Faith's view of the freedom of grace, cordial renunciation of all its own ragged righteousness, and formal acceptance of and closing with the person of glorious Christ.
THE bride with open eyes, that once were dim,
Sees now her whole salvation lies in him;
The Prince, who is not in dispensing nice,
But freely gives without her pains or price.
This magnifies the wonder in her eye,
Who not a farthing has wherewith to buy;
For now her humbled mind can disavow,
Her boasted beauty and assuming brow;
With conscious eye discern her emptiness,
With candid lips her poverty confess.
"O glory to the Lord that grace is free,
"Else never would it light on guilty me.
"I nothing have with me to be its price,
"But hellish blackness, enmity and vice."
In former times she durst presuming come,
To grace's market with a pretty sum
Of duties, prayers, tears, a boasted set,
Expecting heav'n would thus be in her debt,
These were the price, at least she did suppose,
She'd be the welcomer because of those:
But now she sees the vileness of her vogue,
The dung that close doth ev'ry duty clog,
The sin that doth her holiness reprove,
The enmity that close attends her love,
The great heart-hardness of her penitence,
The stupid dulness of her vaunted sense,
The unbelief of former blazed faith,
The utter nothingness of all she hath.
The blackness of her beauty she can see,
The pompous pride of strain'd humility,
The naughtiness of all her tears and pray'rs :
And now renounces all her worthless wares:
And finding nothing to commend herself,
But what might damn her, her embezzled pelf;
At sov'reign grace's feet doth prostrate fall,
Content to be in Jesus' debt for all.
Her noised virtues vanish out of sight,
As starry tapers at meridian light;
While sweetly, humbly, she beholds at length Christ, as her only righteousness and strength. He with the view throws down his loving dart, Imprest with pow'r into her tender heart. The deeper that the law's fierce dart was thrown, The deeper now the dart of love goes down: Hence, sweetly pain'd, her cries to heav'n do flee; O none but Jesus, none but Christ for me! "O glorious Christ! O beauty, beauty rare! "Ten thousand thousand heav'ns are not so fair, "In him at once all beauties meet and shine, "The white and ruddy, human and divine. "As in his low, he's in his high abode, "The brightest image of the unseen God'. "How justly do the harpers sing above, "His doing, dying, rising, reigning love?
How justly does he when his work is done, "Possess the centre of his Father's throne? "How justly do his awful throne before
Seraphic armies prostrate, him adore ;
"That's both by nature and donation crown'd, "With all the grandeur of the Godhead round? "But wilt thou, Lord, in very deed come dwell "With me, that was a burning brand of hell? "With me, so justly reckon'd worse and less "Than insect, mite, or atom can express? "Wilt thou debase thy high imperial form, "To match with such a mortal, crawling worm? "Yea, sure thine errand to our earthly coast, "Was in deep love to seek and save the lost : "And since thou deign'st the like of me to wed, "O come and make my heart thy marriage-bed.. "Fair Jesus, wilt thou marry filthy me!
Amen, Amen, Amen; so let it be."
The FRUITS of the Believer's Marriage with CHRIST; particularly gospel-holiness, and obedience to the law as a rule.
The sweet solemnity of the marriage now over, and the sad effects of the remains of a legal spirit.
THE match is made, with little din 'tis done
But with great pow'r unequal prizes won.
The Lamb has fairly won his worthless bride;
She her great Lord, and all his store beside.
He made the poorest bargain, though most wise;
And she, the fool, has won the worthy prize.
Deep floods of everlasting love and grace,
That under ground ran an eternal space,
Now rise aloft 'bove banks of sin and hell,
And o'er the tops of massy mountains swell.
In streams of blood are tow'rs of guilt o'erflown,
Down with the rapid purple current thrown.
'The bride now as her all can Jesus own,
And prostrate at his footstool cast her crown,
Disclaiming all her former groundless hope,
While in the dark her soul did weary grope.
Down tumble all the hills of self-conceit,
In him alone she sees herself complete ;
Does his fair person with fond arms embrace,
And all her hopes on his full merit place;
Discard her former mate, and henceforth draw
No hope, no expectation from the law.
Tho' thus her new created-nature soars,
And lives aloft on Jesus' heav'nly stores;
Yet, apt to stray, her old adult'rous heart
Oft takes her old renounced husband's part:
A legal cov❜nant is so deep ingrained
Upon the human nature, laps'd and stain'd,
That, till her spirit mount the purest clime,
She's never totally divorc'd in time.
Hid in her corrupt part's proud bosom lurks
Some hope of life still by the law of works.
Hence flow the following evils, more or less;
Preferring oft her holy partial dress,
Before her Husband's perfect righteousness.
Hence joying more in grace already giv'n,
Than in her Head and stock that's all in heaven.
Hence grieving more the want of frames and grace,
Than of himself the spring of all solace.
Hence guilt her soul imprisons, lusts prevail,
While to the law her rents insolvent fail,
And yet her faithless heart rejects her Husband's bail.
Hence foul disorders rise, and racking fears,
While doubtful of his clearing past arrears;
Vain dreaming, since her own obedience fails,
His likewise little for her help avails.
Hence duties are a task, while all in view
Is heavy yokes of laws, or old or new:
Whereas, were once her legal bias broke,
She'd find her Lord's commands an easy yoke.
No galling precepts on her back he lays,
Nor any debt demands, save what he pays
By promised aid, but lo! the grievous law
Demanding brick, wont aid her with a straw.
Hence also fretful, grudging, discontent,
Crav'd by the law, finding her treasure spent,
And doubting if her Lord will pay the rent.
Hence pride of duties too does often swell,
Presuming she performed so very well.
Hence pride of graces and inherent worth
Springs from her corrupt legal bias forth;
And boasting more a present with'ring frame,
Than her exalted Lord's unfading name.
Hence many falls and plunges in the mire,
As many new conversions do require:
Because her faithless heart's sad follies breed
Much lewd departure from her living Head,
Who to reprove her aggravated crimes,
Leaves her abandon'd to herself at times:
That, falling into frightful deeps, she may
From sad experience learn more stress to lay,
Not on her native efforts, but at length
On Christ alone, her righteousness and strength:
Conscious, while in her works she seeks repose,
Her legal spirit breeds her many woes
Faith's victories over sin and Satan, through new and farther discoveries of Christ, making believers more fruitful in holiness than all other pretenders to works.
THE gospel-path leads heav'nward; hence the fray,
Hell-pow'rs still push the bride the legal way.
So hot's the war, her life's a troubled flood,
A field of battle, and a scene of blood.
But he that once commenc'd the work in her,
Whose working fingers drop the sweetest myrrh,
Will still advance it by alluring force,
And, from her ancient mate, more clean divorce:
Since 'tis her antiquated spouse the law
The strength of sin and hell did on her draw.
Piece-meal she finds hell's mighty force abate,
By new recruits from her Almighty Mate.
Fresh armour, sent from grace's magazine,
Makes her proclaim eternal war with sin.
The shield of faith dipt in the Surety's blood,
Drowns fiery darts, as in a crimson flood.
The Captain's ruddy banner lifted high,
Makes hell retire and all the furies fly.
Yea, of his glory ev'ry recent glance
Makes sin decay and holiness advance.
In kindness therefore does her heav'nly Lord
Renew'd discov'ries of his love afford,
That her enamour'd soul may with the view
Be cast into his holy mould anew:
For when he manifests his glorious grace,
The charming favour of his smiling face,
Into his image fair transforms her soul,"
And wafts her upward to the heav'nly pole,
From glory unto glory by degrees,
"Till vision and fruition shall suffice.
And thus in holy beauty Jesus's bride
Shines far beyond the painted sons of pride.
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