It is the order, the eternal law, To them, who love its gracious author, all An easy key to each abstruser text, Sole rule of all affection due Both to ourselves, and others too; Meaning of ev'ry scripture text, By interested love perplext: Promise, or precept, gospel call, Or legal love, fulfils them all; From base arising up to spire, Superior both to fear and hire. Love of disinterested kind, The man who thinks it too refin'd May, by ambiguous language, still Persist in metaphysic skill; Even the justly fam'd Cambray, In such a case, could only pray, That love itself would only dart ON THE DISINTERESTED LOVE OF GOD. Some feeling proof into his heart. THE love of God with genuine ray When our redeeming Lord began For us he suffer'd, to make known Could bring poor sinners back to bliss; Of reuniting God and man. This love was Abra'm's shield and guard; They sought reward, or recompense, This the high calling, this the prize, What helps to this a soul may want, ON THE SAME SUBJECT. I LOVE my God, and freely too, I love, but this celestial fire, Me, nor the hopes of heav'nly bliss, Nor terrours of the dark abyss, Of death's eternal den, affright. No bought, and paid-for love be miue, I will have no demands to make; Disinterested, and divine Alone, that fear shall never shake. Thou, my Redeemer, from above, Suffering to such immense degree, Thy heart has kindled mine to love, That burns for nothing but for thee. Thy scourge, thy thorns, thy cross, thy wounds, Are ev'ry one of them a source, From whence the nourishment abounds Of endless Love's unfading force. These sacred fires, with holy breath, Raise in my mind the gen'rous strife; While, by the ensigns of thy death Known, I adore the Lord of life. Extinguish all celestial light, The fire of love will not go out; The flames of Hell extinguish quite, Be there no hope if it persist- Should'st thou give nothing for its pains, Let Heav'n be darken'd if it will, Let Hell with all its vengeance roar; My God alone remaining, still I'll love him, as I did before. ON THE MEANING OF THE WORD WRATH, THAT God is love-is in the scripture said; Fury" (he saith himself)" is not in me:" If scripture, therefore, must direct our faith, Love must be he, or in him; and not wrath. And yet the wrath of God, in scripture phrase, Is oft express'd, and many diff'rent ways: His anger, fury, vengeance, are the terms, Which the plain letter of the text affirms; And plain, from two of the apostle's quire, 'That God is love-and a consuming fire. If we consult the reasons that appear, To make the seeming difficulty clear, We must acknowledge, when we look above, That God, as God, is overflowing love: And wilful sinners, when we look below, Make (what is call'd) the wrath of God to flow. "Wrath," as St. Paul saith, "is the treasur'd If wrath and justice be indeed the same, God, in himself unchangeable, in fine, Is one, eternal light of love divine; "In him there is no darkness," saith St. John, In him no wrath-the meaning is all one: 'Tis our own darkness, wrath, sin, death, and Hell, Not to love him, who first lov'd us so well. That, when scripture assures us so plainly, that he, All wrath is the product of creaturely sin; left the state, In which Nature's God was pleas'd man to create. He saw, when this world in its purity stood, Every thing he had made, and "behold! it was good;" And the man, its one ruler, before his sad fall, To redeem the lost creature, he gave his own son Freely gave him; not mov'd or incited thereto By a previous appeasing, or payment of due To his wrath, or his vengeance, or any such cause As should satisfy him for the breach of his laws: This language the Jew Nicodemus might use; But our Saviour's to him had more excellent views; "God so lov'd the world," (are his words,)" that he gave His only-begotten" in order to save. Love's prior, unpurchas'd, unpaid-for intent Was the cause, why the only-begotten was sent, That thro' him we might live; and the cause why he came, Was to manifest love, ever one and the same; Might believe on the son, and receive a new birth From the love, that in Christ was incarnate on Earth; When a virgin brought forth, without help of a man, There is nothing that justice and righteousness hath More opposite to it, than anger and wrath; Such defect can be found in that creature alone, Which against his good will seeks to set up it's own; Then, to God, and his justice, it giveth the lie, And it's darkness and wrath are discover'd thereby: What, before, was subservient to life, in due place, Then usurps the dominion, and death is the case; Which the son of God only could ever subdue, By doing all that which love gave him to do. If the anger of God, fury, wrath, waxing hot, And the like human phrases that scripture has got, Be insisted upon, why not also the rest, Where God, in the language of men, is exprest In a manner, which, all are oblig'd to confess, No defect in his nature can mean to express? With a God, who is love, ev'ry word should agree; With a God, who hath said, "fury is not in me." The disorders in Nature, for none are in God, Are entitled his vengeance, his wrath, or his rod, Like his ice, or his frost, his plague, famine, or sword That the love, which directs them, may still be ador'd: Directs them, till justice, call'd his, or call'd ours, Shall regain, to our comfort, it's primitive pow'rs; The true, saving justice, that bids us endure What love shall prescribe, for effecting our cure. By a process of love, from the crib to the cross, Did the only-begotten recover our loss: And show in us men how the father is pleas'd, When the wrath in our nature by love is appeas'd; When the birth of his Christ, being formed within, Dissolves the dark death of all selfhood and sin; Till the love that so lov'd us, becomes, once again, From the father and son, a life-spirit in men. Now, tho' 'tis proof, indisputably plain, That all is right, which God shall once ordain; Yet, if a thought shall intervene between Things and commands, 'tis evidently seen That good will he commanded: men divide Nature and laws which really coincide. From the divine, eternal spirit springs Cudworth perceiv'd, that what divines advance Endless perfections, after all, conspire, ON THE NATURE AND REASON OF ALL OUTWARD LAW. The sabbath was made for man; not man for the sabbath. Mark ii, 27. FROM this true saying one may learn to draw THE TRUE GROUNDS OF ETERNAL AND Man was not made for law; but law for man. IMMUTABLE RECTITUDE. TH' eternal mind, e'en Heathens understood, For pow'r, from wisdom suff'ring a divorce, Yet some of old, and some of present hour, Ascribe to God an arbitrary pow'r; An absolute decree; a mere command, Which nothing causes, nothing can withstand: Wisdom and goodness scarce appear in sight; But all is measur'd by resistless might. The verbal question comes to this, in fine, Is good, or evil, made by will divine, Or such by nature? Does command enact What shall be right, and then 'tis so in fact? Or is it right, and therefore, we may draw From thence the reason of the righteous law? "Thou shalt not eat" (the first command of all) "Of good and ill," was to prevent his fall: When he became unfit to be alone, Woman was form'd out of his flesh and bone: When both had sinn'd, then penitential grief, And sweating labour, was the law relief. When all the world had sinn'd, save one good sire, Flood was the law that sav'd its orb from fire: Men who observe a law, or who abuse, Jesus, the perfect law-fulfiller, gave The victory that taught the law to save; Pluck'd out its sting, revers'd the cruel cry, "We have a law by which he ought to die"Dying for man, this conquest he could give, I have a law by which he ought to live. Whilst in the flesh, how oft did he reveal The sabbath, never so well kept before, Is blest for one who wants to be made whole; Not to indulge an eagerness too great, DIVINE LOVE, THE ESSENTIAL CHARACTERISTIC OF TRUE RE- RELIGION'S meaning when I would recall, On what it lets its inclination rest, Of all religions if we take a view, Nothing but gross idolatry alone The one unbounded, undivided good, For brutal instinct can a good embrace, Religion then is love's celestial force, Not to the skies or stars; but to the part There is the seat, as holy writings tell, An Heaven within, in other words, above. ON WORKS OF MERCY AND COMPASSION. Of true religion, works of mercy seem To be the plainest proof, in Christ's esteem; Then, they who gave poor hungry people meat, These will be deem'd religious men, to whom Then, they who gave the hungry poor no food; Who with no drink the parch'd with thirst bedew'd; Who drove the helpless stranger from their fold, These will be deem'd of irreligious mind; Here, all ye learned, full of all dispute, VERSES DESIGNED FOR AN INFIRMARY. DEAR loving sirs! behold, as ye pass by, Thus to bestow is really to obtain To help th' afflicted, in so great a need, In other cases, men may form a doubt, The wise consider this terrestrial ball, To heal man's nature, and to make him whole: A godlike work; who forwards it is sure, To them who tread the certain path to bliss, That leads thro' scenes of charity like this, Think what the Saviour of the world will say"Ye blessed of my father, come your way: 'Twas done to me, if done to the distrest: Come, ye true friends, and be for ever blest." AN HYMN TO JESUS. COME, Saviour Jesus! from above, Assist me with thy heav'nly grace; Withdraw my heart from worldly love, And for thyself prepare the place. Lord! let thy sacred presence fill, And set my longing spirit free; That pants to have no other will, But night and day to think on thee. Where'er thou leadest, I'll pursue, Thro' all retirements, or employs; But to the world I'll bid adieu, And all its vain delusive joys. That way with humble speed I'll walk, Wherein my Saviour's footsteps shine; Nor will I hear, nor will I talk Of any other love but thine. To thee my longing soul aspires; To thee I offer all my vows: Keep me from false and vain desires, My God, my Saviour, and my Spouse! Henceforth, let no profane delight Divide this consecrated soul! Possess it thou, who hast the right, As lord and master of the whole, Wealth, honours, pleasures, or what else This short-enduring world can give, Tempt as they will, my heart repells, To thee alone resolv'd to live. Thee one may love, and thee alone, With inward peace, and holy bliss; And when thou tak'st us for thy own, Oh! what an happiness is this! Nor Heav'n, nor Earth do I desire, Nor mysteries to be reveal'd; 'Tis love that sets my heart on fire: Speak thou the word, and I am heal'd. All other graces I resign; Pleas'd to receive, pleas'd to restore : Grace is thy gift, it shall be mine The giver only to adore. AN HYMN ON SIMPLICITY. JESU! teach this heart of mine Free from guile of every kind: When I read, or when I hear Truths that kindle good desires; What Heav'n-instrcted faith requires; Whilst I pray before thy face, Thou! who art my highest good! Purchas'd by thy precious blood: Give me, with a child-like mind, Pleases best my dearest Lord: Nor within me, nor without, Mere simplicity be guide: Simplicity guide me in word, and in will; Jesu! now I fix my heart, Prince of life, and source of bliss; Never from thee to depart, 'Till thy love shall grant me this: Then, then, shall my heart all its faculties raise, Both here, and hereafter, to sing to thy praise: O joyful! my Saviour says, "So let it be !" Amen, to my soul,-Hallelujah! to thee! |