Black hatred for his cover'd love repays,
Pride under mafk of modefty difplays:

In part would fave herfelf; hence, faucy foul !
Rejects the matchlefs mate would fave in whole.

SECT. II.

Conviction of fin and wrath, carried on more deeply and effectually in the beart.

So proudly forward is the bride, and now,

Stern Heav'n begins to ftare with cloudier brow; Law-curfes come with more condemning pow'r, To fcorch her confcience with a fiery fhow'r, And more refulgent flashes darted in ; For by the law the knowledge is of fin*. Black Sinai, thund'ring louder than before, Does awful in her lofty bofom roar.

Heav'n's furious ftorms now rife from ev'ry airth t,

In ways more terrible to fhake the earth 4,
'Till haughtinefs of men be funk thereby,
That Chrift alone may be exalted high.
Now, ftable earth feems from her centre toft,
And lofty mountains in the ocean loft,
Hard rocks of flint, and haughty hills of pride,
Are torn in pieces by the roaring tide.
Each flash of new conviction's lucid rays,
Heart-errors, undifcern'd till now, difplays;
Wrath's 'maffy cloud upon the confcience breaks,
And thus menacing, Heav'n in thunder fpeaks;
"Black wretch, thou madly under foot hast trode
"Th' authority of a commanding God;
"Thou, like thy kindred that in Adam fell,
"Art but a law-renverfing lump of hell,

"And there by law and justice doom'd to dwell."
Now, now, the daunted bride her flate bewails,
And downward furls her felf-exalting fails;
With pungent fear, and piercing terror brought
To mortify her lofty legal thought.

*Rom. iii. 20. † Wind, or quarter. Ifa. ii. 17. 19.

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

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.

Her heart, where once the thought fome good to dwell,
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 defpair.
Her haunted fhelter-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 fwept away, and all her boafting dies.
She once imagin'd Heav'n would be unjuft
To damn fo many lumps of human duft,
Form'd by himfelf; but now fhe owns it true,
Damnation furely is the finner's due:

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

Herself adjudging to the lowest pit.

Her language, "Oh! if God condemn, I muft "From bottom of my foul declare him juft.

Rom. vii. 9.

+ E

"But if his great falvation me embrace,
"How loudly will I fing furprising grace?
"If from the pit he to the throne me raife,
"I'll rival angels in his endless praise.

"If hell deferving me to heaven 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.

66

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 fhe becomes, her mouth is ftopp'd.
Pungent remorfe does her paft conduct blame,
And flufh her confcious cheek with fpreading fhame.
Her felf-concited heart is felf-convict'd,

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.
Extol her nat❜ral pow'rs, is now brought down,
Her former madnefs, not her pow'rs, to own.
Her prefent beggar ftate, most void of grace,
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.

The deeply humbled foul relieved with fome faving difcoveries of Chrift the Redeemer.

WHEN thus the wounded bride perceives full well

Herself the vileft finner out of hell,

The blackeft 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 atheifm, enmity, and hell;
When endless death and ruin feems at hand,
And yet the cannot for her foul command
A figh to eafe it, or a gracious thought,
Tho' heav'n could at this petty rate be bought.
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 outmoft brink of wo.
Ah! weary cafe! But, lo! in this fad plight
The fun arifes with furprising light.

The darkeft midnight is his ufual time
Of rifing and appearing in his prime.

*

To fhew the hills from whence falvation fprings,
And chafe the gloomy fhade 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 ranfom to the uttermoft; †
To feek the vagrant fheep to defart driv'n,
And fave from lowest hell to highest heav'n.
Her doleful cafe he fees, his bowels move,
And make her time of need a 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 every attribute of fin.
With wifdom fin's great folly to expofe,
And righteoufnefs its chain of guilt to loofe,

John i. 14. Heb. vii. 25. Ezek. xvi. 6. 8. Mat. i. 21.

Sanctification to fubdue its fway,

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 bare from fin and wo,
But thence all pofitive falvations flow,
To make her wife, juft, holy, happy too.
He now appears a match exactly meet,
To make her every way in him complete,
In whom the fulnefs of the Godhead dwells †,
That the may boast in him, and nothing else.
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 revenging fury whole appeas'd:
Law-precepts magnifv'd by her belov'd,
And ev'ry let to flop the match remov❜d.
Now in her view the prifon-gates break ope,
Wide to the walls flies up the door of hope;
And now the fees with pleasure unexpreft
For fhatter'd barks a happy fhore of reft.

SECT. IV.

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

HE bride at Sinai little understood,

THE

How thefe law-humblings were defign'd for good, T'enhance the value of the Hufband's blood. 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 ftraight perhaps behind the plough 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,

* 1 Cor. i. 30. + Col. ii. 9, 10.