Now, now, the daunted bride her state bewails,
And downward furls her felf-exalting fails;
With pungent fear, and piercing terror brought
To mortify her lofty legal thought.

Why, the commandment comes, fin is reviv'd*
That lay fo hid, while to the law the liv'd;
Infinite majefty in God is then,

And infinite malignity in fin;
That to its expiation muft amount,
A facrifice of infinite account.
Juftice its dire feverity difplays,
The law its vaft dimenfions open lays.
She fees for this broad ftandard nothing meet,
Save an obedience finlefs and complete.
Her cob-web righteoufnefs, once in renown,
Is with a happy vengeance now fwept down.
She who of daily faults could once but prate,
Sees now her finful, miferable state. [to dwell,
Her heart, where once fhe thought fome good:
The devil's cab'net fill'd with trafh of hell.
Her boafted features now unmasked bare,
Her vaunted hopes are plung'd in deep despair.
Her haunted helter-houfe in bypast years,
Comes tumbling down about her frighted ears.
Her former rotten faith, love, penitence,
She fees a bowing wall, and tott'ring fence.
Excellencies of thought, and word and deed,
All fwimming, drowning in a fea of dread;
Her beauty now deformity fhe deems,
Her heart much blacker than the devil feems.
With ready lips fhe can herfelf declare
The vileft ever breath'd in vital air.
Her former hopes, as refuges of lies,
Are swept away, and all her boafting dies,

* Rom. vii. 9.

She once imagin'd Heav'n would be unjuft
To damn fo many lumps of human duft,
Form'd by himself; but now fhe owns it true,
Damnation furely is the finner's due:

Yea, now applauds the law's juft doom fo well,
That juftly the condemns herself to hell;
Does herein divine equity acquit,

Herfelf adjudging to the lowest pit.

Her language, Oh! if God condemn, I must
From bottom of my foul declare him juft.
But if his great falvation me embrace,

How loudly will I fing furprifing grace!
If from the pit he to the throne me raise,
I'll rival angels in his endless praife.
• If hell-deferving me to heav'n he bring,
No heart fo glad, no tongue fo loud fhall fing.
If wifdom has not laid the faving plan,
I nothing have to claim, I nothing can.
'My works but fin, my merit death I fee;
'Oh! mercy, mercy, mercy! pity me.'
Thus all felf-juftifying pleas are dropp'd,
Moft guilty the becomes, her mouth is stopp'd,
Pungent remorfe does her paft conduct blame,
And flufh her confcious cheek with spreading
Her felf-conceited heart is felf-convict [fhame.,
With barbed arrows of compunction prick'd:
Wonders, how juftice fpares her vital breath,
How patient Heav'n adjourns the day of wrath;
How pliant earth does not with open jaws
Devour her, Korah-like, for equal caufe;
How yawning hell, that gapes for fuch a prey,
Is fruftrate with a further hour's delay.
She that could once her mighty works exalt,
And boaft devotion fram'd without a fault,

grace,

Extol her natiral pow'rs, is now brought down,
Her former madness, not her pow'rs, to own.
Her prefent beggar'd ftate, most void of
Unable even to wail her woful cafe,
Quite pow'rlefs to believe, repent, or pray ;
Thus pride of duties flies and dies away.
She, like a harden'd wretch, a ftupid ftone,
Lies in the duft, and cries, Undone, Undone.

SECT. III.

The deeply bumbled foul RELIEVED with fome fav ing difcoveries of CHRIST the Redeemer.

WHE

HEN thus the wounded bride perceives full well

Herfelf the vileft finner out of hell,

The blackest monfter in the universe;
Penfive if clouds of wo fhall e'er difperfe.
When in her breaft Heav'n's wrath fo fiercely
glows,

'Twixt fear and guilt her bones have no repofe.
When flowing billows of amazing dread
Swell to a deluge o'er her finking head;
When nothing in her heart is found to dwell,
But horrid Atheism, enmity, and hell;
When endless death and ruin feems at hand,
And yet fhe cannot for her foul command.
A figh to eafe it, or a gracious thought, [bought.
Though heav'n could at this petty rate be
When darkness and confufion overcloud,
And unto black defpair temptations croud;
When wholly without ftrength to move or ftir,
And not a ftar by night appears to her:
But fhe, while to the brim her troubles flow,
Stands, trembling on the, utmost brink of wo.

Ah! weary cafe! But, lo! in this fad plight The fun arifes with furprifing light." The darkeft midnight is his nfual time Of rifing and appearing in his prime. To fhew the hills from whence falvation fprings, And chafe the gloomy fhades with golden wings, The glorious Hufband now unvails his face, And thews his glory full of truth and grace*; Prefents unto the bride, in that dark hour, Himself a Saviour, both by price and pow'r: A mighty helper to redeem the loft, Relieve and ranform to the uttermoft † ; To feek the vagrant fheep to deferts driv'n, And fave from loweft hell to highest heav'n, Her doleful cafe he fees, his bowels move, And makes her time of need his time of love; He fhews, to prove himfelf her mighty fhield, His name is JESUS, by his Father feal'd ||: A name with attributes engrav'd within, To fave from ev'ry attribute of fin. With wifdom fin's great folly to expose, And righteoufnefs its chain of guilt to loose, Sanctification to fubdue its way,

}

Redemption all its woful brood to flay §.
Each golden letter of his glorious name
Bears full deliv'rance both from fin and shame..
Yea, not privation bear from fin and wo,
But thence all politive falvations flow,
To make her wife, just, holy, happy too.
He now appears a match exactly meet
To make her ev'ry way in him complete,
In whom the fulness of the Godhead dwells*,
That the may boaft in him, and nothing else.

* John i 14.
| Matt. i. 21.

+ Heb. vii. 25.

§ 1 Cor. i. 30.

Ezek. xvi. 6, 8. * Col. ii, 10.

In gofpel lines fhe now perceives the dawn
Of Jefus' love with bloody pencil drawn ;
How God in him is infinitely pleas'd,
And Heav'n's avenging fury whole appeas'd:
Law-precepts magnify'd by her belov'd,
And ev'ry let to stop the match remov'd.
Now in her view her prifon gates break ope,
Wide to the walls flies up the door of hope;
And now the fees with pleasure unexprefs'd
For fhatter'd barks a happy fhore of reft.

SECT. IV.

The working of the Spirit of faith in feparating the heart from all felf-righteousness, and drawing out its confent to, and defire after CHRIST alone and wholly.

HE bride at Sinai little understood,

THE

How these law humblings were defign'd

for good,

T'enhance the value of her Hufband's blood. J The tow'r of tott'ring pride thus batter'd down, Makes way for Chrift alone to wear the crown. Conviction's arrows pierc'd her heart, that fo The blood from his pierc'd heart, to hers might flow.

The law's harp plough tears up the fallow ground,

Where not a grain of grace was to be found,
Till straight perhaps behind the plow is fown
The hidden feed of faith, as yet unknown.
Hence now the once reluctant bride's inclin'd
To give the gofpel an affenting mind,
Difpos'd to take, would grace the pow'r impart,
Heav'n's offer with a free confenting heart.