55. LOVE CONSTRAINING TO OBEDIENCE.

O ftrength of nature can suffice

To ferve the Lord aright:

And what she has she misapplies,

For want of clearer light.

How long beneath the law I lay
In bondage and distress;

I toil'd the precept to obey,

But toil'd without fuccefs.

Then, to abstain from outward fin

Was more than I could do;

Now, if I feel its

power within,

I feel I hate it too.

Then all my fervile works were done

A righteousness to raise;

Now, freely chosen in the Son,

I freely choose his

ways.

"What shall I do," was then the word,

"That I may worthier

grow?"

"What shall I render to the Lord?"

Is my inquiry now.

To fee the law by Chrift fulfill'd,

And hear his pardoning voice, Changes a flave into a child,* And duty into choice.

56. THE HEART HEALED AND CHANGED BY MERCY.

IN enflaved me many years,

And led me bound and blind;
Till at length a thousand fears
Came fwarming o'er my mind.
"Where," faid I, in deep diftrefs,
"Will these finful pleasures end?
How fhall I fecure my peace,

And make the Lord my friend?"

Friends and minifters faid much
The gospel to enforce ;

But

my blindness still was fuch,

I chose a legal course :

Much I fafted, watch'd, and strove,

Scarce would show my face abroad,
Fear'd almost to speak or move,
A ftranger ftill to God.

Thus afraid to trust his grace,
Long time did I rebel;
Till defpairing of my cafe,
Down at his feet I fell :
Then my ftubborn heart he broke,

And fubdued me to his fway;

By a fimple word he spoke,

Thy fins are done away."

57. HATRED OF SIN.

OLY Lord God! I love thy truth,
Nor dare thy leaft commandment

flight;

Yet pierced by fin, the serpent's tooth,
I mourn the anguish of the bite.

But though the poison lurks within,
Hope bids me ftill with patience wait;
Till death shall fet me free from fin,
Free from the only thing I hate.

Had I a throne above the rest,

Where angels and archangels dwell, my breast,

One fin, unflain, within

Would make that heaven as dark as hell.

The prisoner fent to breathe fresh air,

And blefs'd with liberty again,

Would mourn, were he condemn'd to wear

One link of all his former chain.

But, oh! no foe invades the bliss,

When glory crowns the Christian's head;

One view of Jefus as He is

Will ftrike all fin for ever dead.

58. THE NEW CONVERT.

HE new-born child of gospel grace,
Like fome fair tree when fummer's

nigh,

Beneath Emmanuel's fhining face
Lifts up his blooming branch on high.

No fears he feels, he fees no foes,
No conflict yet his faith employs,
Nor has he learnt to whom he owes

The ftrength and peace his foul enjoys.

But fin foon darts its cruel fting,
And comforts finking day by day:
What feem'd his own, a felf-fed fpring,
Proves but a brook that glides away.

When Gideon arm'd his numerous hoft, The Lord foon made his numbers lefs; And faid, Left Ifrael vainly boast,*

My arm procured me this success.’

Thus will he bring our fpirits down,

And draw our ebbing comforts low, That faved by grace, but not our own, We may not claim the praise we owe.

Judges vii. 2.

59. TRUE AND FALSE COMFORTS.

GOD, whose favourable eye
The fin-fick foul revives,
Holy and heavenly is the joy

Thy shining presence gives.

Not fuch as hypocrites suppose,
Who with a graceless heart
Taste not of thee, but drink a dofe,
Prepared by Satan's art.

Intoxicating joys are theirs,

Who, while they boast their light,
And seem to foar above the stars,
Are plunging into night.

Lull'd in a soft and fatal sleep,
They fin and yet rejoice;
Were they indeed the Saviour's fheep,
Would they not hear his voice?

Be mine the comforts that reclaim
The foul from Satan's power;
That make me blush for what I am,
And hate my fin the more.

'Tis joy enough, my All in All,

At thy dear feet to lie;

Thou wilt not let me lower fall,

And none can higher fly.