,
To him whofe office is to fave from thrall.
Thus in a gospel manner hopeful wait,
Striving to enter by the narrow gate :‡
So ftrait and narrow, that it won't admit
The bunch upon thy back to enter it.
Not only bulky lufts may cease to prefs,
But even the bunch of boafted righteousness.
Many, as in the facred page we see,
Shall ftrive to enter, but unable be :§
Because, mistaking this new way of life,
They pufh a legal, not a gospel ftrife:
As if their duties did JEHOVAH bind,
Because 'tis written, Seek, and ye fball find.
Perverted Scripture does their error fence,
They read the letter, but neglect the fenfe,
While to the word no gospel glofs they give,
Their feek and find's the fame with do and live.
Hence would they a connection native place,
Between their moral pains and faving grace:
Their natʼral poor effays they judge won't miss.
In justice to infer eternal blifs.

Thus commentaries on the word they make,
Which to their ruin are a grand mistake:
For through the legal bias in their breast,
They fcripture to their own deftruction wrest.
Why, if we feek we get, they gather hence:
Which is not truth, fave in the fcripture sense.
There Jefus deals with friends, and elsewhere faith,
These feekers only speed, that ask in faith.*
The prayer of the wicked is abhorr'd,
As an abomination to the Lord.

Ther fuits are fins, but their neglects no lefs,
Which can't their guilt diminish, but increase.

Matth. vii. 13, 14. § Luke xiii. 24.
| Prov, xv. 9, xxviii, 9.

† Song iii. 1, 4.

¶ Matth. vii. 17.

* James i. 6.

They ought, like beggars, lie in grace's way;
Hence Peter taught the forcerer to pray :‡
For though mere natʼral men's addrefs or prayers
Can no acceptance gain as works of theirs,
Nor have, as their performance, any sway;
Yet as a divine ordinance they may.
But fpotlefs truth hath bound itself to grant
The fuit of none but the believing faint.
In Jefus, perfons once accepted, do
Acceptance find in him for duties too.

For He, whofe Son they do in marriage take,
Is bound to hear them for their Husband's fake.
But let no Christless soul at prayer appear,
As if Jehovah were oblig'd to hear :

But use the means, because a fov'reign God
May come with alms, in this his wonted road.
He wills thee to frequent kind wifdom's gate,
To read, hear, meditate, to pray, and wait;
Thy fpirit then be on thefe duties bent,
As gofpel means, but not as legal rent.
From thefe don't thy falvation hope nor claim,
But from Jehovah in the use of them.
The beggar's fpirit never was fo dull,
While waiting at the gate call'd Beautiful,
To hope for fuccour from the temple gate,
At which he daily did fo careful wait;
But from the rich and charitable fort,
Who to the temple daily made refort.
Means, ordinances, are thé comely gate,

At which kind Heav'n has bid us conftant wait :
Not that from these we have our alms, but from
The liberal God, who there is wont to come.
If either we these means fhall dare neglect,
Or yet from thefe th' enriching blifs expect,
We from the glory of the king defalk,
Who in the galleries is wont to walk;
We move not regular in duties road,
But bafe, invert them to an idol god.

Seek then, if gospel means you would effay, Through grace to use them in a gospel way: † Acts viii, 22.