PART I.

THE BELIEVER'S ESPOUSALS.

A POEM

UPON ISAIAH liv. 5. Thy Maker is thy Husband

PREFACE..

HARK, dying mortal, if the Sonnet prove
A fong of living and immortal love,

"Tis then thy grand concern the theme to know,
If life and immortality be fo.

Are eyes to read, or ears to hear a trust?'

Shall both in death be cramm'd anon with duft?
Then trifle not to please thine ear and eye,
But read thou, hear thou, for eternity.
Purfue not fhadows wing'd, but be thy chafe
The God of glory, on the field of

grace:
The mighty hunter's name is loft and vain,
That runs not this substantial prize to gain.
Thefe humble lines affume no high pretence,,
To please thy fancy, or allure thy fense:
But aim, if everlafting life's thy chase,

To clear thy mind, and warm thy heart thro' grace.
A marriage fo myfterious I proclaim,
Betwixt two parties of fuch diff'rent fame,
That human tongues may blush their names to tell,
To wit, the Prince of Heav'n, the heir of hell!
But, on fo vaft a fubject, who can find

Words fuiting the conceptions of his mind?
Or, if our language with our thought could vie,
What mortal thought can raise itself fo high?

When words and thoughts both fail, may faith and pray'r
Afcend, by. climbing up the fcripture ftair :
From facred writ thefe ftrong espousals may
Be explicated in the foll'wing way.

CHAP. I.

A general account of Man's fall in Adam, and the remedy provided in Christ: and a particular account of Man's being naturally wedded to the law, as a covenant of works.

SECT. I. The fall of Adam.

OLD Adam once a heav'n of pleasure found,
While he with perfect innocence was crown'd;
His wing'd affections to his God could move
In raptures of defire, and ftrains of love.
Man, ftanding fpotlefs, pure, and innocent,
Could well the law of works with works content;
Though then, (nor fince,) it could demand no lefs
Than perfonal and perfect righteoufnefs:
Thefe, unto finlefs man were easy terms,
Though now beyond the reach of wither'd arms;
The legal cov'nant then upon the field,
Perfection fought, man could perfection yield.
Rich had he, and his progeny, remain'd,
Had he primeval innocence maintain’d :
His life had been a reft without annoy,
A fcene of blifs, a paradise of joy.
But fubtile Satan, in the ferpent hid,
Propofing fair the fruit that God forbid,
Man foon feduc'd by hell's alluring art,
Did, difobedient, from the rule depart;
Devour'd the bait, and, by his bold offence,
Fell from his blissful ftate of innocence.*
Proftrate, he loft his God, his life, his crown,
From all his glory tumbled headlong down;
Plung'd in a deep abyfs of fin and wo,
Where, void of heart to will, or hand to do,
For 's own relief he can't command a thought,
The total fum of what he can is nought.

Gen. iii, 1-6.

He's able only now t' increase his thrall;
He can deftroy himself, and that is all.
But can the hellish brat Heav'n's law fulfil,
Whofe precepts high furmount his ftrength and skill?
Can filthy drofs produce a golden beam?
Or poifon'd springs a falutif'rous stream?
Can carnal minds, fierce enmity's wide maw,
Be duly fubject to the divine law?

Nay, now its direful threat'nings must take place
On all the difobedient human race,

Who do by guilt Omnipotence provoke,
Obnoxious ftand to his uplifted stroke.
They must ingulph themselves in endless woes,
Who to the living God are deadly foes;
Who natively his holy will gainsay,
Muft to his awful justice fall a prey.
In vain do mankind now expect, in vain
By legal deeds immortal life to gain:

Nay, death is threaten'd, threats must have their due,
Or fouls that fin muft die, as God is true.

SECT. II. Redemption through Chrift.

THE fecond Adam, fov'reign Lord of all,
Did, by his Father's authorifing call,
From bofom of eternal love defcend,
To fave the guilty race that him offend;
To treat an everlasting peace with those
Who were and ever would have been his foes.
His errand, never ending life to give

To them, whofe malice would not let him live;
To make a match with rebels, and efpoufe
The brat which at his love her fpite avows.
Himself he humbled to depress her pride,
And make his mortal foe his loving bride.
But, ere the marriage can be folemniz'd,
All lets must be remov'd, all parties pleas'd.
Law righteoufnefs requir'd, must be procur'd,
Law vengeance threaten'd, must be full endur'd,

* Ezek. xviii. 4.

Stern justice must have credit by the match,
Sweet mercy by the heart the bride must catch.
Poor bankrupt! all her debt must first be paid,
Her former husband in the grave be laid:
Her present lover must be at the cost,
To fave and ransom to the uttermost ;
If all these things this fuitor kind can do,
Then he may win her, and her bleffing too.

Hard terms indeed! while death's the firft demand;
But love is ftrong as death,* and will not stand

To carry on the fuit, and make it good,
Though at the dearest rate of wounds and blood.
The burden's heavy, but the back is broad,
The glorious lover is the mighty God.t
Kind bowels yearning in th' eternal Son,
He left his Father's court, his heav'nly throne:
Afide he threw his most divine array,
And wrapt his Godhead in a veil of clay.
Angelic armies, who in glory crown'd,
With joyful harps his awful throne furround,
Down to the cryftal frontier of the sky,
To fee the Saviour born, did eager fly;
And ever fince behold with wonder fresh
Their Sov'reign and our Saviour wrapt in flesh.
Who in his garb did mighty love display,
Reftoring what he never took away,§

To God his glory, to the law its due,
To heav'n its honour, to the earth its hue,
To man a righteousness divine, complete,
A royal robe to fuit the nuptial rite.

He in her favours, whom he lov'd fo well,
At once did purchase heav'n, and vanquish hell.
Oh! unexampled love! fo vaft, so strong,
So great, fo high, fo deep, fo broad, fo long!
Can finite thought this ocean huge explore,.
Unconscious of a bottom or a shore?
His love admits no parallel; for why?

At one great draught of love he drank hell dry.

No drop of wrathful gall he left behind;
No dreg to witness that he was unkind.
The fword of awful juftice pierc'd his fide,
That mercy thence might gufh upon the bride.
The meritorious labours of his life,

And glorious conquefts of his dying ftrife;
Her debt of doing, fuff'ring, both cancell'd,
And broke the bars his lawful captive held.
Down to the ground the hellifh hoft he threw,
Then mounting high the trump of triumph blew,
Attended with a bright feraphic band,

Sat down enthron'd fublime on God's right hand;
Where glorious choirs their various harps employ,
To found his praises with confed'rate joy.
There he, the bride's strong interceffor, fits,
And thence the bleffing of his blood tranfmits,
Sprinkling all o'er the flaming throne of God,
Pleads for her pardon his atoning blood;
Sends down his holy co-eternal Dove,
To fhew the wonders of incarnate love,
To woo and win the bride's reluctant heart,
And pierce it with this kinkly killing dart ;
By gofpel light to manifest that now
She has no further with the law to do;
That her new Lord has loos'd the fed'ral tie,
That once hard bound her, or to do or die;
That precepts, threats, no fingle mite can crave.
Thus for her former spouse he digg'd a grave;
The law fast to his crofs did nail and pin,
Then bury'd the defunct his tomb within,
That he the lonely widow to himself might win..

SECT. III. Man's Legal Difpofition.

BUT, after all, the bride's fo mal-content,
No argument, fave pow'r, is prevalent
To bow her will, and gain her heart's confent.
The glorious Prince's fuit fhe disapproves,
The law, her old primordial husband, loves;
Hopeful in its embraces life to have,

Though dead and bury'd in her fuitor's grave;