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But most unfafely in a fœd'ral dress,
Confounding terms of life with means of grace.
Oh! dang'rous is th' attempt proud flesh to please,
Or fend a finner to the law for eafe;

Who rather needs to feel its piercing dart,.
'Till dreadful pangs invade his trembling heart;
And thither only fhould be fent for flames
Of fire to burn his rotten hopes and claims;
That thus difarm'd, he gladly may embrace,
And grafp with eagerness the news of grace.

SECT. V.

The Gospel of divine Grace the only means of converting finners; and fhould be preached therefore moft clearly, fully, and freely.

THEY ought, who royal grace's heralds be,
To trumpet loud falvation, full and free;

Nor fafely can, to humour mortal pride,
In filence evangelic myft'ries hide.

What heav'n is pleas'd to give, dare we refufe;
Or under ground conceal, left men abuse?
Supprefs the gofpel flow'r, upon pretence
That fome vile fpiders may fuck poifon thence?
Chrift is a ftumbling-block*, fhall we neglect
To preach him, left the blind fhould break their neck?
That high he's for the fall of many fet

As well as for the rife t, muft prove no let.
No grain of precious truth muft be fuppreft,
Tho' reprobates fhould to their ruin wreft.

Shall heav'n's corrufcant lamp be dimm'd, that pays
Its daily tribute down in golden rays?

Becaufe fome, blinded with the blazing gleams,
Share not the pleasure of the lightning beams.
Let thofe be hardned, petrify'd, and harm'd,
The reft are mollify'd and kindly warm'd.
A various favour, flowers in grace's field,
Of life to fume, of death to others yield.
Muft then the rofe be vail'd, the lily hid,
The fragrant favour ftifled? God forbid.
† Luke ii. 54.
2 Cor. ii. 16.

* 1 Cor. i. 23.

The revelation of the gofpel-flow'r,
Is ftill the organ fram'd of faving pow'r :
Moft juftly then are legal minds condemn'd,
That of the glorious gofpel are asham'd:
For this the divine arm, and only this,
"The pow'r of God unto falvation is *.
For therein is reveal'd, to fcreen from wrath,
The righteousness of God, from faith to faith?"
The happy change in guilty finner's cafe
They owe to free difplays of fov'reign grace;
Whofe joyful tidings of amazing love
The miniftration of the Spirit prove.

The glorious vent the gofpel-news exprefs,
Of God's free grace, thro' Chrift's full righteoufnefs,
Is Heav'n's gay chariot, where the Spirit bides,
And in his conqu'ring pow'r triumphant rides.
The gofpel-field is ftill the Spirit's foil,
The golden pipe that bears the holy oil;
The orb where he outfhines the radiant fun,
The filver channel where his graces run.
Within the gofpel-banks his flowing tide
Of lightning, quickning motions fweetly glide.
"Received ye the Spirit, fcripture faith †,
By legal works, or by the word of faith?"
If by the gospel only, then let none
Dare to be wifer than the wifeft One.

We muft, who freely get, as freely give
The vital word that makes the dead to live.
For ev'n to finners dead within our reach
We in his living name may moft fuccefsful preach.
The Spirit and the fcripture both agree
Jointly (fays Chrift) to teflify of me ‡.

The preacher then will from his text decline,
That fcorns to harmonize with this design.
Prefs moral duties to the last degree?
Why not? but mind, left we fuccefslefs be,
No light, no hope, nor ftrength for duties fpring,
Where Jefus is not Prophet, Prieft, and King.
No light to fee the way, unless he teach;
No joyful hope, fave in his blood we reach;
No ftrength, unless his royal arm he stretch.

Rom. i. 16, 17. + Gal. iii. 2.

John xv. 26. v. 39.

Then from our leading fcope how grofs we fall,
If, like his name, in ev'ry gofpel-call,

We make not him the First, the Laft, the All*!
Our office is to bear the radiant torch,
Of gofpel-light, into the dark'ned porch
Of human understandings, and display
The joyful dawn of everlafting day;
To draw the golden chariot of free grace,
The dark'ned fhades with fhining rays to chafe,
'Till Heav'n's bright lamp on circling wheels be hurl'd,
With sparkling grandeur round the dufky world;
And thus to bring, in dying mortals fight,
New life and immortality to light †.

We're charg'd to preach the gospel, unconfin'd,
To ev'ry creature of the human kind;
To call, with tenders of falvation free,
All corners of the earth to come and fee +:
And ev'ry finner muft excufeless make,
By urging rich and poor to come and take **:

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Ho, ev'ry one that thirfts tt," is grace's call
Direct to needy finners great and fmall;

Not meaning thofe alone, whofe holy thirst
Denominates their fouls already bleft.

If only thofe were call'd, then none but faints;
Nor would the gofpel fuit the finner's wants.
But here the call does fignally import
Sinners and thirfty fouls of every fort;
And mainly to their door the meffage brings,
Who yet are thirfting after empty things;

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Who fpend their means no living bread to buy, And pains for that which cannot fatisfy.'

Such thirsty finners here invited are,

Who vainly spend their money, thought, and care,
On paffing fhades, vile lufts and trafh, fo bafe
As yield the immortal fouls no true folace.
The call directs them, as they would be bleft,
To chufe a purer object of their thirft.
All are invited by the joyful found

To drink who need, as does the parched ground,

* Rev. i. 11. Col. ii. 11. † 2 Tim. i. 10. Ifa. xiv. 22. John i. 39. 45.

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** Rev. xxii. 17.

Mark xvi. 15.

tt Ifa.lv. 1, 2.

Whofe wide-mouth'd clefts fpeak to the brazen sky
Its paffive thirit without an active cry,
The gofpel-preacher then with holy kill
Mult offer Chrift to whofover will,

To finners of all forts that can be nam'd;

The blind, the lame, the poor, the halt, the maim'd *.
Not daring to restrict th' extenfive call,
But op'ning wide the net to catch 'em all.
No foul must be excluded that will come,
Nor right of accefs be confin'd to fome,

Though none will come till confcious of their want,
Yet right to come they have by fov'reign grant;
Such right to Chrift, his promife, and his grace,
That all are damn'd who hear and don't embrace:
So freely is th' unbounded call difpens'd,
We therein find ev'n finners unconvinc'd;
Who know not they are naked, blind and poor †,
Gounfell'd to buy, or beg at Jefus' door,

And take the glorious robe, eye-falve, and golden ftore.
This prize they are oblig'd by faith to win,
Elfe unbelief would never be their fin.
Yea, gofpel-offers but a fham we make,
If ev'ry finner has not right to take :
Be gofpel-heralds fortify'd from this
To trumpet grace, how'er the ferpent hifs.
Did hell's malicious mouth in dreadful fhape
'Gainft innocence itfelf malignant gape;
Then facred truth's devoted vouchers may
For dire reproach their measures conftant lay.
With cruel calumny of old commenc'd,
This feet will ev'ry-where be spoke against ‡.
While to and fro he runs the earth across
Whofe name is ADELPHON KATEGOROS .
In fpite of hell be then our conftant ftrife
To win the glorious Lamb a virgin-wife..

Luke xiv. 21. + Rev. iii. 17, 18. Acts xxviii. 224
+ Or, The accufer of the brethren, Rev. xii. 10.
+ G

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An Exbortation to all that are out of CHRIST; in order to their cl fing the match with him: containing alf motives and directions.

READER into thine hands thefe lines are giv❜n,

But not without the providence of heav'n;
Or to advance thy blifs, if thou art wife;
Or aggravate thy wo, if thou defpife.
Fr'thee, for thee, perhaps the omniscient ken
Has form'd the counfel here, and led the pen.
The writer then does thy attention plead,
In his great name that gave thee eyes to read.

SECT. I.

Conviction offered to finners, especially fuch as are wedde Strictly to the law, or felf-righteous, that they may f the need of CHRIST's righteoufnefs.

F never yet thou didst fair Jefus wed,

IF

Nor yield thy heart to be his marriage bed;
But hitherto are wedded to the law,

Which never could thy chain'd affections draw
From brutish lufts and fordid lovers' charms;
Lo! thou art yet in Satan's folded arms.
Hell's pow'r invifible thy foul retains
His captive flave, lock'd up in maffy chains.
O finner, then, as thou regard'ft thy life,
Seek, feek with ardent care and earnest firife
To be the glorious Lamb's betrothed wife.
For bafe corrivals never let him I fe
Thy heart, his bed of conjugal repose.
Wed Chrift alone, and with fevere remorfe
Fr mther mates purfue a clean divorce;
For they thy ruin feek by fraud or force.
As lurking ferpents in the fhady bow'rs
Conceal their malice under fpreading flow'rs;
So thy deceitful lufts with cruel spite
Hide ghafly danger under gay delight.

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