We from the Glory of the King defalk,
Who in the Galleries is wont to walk,
We move not regular in Duty's Road,
But bafe, invert them to an Idol-God.
Seek then, if Gospel-Means you would effay,.
Through Grace to use them in a Gofpel-way:
Not deeming that your Duties are the Price
Of divine Favour, or of Paradise ;
Nor that your beft Efforts employ'd in thefe,
Are fit Exploits your awful Judge to please.
Why, thus you bafely idolize your Trash,
And make it with the Blood of Jefus clafh.
You'd buy the Bleffing with your vile Refuse,
And fo his precious Righteousness abuse.
What buy his Gifts with filthy Lumber, nay,
Whoever offers this, must hear him fay,
The Money perifh with thy Soul for ay.
Duties are Means which to the Marriage-Bed,
Should chaftly lead us like a Chamber-Maid;
But if with her instead of Chrift we match,
We not our Safety, but our Ruin hatch.
To Cafar, what is Cefar's fhould be given ;
But Cæfar muft not have what's due to Heaven:
So Duties fhould have Duty's Room, 'tis true,
But nothing of the glorious Husband's Due.
While Means the Debt of close Attendance crave,.
Our whole Dependance God alone must have.
If Duties, Tears, our Confcience pacify,
They with the Blood of Chrift prefume to vie.
Means are his Vaffals, fhall we without grudge
Difcard the Mafter, and efpoufe the Drudge?
The Hypocrite, the Legalift does fin,
To live on Duties, not on Chrift therein.
He only feeds on empty Dishes, Plates,
Who doats on Means, but at the Manna frets.
Let never Means content thy Soul at all,,
Without the Husband, who is all in all.
Cry daily for the happy Marriage-Hour,
To thee belongs the Mean, to him the Power..
A Call to believe in JESUS CHRIST, with fome Hint at the Act and Object of Faith.
Riend, is the Queftion on thy Heart engrav'd,
What shall I do to be for ever fav'd?
Lo! here's a living Rock to build upon;
Believe in Jefus ; and on him alone
For Righteoufnefs and Strength thine Archor drop, Renouncing all thy former legal Hope.
"Believe (fay you) I can no more believe,
"Than keep the Law ofWorks the DO and LIVE."
True, and it were thy Mercy, didst thou see,
Thine utter want of all Ability.
New Cov'nant Graces he alone can grant,
Whom God has given to be the Covenant;
E'en Jefus, whom the facred Letters call
Faith's Object, Author, Finisher, and all;
In him alone, not in thy Act of Faith,
Thy Soul believing full Salvation hath.
In this new Cov'nant judge not Faith to hold?
The Room of perfect Doing in the Old.
Faith is not given to be the fed'ral Price
Of other Bleffings, or of Paradise.
But Heav'n, by giving this; ftrikes out a Door,
At which is carried in ftill more and more.
No Sinner muft upon his Faith lay Stress,
As if it were a perfect Righteousness.
God ne'er affign'd unto it fuch a Place,
'Tis but at best a bankrupt begging Grace.
Its Object makes its Fame to fly abroad,
So clofe it gripes the Righteousness of God,
Which Righteousness receiv'd, is (without Strife) The true Condition of eternal Life.
But ftill (fay you) Power to believe I miss.
You may; but know you what believing is?
Faith lies not in your building up a Tower,
Of fome great Action by your proper Power.
For Heav'n well knows, that by the killing Fall,
No Power, no Will remains in Man at all
For Acts divinely good; 'till fovereign Grace
By powerful drawing Virtue turned the Chafe.
Hence none believe in Jefus, as they ought,
'Till once they firft believe they can do nought,
Nor are fufficient e'en to form a Thought.
They're confcious in the right-believing Hour,
Of human Weakness, and of divine Power.
Faith acts not in the Senfe of Strength and Might,
But in the Senfe of Weakness acts out-right.
It is (no boafting Arm of Power or Length)
But Weakness acting on Almighty Strength.
It is the powerlefs, helpless Sinner's Flight
Into the open Arms of faving Might,
'Tis an employing Jefus to do all,
That can within Salvation's Compass fall;
To be the Agent kind in every thing,
Belonging to a Prophet, Prieft, and King;
To teach, to pardon, fanctify, and fave,
And nothing to the Creature's Power to leave.
Faith makes us joyfully content, that he
Our Head, our Husband, and our All should be,
Our Righteousness and Strength, our Stock and Store
Our Fund for Food, and Raiment, Grace, and Glore..
It makes the Creature down to nothing fall,
Content that Chrift alone be all in all.
The Plan of Grace is Faith's delightful View,
With which it closes both as Good and True.
Unto the Truth, the Mind's Affent is full,
Unto the Good a free confenting Will.
The Holy Spirit here the Agent chief,
Creates this Faith, and dafhes Unbelief.
That very God who calls us to believe,
The very Faith he feeks, muft alfo give.
Why calls he then? (fay you) pray, Man, be wife;
Why did ye call dead Lazarus to rife?
Because the Orders in their Bofom bear,
Almighty Power to make the Carcase hear.
But Heav'n may not this mighty Power difplay?
Moft true; yet ftill thou art oblig'd t' obey,
But God is not at all oblig'd to stretch
His faving Arm to fuch a finful Wretch.
All who within Salvation-Rolls have place,
Are fav'd by a Prerogative of Grace:
But Veffels all that fhall with Wrath be cramm'd,
Are by an Act of holy Juftice damn'd.
Take then, dear Soul, as from a friendly Heart,
The Counsel which the following Lines impart.
An Advice to Sinners to apply to the Sovereign Mercy of God, as is discover'd through CHRIST, to the highest Honour of Justice and other divine Attributes, in order to further their Faith in him unto Salvation.
O, Friend, and at Jehovah's Footstool bow, Thou know'ft not what a Sov'reign God maydo, Confefs, if he commiferate thy Cafe,
'Twill be an Act of powerful Sov'reign Grace.
Sequeftrate carefully fome folemn Hours,
To fue thy grand Concern in fecret Bowers.
Then in th' enfuing Strain to God impart,
And pour into his Bofom all thy Heart.
"O glorious, gracious, powerful, Sov'reign Lord, "Thy Help unto a finful Worm afford;
"Who from my wretched Birth to this fad Hour, "Have still been deftitute of Will and Power,
To close with glorious Chrift; yea fill'd with spite "At thy fair Darling, and thy Saints Delight, "Refifting all his Grace with all my Might. "Come, Lord, and fap my Enmity's ftrong Tower; "O hafte the Marriage-Day, the Day of Power; "That sweetly by refiftlefs Grace inclin'd, "My once reluctant be a willing Mind. "Thou speak'ft to Being every Thing we fee, "When thy Almighty Will faid, Let it be; Nothing to Being in a Moment pass,
Let there be Light, thou faidft, and fo it was. "A pow'rful Word like this, a mighty Call, "Muft fay, let there be Faith, and then it fhall. "Thou feek'ft my Faith and Flight from Sin and Guilt, "Give what thou feek'ft, Lord, then feek what thou
"What Good can iffue from a Root fo ill, "This Heart of mine's a wicked Lump of Hell; ""Twill all thy common Motions still refift, Unless with fpecial drawing Virtue bleft. "Thou calls, but with the Call thy Pow'r convey; "Command me to believe, and I'll obey, "Nor any more thy gracious Call gainfay. "Command, O Lord, effectually command, "And grant I be not able to withstand, "Then powerless I will stretch the wither'd Hand. "I to thy Favour can pretend no Claim, "But what is borrow'd from thy glorious Name; "Which tho' moft juftly thou may'ft glorify, "In damning fuch a guilty Wretch as me, "A Faggot fitted for the burning Fire "Of thine incenfed everlafting Ire:
"Yet, Lord, fince now I hear thy glorious Son, "In favour of a Race that was undone,
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