What's In It For Me?

“WIIFM” This is the sacred cow of our capitalistic culture. Do you want to sell a product or service? The simple formula is that you need to show a prospective consumer all the benefits they can derive from buying your particular product or service. If you buy my brand of hair gel, men, then the ladies will fight each other for the chance to go out with you. You will prosper in everything you do. You’ll be a money magnet. In fact, this hair gel will literally give you the appearance of being 21. So if you’re too young, this will scream “man” (even if you’re 12). If you’re too old, this amazing product will take you back to the prime of your life. However, supplies are limited, so stock up today!

So, maybe hype and benefits may be acceptable in the consumer marketplace (though I even tire of seeing it there). However, more and more we are seeing this type of philosophy invading the church. In the “Word of Faith” camp, from whence I came, the emphasis is on your own personal “power” supposedly granted to you by the Holy Spirit. You no longer pray for the Lord to heal someone. Rather you simply “command” it to be done, with the obligatory magic words, “…in the name of Jesus…” tacked on to the end. Personal prophecies abound promising children to barren women, financial gain to the down and out, and supernatural healing to those in chronic pain. What’s not to like about this message? After all, it’s all about me, isn’t it?

Unfortunately this “me driven” mentality is not isolated to the ”Health, Wealth, and Prosperity” crowd. It’s tentacles have invaded the song service of many Reformed churches. Traditional hymns, which declare the glory of God, such as A Mighty Fortress is Our God, O Sacred Head Now Wounded, or Man of Sorrows, have been replaced with “feel good,” “me affirming” modern “praise” songs.

Consider the chorus to the song, “I Am Free” by Jon Egar:

I am free to run
I am free to run
I am free to dance
I am free to dance
I am free to live for You
I am free to live for You
I am free
I am free

Who is the subject of that “praise” song? I am. Now compare that with the hymn, O Sacred Head Now Wounded:

Verse 1
O sacred Head now wounded
With grief and shame weighed down
Now scornfully surrounded
With thorns Thine only crown
How pale Thou art with anguish
With sore abuse and scorn
How does that visage lanquish
Which once was bright as morn

Verse 2

What Thou my Lord has suffered
Was all for sinners' gain
Mine mine was the transgression
But Thine the deadly pain
Lo here I fall my Savior
'Tis I deserve Thy place
Look on me with Thy favor
Assist me with Thy grace

Verse 3

What language shall I borrow
To thank Thee dearest Friend
For this Thy dying sorrow
Thy pity without end
O make me Thine forever
And should I fainting be
Lord let me never never
Outlive my love to Thee

In this song we predominately hear about the Lord Jesus Christ. Now I will admit that “I” do show up in this song as well. How so? “’Tis I deserve thy place…” That’s a far cry from “I am a free to run. I am free to dance,” don’t you think?

Some may accuse me of dissing all modern music. This is not so. Give me a song like “In Christ Alone” by Keith Getty and Stuart Townend. Recently that song made headlines because the PCUSA wanted to alter it for inclusion in their watered down hymn book. Thankfully the authors stood strong and refused to remove the theologically sound line of “Till on that cross as Jesus died/the wrath of God was satisfied.”

So then, what makes a song appropriate for singing in a corporate worship service? Ask yourself, “What’s in it for me?” If the music makes that clear, then it’s probably not appropriate. A question that is 1000 times better is, “What’s in it for Christ?” He alone deserves all glory, praise, and honor. We deserve nothing but hell.

GOSPEL SONNETS - Chapter 5 - Section 4

GOSPEL SONNETS
by Ralph Erskine
Chapter 5


SECTION IV. - Damnable Pride and Self-righteousness, so natural to all men, has little need to be encouraged by legal preaching.

THE legal path proud nature loves so well,
(Tho' yet 'tis but the clearest road to hell,)
That lo! ev'n these that take the foulest ways,
Whose lewdness no controlling bridle stays,
If but their drowsy conscience raise its voice,
'Twill speak the law of works their native choice,
And echo to the rousing sound, "Ah! true,
I cannot hope to live, unless I DO."
No conscience breast of mortal kind can trace
The mystery deep of being sav'd by grace.
Of this nor is the natural conscience skill'd,
Nor will admit it when it is reveal'd;
But pushes at the gospel like a ram,
As proxy for the law, against the Lamb.
The proud, self-righteous, Pharisaic strain
Is "Blest be God, I'm not like other men;
I read and pray, give alms, I mourn and fast; (1)
And therefore hope I'l get to heaven at last:
For though from every sin I be not free,
Great multitudes of men are worse than me.
I'm none of those that swear, cheat, drink and whore."
Thus on the law he builds his Babel tower.
  Yea, ev'n the vilest cursed debauchee
Will make the law of works his very plea;
"Why (says the rake) what take you me to be?
A Turk or infidel? you lie! I can't
Be term'd so base, but by a sycophant;
Only I hate to act the whining saint.
I am a christian true; and therefore bode
It shall be well with me, I hope in God.
An't I an honest man? yea, I defy
The tongue that dare assert black to mine eye."
Perhaps, when the reprover turns his back,
He'll vend the viler wares o's open'd pack,
And with his fellows, in a strain more big,
Bid damn the base uncharitable whig.
"These scoundrel hypocrites (he'll proudly say)
Think none shall ever merit heav'n but they,
And yet we may compete with them; for see,
The best have blemishes as well as we.
We have as good a heart (we trust) as these,
Tho' not with vain superfluous shew and blaze.
Bigoted zealots, whose sole crimes are hid,
Would damn us all to hell; but God forbid,
Whatever such a whining sect profess,
'Tis but a nice, morose, affected dress,
And though we don't pretend so much as they,
We hope to compass heav'n a shorter way:
We seek God's mercy, and are all along
Most free of malice, and do no man wrong.
But whims fantastic shan't our heads annoy,
That would our social liberties destroy.
Sure, right religion never was designed
To mar the native mirth of human kind.
How weak are those that would be thought nonesuch!
How mad, that would be righteous overmuch!
We have sufficient, though we be not crammed:
We'll therefore hope the best: let them be damned!"
  Ah, horrid talk! yet so the legal strain
Lards even the language of the most profane.
Thus devilish pride o'erlooks a thousand faults,
And on a legal ground itself exalts.
This DO and LIVE, though doing power be lost,
In every mortal is proud nature's boast.
How does a vain conceit of goodness swell,
And feed false hope, amidst the shades of hell?
Shall we, who should by gospel-methods draw,
Send sinners to their nat-ral spouse the law;
And harp upon the doing string to such,
Who ignorantly dream they do so much?
Why, thus, instead of courting Christ a bride,
We harden rebels in their native pride.
  Much rather ought we in God's name to place
His great artill'ry straight against their face;
And throw hot Sinai thunderbolts around,
To burn their towering hopes down to the ground;
To make the pillars of their pride to shake,
And damn their doings to the burning lake;
To curse the doers unto endless thrall,
That never did continue to do all; (2)
To scorch their conscience with the flaming air,
And sink their haughty hopes in deep despair;
Denouncing Ebal's black revenging doom,
To blast their expectation in the bloom;
Till once vain hope of life by works give place
Unto a solid hope of life by grace.
The vig'rous use of means is safely urged,
When pressing calls from legal dregs are purged;
But most unsafely in a fed'ral dress,
Confounding terms of life with means of grace.
Oh! dang'rous is th' attempt proud flesh to please,
Or send a sinner to the law for ease;
Who rather needs to feel its piercing dart,
Till dreadful pangs invade his trembling heart;
And thither should be only sent for flames
Of fire to burn his rotten hopes and claims;
That thus disarmed, he gladly may embrace,
And grasp with eagerness the news of grace.

(1) Luke xviii. 11. 12.
(2) Gal. iii. 10.

GOSPEL SONNETS - Chapter 5 - Section 3

GOSPEL SONNETS
by Ralph Erskine
Chapter 5


SECTION III. - The hurtfulness of not preaching CHRIST, and distinguishing duly between law and gospel.

HELL cares not how crude holiness be preach'd,
If sinners' match with Christ be never reach'd;
Knowing their holiness is but a sham
Who ne'er are married to the Holy Lamb.
Let words have ever such a pious shew,
And blaze aloft in rude professor's view,
With sacred aromaties richly spiced,
If they but drown in silence glorious Christ:
Or, if he may some vacant room supply,
Make him a subject only by the bye;
They mar true holiness with tickling chat,
To breed a bastard Pharisaic brat.
They wofully the gospel message broke,
Make fearful havock of the Master's flock;
Yet please themselves, and the blind multitude,
By whom the gospel's little understood.
  Rude souls perhaps imagine little odds
Between the legal and the gospel roads:
But vainly men attempt to blend the two;
They differ more than Christ and Moses do.
Moses, evangelizing in a shade,
By types the news of light approaching spread:
But from the law of works by him proclaim'd,
No ray of gospel grace or mercy gleam'd.
By nature's light, the law to all is known,
But lightsome news of gospel grace to none.
The dong covenant now, in part or whole,
Is strong to damn, but weak to save a soul.
It hurts, and cannot help, but as it tends
Thro' mercy to subserve some gospel ends.
Law-thunder roughly to the gospel tames,
The gospel mildly to the law reclaims.
The fiery law, as 'tis a covenant,
Schools men to see the gospel aid they want;
Then gospel aid does sweetly them incline
Back to the law, as 'tis a rule divine.
Heav'ns healing work is oft' commenc'd with wounds,
Terror begins what loving-kindness crowns.
Preachers may therefore press the fiery law,
To strike the Christless man with dreadful awe.
Law threats which for his sins to hell depress,
Yea, damn him for his rotten righteousness;
That while he views the law exceeding broad,
He fain may wed the righteousness of God.
  But, ah! to press law-works as terms of life,
Was ne'er the way to court the Lamb a wife.
To urge conditions in the legal frame,
Is to renew the vain old-covenant game.
The law is good, when lawfully 'tis us'd, (1)
But most destructive when it is abus'd.
They set no duties in their proper sphere,
Who duly law and gospel don't sever;
But under massy chains let sinners lie,
As tributaries or to do or die;
Nor make the law a squaring rule of life,
But in the gospel throat a bloody knife.

(1) 1 Tim. i. 8.

GOSPEL SONNETS - Chapter 5 - Section 2

GOSPEL SONNETS
By Ralph Erskine
Chapter 5

SECTION II. - A legal strain of doctrine discovered and discarded.


No wonder Paul the legal spirit curse,
Of fatal errors such a feeding nurse.
He, in Jehovah's great tremendous name,
Condemns perverters of the gospel scheme.
He damn'd the sophist rude, the babbling priest
Would venture to corrupt it in the least;
Yea, curs'd the heavenly angel down to hell
Who, daring, would another gospel tell. (1)
Which crime is charg'd on these that dare dispense
The self-same gospel in another sense.
  Christ is not preach'd in truth but in disguise,
If his bright glory half obscured lies.
When gospel soldiers that divide the word,
Scarce brandish any but the legal sword;
While Christ the Author of the law they press,
More than the End of it for righteousness;
Christ as a Seeker of our service trace,
More than a Giver of enabling grace;
The King commanding holiness they show
More than the Prince exalted to bestow:
Yea, more on Christ the sin-revenger dwell,
Than Christ Redeemer both from sin and hell.
  With legal spade the gospel-field he delves
Who thus drives sinners in unto themselves;
Halving the truth that should be all reveal'd,
The sweetest part of Christ is oft conceal'd.
We bid men turn from sin, but seldom say,
"Behold the Lamb that takes all sin away!"
Christ, by the gospel rightly understood,
Not only treats a peace, but makes it good.
Those suitors therefore of the bride, who hope
By force to drag her with the legal rope,
Nor use the drawing cord of conqu'ring grace,
Pursue with flaming zeal a fruitless chase;
In vain lame doings urge, with solemn awe,
To bribe the fury of the fiery law:
With equal success to the fool that aims
By paper walls to bound devouring flames.
The law's but mock'd by their most graceful deed,
Who wed not first the law-fulfilling Head;
It values neither how they wrought nor wept
Who slight the ark wherein alone 'tis kept.
Yet legalists "Do, Do," with ardour press,
And with prosperous zeal and warm address
Would seem the greatest friends to holiness;
But vainly, could such opposites accord,
Respect the law, and yet reject the Lord.
They shew not Jesus as the way to bliss,
But Judas like, betray him with a kiss
Of boasted works, or mere profession puft,
Law-boasters, proving but law-breakers oft.

(1) Gal. i. 7. 8.

Time

Time, like an ever-rolling stream,

Bears all its sons away;

They fly forgotten, as a dream

Dies at the opening day.

- Isaac Watts

When I Survey the Wondrous Cross

Isaac Watts, 1707, text of 1709

When I survey the wondrous cross

On which the Prince of glory died,

My richest gain I count but loss,

And pour contempt on all my pride.

Forbid it, Lord that I should boast,

Save in the death of Christ my God:

All the vain things that charm me most,

I sacrifice them to his blood.

See, from his head, his hands, his feet,

Sorrow and love flow mingled down:

Did e'er such love and sorrow meet,

Or thorns compose so rich a crown?

Were the whole realm of nature mine,

That were a present far too small;

Love so amazing, so divine,

Demands my soul, my life, my all.

What E'er My God Ordains is Right

What E'er My God Ordains is Right

Samuel Rodigast, 1675

Tr. by Catherine Winkworth, 1829-1878

1. What e'er my God ordains is right:

Holy his will abideth;

I will be still what e'er he doth,

And follow where he guideth:

He is my God;

Though dark my road,

He holds me that I shall not fall:

Wherefore to him I leave it all.

2. What e'er my God ordains is right:

He never will deceive me;

He leads me by the proper path;

I know he will not leave me:

I take, content,

What he hath sent;

His hand can turn my griefs away,

And patiently I wait his day.

3. What e'er my God ordains is right:

Though now this cup, in drinking,

May bitter seem to my faint heart,

I take it, all unshrinking:

My God is true;

Each morn anew

Sweet comfort yet shall fill my heart,

And pain and sorrow shall depart.

4. What e'er my God ordains is right:

Here shall my stand be taken;

Though sorrow, need, or death be mine,

Yet am I not forsaken;

My Father's care

Is round me there;

He holds me that I shall not fall:

And so to him I leave it all.

AMEN

GOSPEL SONNETS - Chapter 5 - Section 1

GOSPEL SONNETS

By Ralph Erskine

Chapter 5

Arguments and encouragements to Gospel Ministers to avoid a legal strain of doctrine, and endeavour the sinner’s match with CHRIST by gospel-means.

SECTION I. – A legal SPIRIT the root of damnable Errors.

YE heralds great, that blow in name of God
The silver trump of gospel-grace abroad;
And sound by warrant from the great I AM,
The nuptial treaty with the worthy Lamb,
Might ye but stoop th' unpolish'd muse to brook,
And from a shrub an wholesome berry pluck;
Ye’d take encouragement from what is said,
By gospel-means to make the marriage-bed,
And to your glorious Lord a virgin chaste to wed.
The more proud nature bears a legal sway,
The more should preachers bend the gospel-way:
Oft in the church arise destructive schisms
From anti-evangelic aphorisms;
A legal spirit may be justly nam'd
The fertile womb of ev'ry error damn'd.
Hence Pop'ry, so connat'ral since the fall,
Makes legal works like saviours merit all;
Yea, more than merit on their shoulder loads,
To supererogate like demi-gods.
Hence proud Socinians seat their reason high
‘Bove ev’ry precious gospel mystery,
Its divine Author stab, and without fear
The purple covert of his chariot tear.
With these run Arian monsters in a line,
All gospel-truth at once to undermine!
To darken and delete, like hellish foes,
The brightest colour of the Sharon Rose.
At best its human red they but decry
That blot the divine white, the native dye.
Hence dare Arminians too, with brazen face,
Give man’s free will the throne of God’s free grace;
Whose self-exalting tenets clearly shew
Great ignorance of law and gospel too.
Hence Neonomians spring, as sundry call
The new law-makers to redress our fall.
The law of works, into repentance, faith,
Is chang’d, as their Baxterian bible saith.
Shaping the gospel to an easy law,
They build their tott’ring house with hay and straw;
Yet hide, like Rachel’s idols in the stuff,
Their legal hands within a gospel muff.
Yea, hence springs Antinomian vile refuse,
Whose gross abettors gospel grace abuse;
Unskill’d how grace’s silken latchet binds
Her captives to the law with willing minds.

GOSPEL SONNETS - Chapter 4

Gospel Sonnets
by Ralph Erskine
Chapter 4

A Caution to all against a legal spirit; especially to those that have a profession without power, and learning without grace.

"WHY," says the haughty heart of legalists,
Bound to the law of works by nat'ral twists,
"Why such ado about a law-divorce?
Men's lives are bad, and would you have them worse?
Such Antinomian stuff, with laboured toil,
Would human beauty's native lustre spoil.
What wickedness beneath the cov'ring lurks,
That lewdly would divorce us all from works!
Why such a stir about the law and grace?
We know that merit cannot now take place;
And what needs more?" Well, to let slander drop,
Be merit for a little here the scope.
Ah! many learn to lisp in gospel-terms,
Who yet embrace the law with legal arms.
By wholesome education some are taught
To own that human merit now is naught;
Who faintly but renounce proud merit's name,
And cleave refinedly to the popish scheme.
For graceful works expecting divine bliss,
And, when they fail, trust Christ for what's amiss,
Thus to his righteousness profess to flee,
Yet by it still would their own saviours be.
They seem to works of merit bloody foes,

Yet seek salvation as it were(1) by those.

Blind Gentiles found, who did not seek nor know:

But Israel lost it whole, who sought it so.

Let all that love to wear the legal dress,

Know that as sin, so bastard righteousness

Has slain its thousands, who in tow'ring pride

The righteousness of Jesus Christ deride;

A robe divinely wrought, divinely won,

Yet cast by men for robes that are their own.

By some to legal works seem whole denied,

Yet would by gospel-works be justified,

By faith, repentance, love, and other such:

These dreamers being righteous over much

Like Uzzah, give the ark a wrongful touch.

By legal deeds, however gospelized,

Can e'er tremendous justice be appeased,

Or sinners justified before that God,

Whose law is perfect, and exceeding broad?

Nay, faith itself, that leading gospel-grace,

Holds as a work no justifying place.

Just Heaven to man for righteousness imputes

Not faith itself, or in its acts or fruits;

But Jesus' meritorious life and death,

Faith's proper object all the honour hath.

From this doth faith derive its glorious fame,

Its great renown and justifying name;

Receiving all things, but deserving nought;

By faith all's begg'd and taken, nothing bought.

Its highest name is from the wedding vote,

So instrumental in the marriage knot.

JEHOVAH leads the bride in that blest hour,

Th' exceeding greatness of his mighty power;(2)

Which sweetly does her heart-consent command,

To reach the wealthy Prince her naked hand.

For close to his embrace she'd never stir,

If first his loving arms embraced not her:

But this he does by kindly gradual chase,

Of rousing, raising, teaching, drawing grace,

He shows her, in his sweetest love address,

His glory as the Sun of righteousness;

At which all dying glories earth adorn,

Shrink like the sick moon at the wholesome morn.

This glorious Sun arising with a grace,

Dark shades of creature-righteousness to chase,

Faith now disclaims itself, and all the train

Of virtues formerly accounted gain;

And counts them dung,(3) with holy, meek disdain.

For now appears the height, the depth immense

Of divine bounty and benevolence;

Amazing mercy! ignorant of bounds!

Which most enlarged faculties confounds.

How vain, how void now seem the vulgar charms,

The monarch's pomp of courts, and pride of arms--

The boasted beauties of the human kind,

The powers of body and the gifts of mind!

Lo! in teh grandeur of Immanuel's train,

All's swallowed up as rivers in the main.

He's seen, when gospel light and sight is given

Encompassed round with all the pomp of heaven.

The soul, now taught of God, sees human schools

Make Christless rabbis only literate fools;

And that, till divine teaching powerful draw,

No learning will divorce them from the law.

Mere argument may clear the head, and force

A verbal, not a cordial, clean divorce.

Hence many, taught the wholesome terms of art,

Have gospel heads, but still a legal heart.

Till sovereign grace and power the sinner catch,

He takes not Jesus for his only match.

Nay, works compete! ah! true, however odd,

Dead works are rivals with the living God.

Till heaven's preventing mercy clear the sight,

Confound the pride with supernat'ral light:

No haughty soul of human kind is brought

To mortify her self-exalting thought.

Yet holiest creatures in clay-tents that lodge,

Be but their lives scanned by the dreadful Judge;

How shall they e'er his awful search endure,

Before whose purest eyes heaven is not pure?

How must their black indictment be enlarged,

When by him angels are with folly charged?

What human worth shall stand, when he shall scan?

O may his glory stain the pride of man.

How pond'rous are the tracks of divine grace!

How searchless are his ways, how vast th' abyss!

Let haughty reason stoop, and fear to leap;

Angelic plummets cannot sound the deep.

With scorn he turns his eyes from haughty kings,

With pleasure looks on low and worthless things;

Deep are his judgments, sovereign is his will,

Let every mortal worm be dumb, be still.

In vain proud reason swells beyond its bound;

God and his counsels are a gulf profound,

An ocean wherein all our thoughts are drowned.

(1) Rom. ix. 32.

(2) Eph. i. 19.

(3) Phil. iii. 7, 8.

GOSPEL SONNETS – Chapter 3 – Section 5

Gospel Sonnets
By Ralph Erskine
Chapter 3

SECTION V. – Gospel-grace giving no liberty nor freedom to sin, but to holy service and pure obedience.

THE glorious husband’s love can’t lead the wife
To whoredom or licentiousness of life:
Nay, nay; she finds his warmest love within
The hottest fire to melt her heart for sin.
His kind embrace is still the strongest cord
To bind her to the service of her Lord.
The more her faith insures this love of his,
The more his law her delectation is.
Some dream, they might, who his assurance win,
Take latitude and liberty to sin.
Ah! such bewray their ignorance, and prove
They want the lively sense of drawing love;
And how its sweet constraining force can move.
The ark of grace came never into dwell,
But Dagon-lusts before it headlong fell
Men basely can unto lasciviousness
Abuse the doctrine, not the work of grace.
Huggers of divine love in vice’s path,
Have but the fancy of it, not the faith.
They never soared aloft on grace’s wing,
They knew not grace to be a holy thing:
When pregnant she the powers of hell appals,
And sin’s dominion in the ruin falls.
Cursed is the crew whose Antinomian dress
Makes grace a cover to their idleness.
The bride of Christ will sure be very loth
To make his love a pillow for her sloth.
Why may’nt she sin the more that grace abounds?
Oh, God forbid! the very thought confounds.
When dead unto the law, she’s dead to sin;
How can she any longer live therein? (1)
To neither of them is she now a slave,
But shares the conquest of the great, the brave,
The mighty General, her victorious Head,
Who broke the double chain to free the bride.
Hence, prompted now with gratitude and love,
Her cheerful feet in swift obedience move.
More strong the cords of love to duty draw,
Than hell, and all the curses of the law.
When with seraphic love the breast’s inspired,
By that are all the other graces fired;
These kindling round, the burning heart and frame,
In life and walk send forth a holy flame.

(1) Rom. vi. 1, 2.

Get Out Of The Pulpit

Awesome song! Roxylee proclaims a much needed message to today's modern churchgoer.

http://www.macjams.com/song/49656

GOSPEL SONNETS - Chapter 3 - Section 4

Gospel Sonnets
By Ralph Erskine
Chapter 3

SECTION IV. - The Believer only being married to Christ, is justified and sanctified: and the more gospel freedom from the law as a covenant, the more holy conformity to it as a rule.

THUS doth the Husband by his Father's will
Both for, and in, his bride the law fulfil:
For her, as 'tis a covenant; and then
In her, as 'tis a rule of life to men.
First, all law-debt he most completely pays,
Then of law duties all the charge defrays.
Does first assume her guilt, and loose her chains,
And then with living water wash her stains;
Her fund restore, and then her form repair,
And make his filthy bride a beauty fair;
His perfect righteousness most freely grant,
And then his holy image deep implant;
Into her heart his precious seed indrop,
Which, in his time, will yield a glorious crop.
But by alternate turns his plants he brings
Through robbing winters and repairing springs.
Hence, pining oft, they suffer'd sad decays,
By dint of shady nights and stormy days.
But blest with sap, and influence from above,
They live and grow anew in faith and love;
Until transplanted to the higher soil.
While furies tread no more, nor foxes spoil.
Where Christ the living root remains on high,
The noble plant of grace can never die;
Nature decays, and so will all the fruit
That merely rises on a mortal root.
Their works, however splendid, are but dead,
That from a living fountain don't proceed;
Their fairest fruit is but a varnish'd shrine,
That are not grafted in the glorious Vine.
Devoutest hypocrites are rank'd in rolls
Of painted puppets, not of living souls.
No offspring but of Christ's fair bride is good,
This happy marriage has a holy brood.
Let sinners learn this mystery to read,
We bear to glorious Christ no precious, seed,
Till through the law, we to the law be dead.(1)
No true obedience to the law, but forc'd,
Can any yield, till from the law divorc'd.
No to it, as a rule is homage giv'n,
Till from it, as a cov'nant, men be driv'n.
Yea more, till once they this divorce attain,
Divorce from sin they but attempt in vain;
The cursed yoke of sin they basely draw,
Till once unyoked from the cursed law.
Sin's full dominion keeps its native place,
While men are under law, not under grace.(2)
For mighty hills of enmity won't move,
Till touch'd by conqu'ring grace and mighty love.
Were buy the gospel-secret understood;
How God can pardon where he sees no good;
How grace and mercy free, that can't be bought,
Reign through a righteousness already wrought:
Where woful reigning unbelief deposed,
Mysterious grace to blinded minds disclosed:
Did Heaven with gospel-news its power convey,
And sinners hear a faithful God but say,
"No more law-debt remains for you to pay;
Lo! by the loving Surety, all's discharged,"
Their hearts behoved with love to be enlarged:
Love, the succinct fulfilling of the law,(3)
Were then the easy yoke they'd sweetly draw;
Love would constrain and to his service move
Who left them nothing else to do but love.
Slight now his loving precepts if they can;
No, no; his conquering kindness leads the van.
When everlasting love exerts the sway,
They judge themselves more kindly bound t'obey,
Bound by redeeming love in stricter sense
Than ever Adam was in innocence.
Why now they are not bound, as formerly,
To do and live, nor yet to do or die;
Both life and death are put to Jesus' hands,
Who urges neither in his kind commands,
Not servile work their life and heaven to win,
Nor slavish labour death and hell to shun.
Their aims are purer, since they understood,
Their heaven was bought, their hell was quenched with blood.
The oars of gospel-service now they steer,
Without or legal hope or slavish fear.
The bride in sweet security can dwell,
Nor bound to purchase heaven nor vanquish hell:
But bound for him the race of love to run,
Whose love to her left none of these undone;
She's bound to be the Lamb's obedient wife,
And is his strength to serve him during life;
To glorify his loving name for aye,
Who left her not a single mite to pay
Of legal debt, but wrote for her at large,
In characters of blood, a full discharge.
Henceforth no servile task her labours prove,
But grateful fruits of reverential love.

(1) Gal. ii. 19.
(2) Rom. vi. 14.
(3) Rom. xiii. 10.

Calvin's Commentaries on Isaiah

I read the following poem this morning in Calvin's Commentary on Isaiah. I wanted to share it with you.

An Epigram vpon the Translation of
M. Caluins Commentarie vpon the Prophecie of Isaiah.

THRICE happie (England) if thou knew'st thy blisse,
Since Christs eternall Gospell in thee shin'd
Thou art. H'is beetle-blind that sees not this,
Brutishly ingrate that with a thankfull mind
Doth not acknowledge Gods great Grace herein,
And learne thereby for to forsake his sinne.

Gods word hat long in thee been soundly taught,
The sound thereof hath rung throughout the Land,
And many a Soule by Fishers net been caught,
Which erst lay thrall in Satans cruell band:
This fauour great by none can be exprest,
But such as haue it felt in their owne brest.

Thy natiue sonnes in thine owne bowels bred,
Like faithfull Shepheards haue done worthilie,
And thee with store of heauenlie Manna fed,
Forcing the Wolues to leaue their crueltie,
To slinke aside, and hide themselues in holes,
In caues and dens, like pur-blind Backs and Moles.

TYNDALL, FRITH, PHILPOT, father LATIMER,
The Gospell preacht by word, by life, by death:
IUEL, FOX, REYNOLDS, FULK, and WHITAKER
To second them haue spent their vitall breath.
In hot pursuit of that great Romish Bore,
Who spoiled quite this English vine before.

I spare to speake of DEERINGS siluer voice,
Of GREENHAMS zeale, of PERKINS labours sound,
Of hundreds moe of Zion-builders choice,
The like whereof can scarce elsewhere be found:
Such ground-worke they of Gods truth here haue plac'd
As neuer shall by Hels whole force be razt.

Besides all these, of forren Lights the chiefe,
BEZA, and VRSINUS, many other moe,
MARTYR, MUSCULUS, for thy more reliefe
Are seene in English weed abroade to goe
From place to place in euery Shire and Towne,
To teach the Truth and throw all Errors downe.

And here presented is vnto thy sight
The Roiall Prophet Esaias Euangel:
For so me thinkes I may it terme aright,
That Prince of holy Prophets doth so well,
So liuely Christs whole historie presage,
As if h'had liu'd in that same very Age.

Whose Oracles great CALUIN doth vnfold
In thine owne natiue Tongue for thy Soules health.
Here maist thou gather precious Stones and Gold,
And store vp heapes of Heauenly lasting wealth;
Here maist thou find with very little paine
Which would'st not lose for thousand Worlds againe.

Here maist thou see the black-mouth'd Atheists
Confounded quite by Demonstration cleare;
The cunning Papist put vnto his shifts,
And made in his right Colours to appeare;
Her's Christ, his Truth, and Life, thee set before,
Heauens Gates set open wide: what would'st thou more?

By FRANCIS HERING, Doctor in Physicke.

GOSPEL SONNETS – Chapter 3 – Section 3

GOSPEL SONNETS
By Ralph Erskine
Chapter 3

SECTION III. – True saving faith magnifying the law both as a covenant and as a rule. False faith unfruitful and ruining.

PROUD nature may reject this gospel-theme,
And curse it as an Antinomian scheme.
Let slander bark, let envy grin and fight,
The curse that is so causeless shall not light.(1)
If they that fain would make by holy force
‘Twixt sinners and the law a clean divorce,
And court the Lamb a virgin chaste to wife,
Be charged as foes to holiness of life,
Well may they gladly suffer on this score,
Apostles great were so maligned before.
Do we make void the law through faith?(2) Nay; why,
We do it more fulfil and magnify
Than fiery seraphs can with holiest flash.
Avaunt, vain legalists – unworthy trash!
When as a cov’nant stern the law commands,
Faith puts her Lamb’s obedience in its hands;
And when its threats gush out a fiery flood,
Faith stops the current with her victim’s blood.
The law can crave no more, yet craves no less,
Than active, passive, perfect righteousness.
Yet here is all, yea, more than its demand,
All rendered to it by a divine hand.
Mankind is bound law-service still to pay,
Yea, angel-kind is also bound t’obey.
It may by human and angelic blaze
Have honour, but in finite, partial ways.
These natures have its lustre once defaced,
‘Twill be by part of both for aye disgraced,
Yet had they all obsequious stood and true,
They’d given the law no more than homage due.
But faith gives’t honour yet more great, more odd –
The high, the humble service of its God.
Again, to view the holy law’s command,
As lodged in a Mediator’s hand;
Faith gives it honour, as a rule of life,
And makes the bride the Lamb’s obedient wife.
Due homage to the law those never did,
To whom th’obedience pure of faith is hid.
Faith works by love, and purifies the heart,(3)
And truth advances in the inward part;
On carnal hearts impresses divine stamps,
And sully’d lives inverts to shining lamps.
From Abram’s seed that are most strong in faith.
The law most honour, God most glory hath.
But due respect to neither can be found,
Where unbelief ne’er got a mortal wound,
To still the virtue-vaunter’s empty sound.
Good works he boasts, a path he never trod
Who is not yet the workmanship of God,(4)
In Jesus thereunto created new;
Nois’d works that spring not hence are but a shew.
True faith that’s of a noble divine race,
Is still a holy sanctifying grace;
And greater honour to the law does share,
Than boasters all that breathe the vital air.
Ev’n heathen morals vastly may outshine
The works that flow not from a faith divine.
Pretensions high to faith a number have,
But, ah! it is a faith that cannot save:
“We trust,” say they, “in Christ, we hope in God:
Nor blush to blaze their rotten faith abroad.
Nor try the trust of which they make a shew,
If of a saving or a damning hue.
They own their sins are ill; true-but ‘tis sad
They never thought their faith and hope were bad.
How evident’s their home-bred nat’ral blaze,
Who dream they have believ’d well all their days;
Yet never felt their unbelief, nor knew
Their need of pow’r their nature to renew.
Blind souls, who boast of faith, yet live in sin,
May hence conclude their faith is to begin,
Or know they shall, by such an airy faith,
Believe themselves to everlasting wrath.
Faith, that nor leads to good, nor keeps from ill,
Will never lead to heaven, nor keep from hell.
The body without breath is dead;(5) no less
Is faith without the works of holiness.(6)
How rare is saving faith, when earth is cramm’d
With such as we believe, and yet be damn’d;
Believe the gospel, yet with dread and awe
Have never truly first believ’d the law.
That matters shall be well, they hope too soon
Who never yet have seen they were undone.
Can of salvation their belief be true,
Who never yet believ’d damnation due?
Can these of endless life have solid faith
Who never fear’d law threats of endless death?
Nay, sail’d they han’t yet to the healing shore,
Who never felt their sinful, woful sore.
Imaginary faith is but a blind
Which bears no fruit but of a deadly kind:
No can from such a wild unwholesome root
The least production rise of living fruit.
But saving faith can such an offspring breed,
Her native product is a holy seed.
The fairest issues of the vital breath
Spring from the fertile womb of Heav’n-born faith;
Yet boasts she nothing of her own, but brings
Auxiliaries from the King of kings,
Who graves his royal law on rocky hearts,
And gracious aid in soft’ning showers imparts,
This gives prolific virtue to the faith
Inspir’d at first by his almighty breath,
Hence, fetching all her succours from abroad,
She still employes this mighty pow’r of God.
Drain’d clean of native pow’rs and legal aims,
No strength but in and from Jehovah claims;
And thus her service to the law o’ertops
The tow’ring zeal of Pharisaic fops.

(1) Prov. xxvi. 2.
(2) Rom. iii. 21.
(3) Gal. v. 6.
(4) Eph. ii. 10.
(5) James ii. 26.
(6) James ii. 17. 10.

GOSPEL SONNETS - Chapter 3 - Section 2

GOSPEL SONNETS
By Ralph Erskine
Chapter 3

SECTION II. – Faith’s victories over sin and Satan, through new and farther discoveries of CHRIST, making believers more fruitful in holiness than all other pretenders to works.

THE gospel-path leads heav’n-ward; hence the fray,
Hell’s pow’rs still push the bride the legal way.
So hot the war, her life’s a troubled flood,
A field of battle, and a scene of blood.
But he that once commenc’d the work in her,
Whose working fingers drop the sweetest myrrh,
Will still advance it by alluring force,
And, from her ancient mate, more clean divorce;
Since ‘tis her antiquated spouse, the law,
The strength of sin and hell did on her draw.
Piece-meal she finds hell’s mighty force abate,
By new recruits from her almighty Mate.
Fresh armour sent from grace’s magazine,
Makes her proclaim eternal war with sin.
The shield of faith, dipt in the Surety’s blood,
Drowns fiery darts, as in a crimson flood.
The Captain’s ruddy banner, lifted high,
Makes hell retire, and all the furies fly.
Yea, of his glory every recent glance
Makes sin decay, and holiness advance.
In kindness therefore does her heavenly Lord
Renew’d discov’ries of his love afford,
That her enamour’d soul may, with the view,
Be cast into his holy mould anew.
For when he manifests his glorious grace,
The charming favour of his smiling face,
Into his image fair transforms her soul, (1)
And wafts her upwards to the heavenly pole,
From glory unto glory by degrees,
Till vision and fruition shall suffice.
And thus in holy beauty Jesus’ bride
Shines far beyond the painted sons of pride,
Vain merit-vouchers, and their subtle apes,
In all their most refined, delusive shapes.
No lawful child is ere the marriage born;
Though therefore virtues feigned their life adorn,
The fruit they bear is but a spurious brood,
Before this happy marriage be made good.
And ‘tis not strange; for, from a corrupt tree
No fruit divinely good produced can be,(2)
But, lo! the bride, graft in the living Root,
Brings forth most precious aromatic fruit.
When her new heart and her new husband meet,
Her fruitful womb is like a heap of wheat,
Beset with fragrant lilies round about,(3)
All divine graces, in a comely rout,
Burning within, and shining bright without.
And thus the bride, as sacred scripture saith,
When dead unto the law through Jesus’ death,(4)
And matched with him, bears to her God and Lord
Accepted fruit, with increase pure decored.
Freed from law-debt, and bless’d with gospel ease,
Her work is now her dearest Lord to please,
By living on him as her ample stock,
And leaning to him as her potent rock.
The fruit that each law-wedded mortal brings
To self accresces, as from self it springs.
So base a rise must have a base recourse,
The stream can mount no higher than its source.
But Jesus can his bride’s sweet fruit commend,
As brought from him the root, to him the end.
She does by such an offspring him avow
To be her ALPHA and OMEGA too.
The work and warfare he begins, he crowns,
Though maugre various conflicts, ups and downs,
Thus through the darksome vale she makes her way,
Until the morning dawn of glory’s day.

(1) 2 Cor. iii. 18.
(2) Matt. vii. 17, 18.
(3) Cant. vii. 2.
(4) Rom. vii. 4.

GOSPEL SONNETS - Chapter 3 - Section 1

GOSPEL SONNETS
By Ralph Erskine
Chapter 3

SECTION I. The sweet solemnity of the marriage now over, and the sad effects of the remains of a legal spirit.

THE match is made, with little din 'tis done,
But with great pow'r, unequal prizes won.
The Lamb has fairly won his worthless bride;
She her great Lord, and all his store beside.
He made the poorest bargain, though most wise;
And she, the fool, has won the worthy prize.
Deep floods of everlasting love and grace,
That under ground ran an eternal space,
Now rise aloft 'bove banks of sin and hell,
And o'er the tops of massy mountains swell.
In streams of blood are tow'rs of guilt o'erflown,
Down with the rapid purple current thrown.
The bride now as her all can Jesus own,
And prostrate at his footstool cast her crown,
Disclaiming all her former groundless hope,
While in the dark her soul did weary grope.
Down tumble all the hills of self-conceit,
In him alone she sees herself complete;
Does his fair person with fond arms embrace,
And all her hopes on his full merit place;
Discard her former mate, and henceforth draw
No hope, no expectation from the law.
Though thus her new-created nature soars,
And lives aloft on Jesus' heav'nly stores;
Yet apt to stray, her old adult'rous heart
Oft takes her old renounced husband's part.
A legal cov'nant is so deep ingrain'd,
Upon the human nature, laps'd and stain'd,
That, till her spirit mount the purest clime
She's never totally divorced in time.
Hid in her corrupt part's proud bosom lurks
Some hope of life still by the law of works.
Hence flow the following evils more or less;
Preferring oft her partial holy dress,
Before her husband's perfect righteousness.
Hence joying more in grace already giv'n
Than in her Head and stock that's all in heav'n.
Hence grieving more the want of frames and grace,
Than of himself the spring of all solace.
Hence guilt her soul imprisons, lusts prevail,
While to the law her rents insolvent fail,
And yet her faithless heart rejects her Husband's bail.
Hence soul disorders rise, and racking fears,
While doubtful of his clearing past arrears;
Vain dreaming, since her own obedience fails,
His likewise little for her help avails.
Hence duties are a task, while all in view
Is heavy yokes of laws, or old or new:
Whereas, were once her legal bias broke,
She'd find her Lord's commands an easy yoke.
No galling precepts on her neck he lays,
Nor any debt demands, save what he pays
By promis'd aid; but, lo! the grievous law,
Demanding brick, won't aid her with a straw.
Hence also fretful, grudging, discontent,
Crav'd by the law, finding her treasure spent,
And doubting if her Lord will pay the rent.
Hence pride of duties too does often swell,
Presuming she perform'd so very well.
Hence pride of graces and inherent worth
Springs from her corrupt legal bias forth;
And boasting more a present with'ring frame,
Than her exalted Lord's unfading name.
Hence many falls and plunges in the mire,
As many new conversions do require:
Because her faithless heart sad follies breed,
Much lewd departure from her living Head,
Who, to reprove her aggravated crimes,
Leaves her abandon'd to herself at times;
That, falling into frightful deeps, she may
From sad experience learn more stress to lay,
Not on her native efforts, but at length
On Christ alone, her righteousness and strength:
Conscious, while in her works she seeks respose,
Her legal spirit breeds her many woes.

GOSPEL SONNETS - Chapter 2 - Section 5

GOSPEL SONNETS
By Ralph Erskine
Chapter 2

SECTION V. - Faith's view of the freedom of grace, cordial renunciation of all its own ragged righteousness, and formal acceptance of and closing with the person of glorious CHRIST.

THE bride with open eyes, that once were dim,
Sees now her whole salvation lies in him;
The Prince, who is not in dispensing nice,
But freely gives without her pains or price.
This magnifies the wonder in her eye,
Who not a farthing has wherewith to buy,
For now her humbled mind can disavow
Her boasted beauty and assuming brow;
With conscious eye discern her emptiness,
With candid lips her poverty confess.
"O glory to the Lord that grace is free,
Else never could it light on guilty me.
I nothing have with me to be its price,
But hellish blackness, enmity, and vice."
In former times she durst presuming come
To grace's market with a petty sum
Of duties, prayers, tears, a boasted set,
Expecting Heaven would thus be in her debt.
These were the price; at least she did suppose
She'd be the welcomer because of those:
But now she sees the vileness of her vogue,
The dung that close doth every duty clog;
The sin that doth her holiness reprove,
The enmity that close attends her love;
The great heart-hardness of her penitence,
The stupid dulness of her vaunted sense;
The unbelief of former blazed faith,
The utter nothingness of all she hath.
The blackness of her beauty she can see,
The pompous pride of strain'd humility,
The naughtiness of all her tears and pray'rs,
And now renounces all as worthless wares;
And finding nothing to commend herself,
But what might damn her, her embezzled pelf;
At sov'reign Grace's feet doth prostrate fall,
Content to be in Jesus' debt for all.
Her noised virtues vanish out of sight,
As starry tapers at meridian light;
While sweetly, humbly, she beholds at length
Christ, as her only righteousness and strength.
He with the view throws down his loving dart,
Imprest with pow'r into her tender heart.
The deeper that the law's fierce dart was thrown,
The deeper now the dart of love goes down:
Hence, sweetly pain'd, her cries to heaven do flee;
"O none but Jesus, none but Christ for me:
O glorious Christ, O beauty, beauty rare,
Ten thousand thousand heav'ns are not so fair.
In him at once all beauties meet and shine,
The white and ruddy, human and divine.
As in his low, he's in his high abode,
The brightest image of the unseen God. (1)
How justly do the harpers sing above,
His doing, dying, rising, reigning love!
How justly does he, when his work is done,
Posses the centre of his Father's throne!
How justly does his awful throne before
Seraphic armies prostrate him adore,
That's both by nature and donation crown'd
With all the grandeur of the Godhead round!
"But wilt thou, Lord, in very deed come dwell
With me that was a burning brand of hell?
With me so justly reckon'd worse and less
Than insect, mite, or atom can express?
Wilt thou debase thy high imperial form,
To match with such a mortal crawling worm?
Yea, sure thine errand to our earthly coast,
Was in deep love to seek and save the lost;(2)
And since thou deign'st the like of me to wed,
O come and make my heart thy marriage-bed.
Fair Jesus, wilt thou marry filthy me?
Amen, Amen, Amen; so let it be."

(1) Heb. i. 2.
(2) Luke xix. 10.

O Wretched Man!

O wretched man with darkened heart,
Doubled minded and unstable!
Seeking what God would impart,
Willing, yet unable

To walk the walk of holiness.
Maintain desires for God alone
In sweet marital bliss
Forsaking all others, they can’t atone,

For sins that I’ve committed.
My desire is toward my Saviour,
Yet, in my soul, within my spirit,
I turn away His favor.

Desiring things I should not,
Entertaining thoughts impure,
My conscious is apt to rot,
Lest Jesus draw me near.

In me, (that is, in my flesh),
Dwelleth no good thing,
With earnestness I do wish,
For goodness only to bring.

Alas, the good that I would I do not,
But evil I would not, that I do.
The sin dwelling in me is what
These evil works are brought unto.

I find a law, that when I would do good,
Evil is present with me.
Convincing me against what I should,
And from my God I flee!

For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
My mind committed to His Word.
Within my members dwells the law of sin,
To bring me into captivity with its evil sword.

Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord!
God’s law giv’n to us through His very breath,
Brings life to me through His written Word.

With my mind, I serve the law of God,
But with the flesh, the law of sin,
And so it goes in this path I trod,
Over and over again.

GOSPEL SONNETS - Chapter 2 - Section 4

GOSPEL SONNETS

By Ralph Erskine

Chapter 2

 

SECTION IV. – The working of the Spirit of faith, in separating the heart from all self-righteousness, and drawing out its consent to, and desire after CHRIST alone and wholly..

 

THE bride at Sinai little understood

How these law-humblings were designed for good,

T' enhance the value of her Husband's blood.

The tow'r of tott'ring pride thus batter'd down,

Makes way for Christ alone to wear the crown.

Conviction's arrows pierc'd her heart, that so

The blood from his pierc'd heart, to her's might flow.

The law's sharp plough tears up the fallow ground,

Where not a grain of grace was to be found,

Till straight perhaps behind the plough is sown

The hidden seed of faith, as yet unknown.

Hence now the once reluctant bride's inclined

To give the gospel an assenting mind,

Dispos'd to take, would grace the pow'r impart,

Heav'n's offer with a free consenting heart.

His Spirit in the gospel-chariot rides,

And shews his loving heart to draw the bride's;

Though oft in clouds his drawing pow'r he hides.

His love in gracious offers to her bears,

In kindly answers to her doubts and fears,

Resolving all objections more or less

From former sins, or present worthlessness.

Persuades her mind of's conjugal consent,

And then impow'rs her heart to say, Content.

Content to be divorced from the law,

No more the yoke of legal terms to draw;

Content that he dissolve the former match,

And to himself alone her heart attach;

Content to join with Christ at any rate,

And wed him as her everlasting mate;

Content that he should ever wear the bays,

And of her whole salvation have the praise;

Content that he should rise, though she should fall,

And to be nothing, that he may be all;

Content that he, because she nought could do,

Do for her all her work, and in her too.

Here she a peremptory mind displays,

That he do all the work, get all the praise.

And now she is, which ne'er till now took place,

Content entirely to be sav'd by grace.

She owns that her damnation just would be,

And therefore her salvation must be free:

That nothing being hers but sin and thrall,

She must be debtor unto grace for all.

Hence comes she to him in her naked case,

To be invested with his righteousness.

She comes, as guilty, to a pardon free;

As vile and filthy, to a cleansing sea;

As poor and empty, to the richest stock;

As weak and feeble to the strongest rock:

As perishing , unto a shield from thrall;

As worse than nothing, to an all in all.

She, as a blinded mole, an ign'rant fool,

Comes for instruction to the Prophet's school.

She, with a hell-deserving conscious breast,

Flies for atonement to the worthy Priest.

She as a slave to sin and Satan, wings

Her flight for help unto the King of kings.

She all her maladies and plagues brings forth

To this Physician of eternal worth.

She spreads before his throne her filthy sore;

And lays her broken bones down at his door.

No mite she has to buy a crumb of bliss,

And therefore comes impoverished as she is;

By sin and Satan, of all good bereft,

Comes e'en as bare as they her soul have left.

To sense, as free of holiness within,

As Christ, the spotless Lamb, was free of sin.

She comes by faith, true; but it shews her want,

And brings her as a sinner, not a saint;

A wretched sinner, flying for her good

To justifying, sanctifying blood.

Strong faith no strength nor power of acting vaunts,

But acts in sense of weakness and of wants.

Drain'd now of every thing that men may call

Terms and conditions of relief from thrall;

Except this one, that Jesus be her all.

When to the bride he gives espousing faith,

It finds her under sin, and guilt, and wrath,

And makes her as a plagued wretch to fall

At Jesus' footstool for the cure of all.

Her whole salvation now in him she seeks,

And musing thus perhaps in secret speaks;

 "Lo! all my burdens may in him be eased;

The justice I offended he has pleased;

The bliss that I have forfeit he procured;

The curse that I deserved he endured;

The law that I have broken he obeyed;

The debt that I contracted he has paid;

And though a match unfit for him I be,

I find him every way most fit for me.

"Sweet Lord, I think, would thou thyself impart,

I'd welcome thee with open hand and heart.

But thou that sav'st by price, must save by power;

O send thy Spirit in a fiery shower,

This cold and frozen heart of mine to thaw,

That nought, save cords of burning love, can draw.

O draw me, Lord, then will I run to thee,

And glad into thy glowing bosom flee.

I own myself a mass of sin and hell,

A brat that can do nothing but rebel:

But didst thou not, as sacred pages shew, (1)

When rising up to spoil the hellish crew,

That had by thousands, sinners captive made,

And hadst in conqu'ring chains them captive led,

Get donatives, not for they proper gain,

But royal bounties for rebellious men,

Gifts, graces, and the Spirit without bounds,

For God's new house with man on firmer grounds?

O then let me a rebel now come speed,

Thy Holy Spirit is the gift I need.

His precious graces too, the glorious grant,

Thou kindly promis'd and a greatly want.

Thou art exalted to the highest place,

To give repentance forth, and ev'ry grace. (2)

O giver of spiritual life and breath,

The author and the finisher of faith; (3)

Thou husband-like must ev'ry thing provide,

If e'er the like of me become thy bride."

 

(1) Psalm xviii. 18.

(2) Acts v. 31.

(3) Heb. xii. 2.

GOSPEL SONNETS - Chapter 2 - Section 3

GOSPEL SONNETS
By Ralph Erskine
Chapter 2

SECTION III. – The deeply humbled soul RELIEVED with some saving discoveries of CHRIST the Redeemer.

WHEN thus the wounded bride perceives full well,
Herself the vilest sinner out of hell,
The blackest monster in the universe;
Pensive, if clouds of wo shall e’er disperse;
When in her breast Heaven’s wrath so fiercely glows,
‘Twixt fear and guilt, her bones have no repose.
When flowing billows of amazing dread
Swell to a deluge o’er her sinking head;
When nothing in her heart is found to dwell,
But horrid Atheism, enmity, and hell;
When endless death and ruin seems at hand,
And yet she cannot, for her soul, command
A sigh to ease it, or a gracious thought,
Though heaven could at this petty rate be bought;
When darkness and confusion overcloud,
And unto black despair temptations crowd;
When wholly without strength to move or stir,
And not a star by night appears to her:
But she, while to the brim her troubles flow,
Stands, trembling, on the utmost brink of woe.
Ah! weary case! But, lo! in this sad plight,
The sun arises with surprising light.
The darkest midnight is his usual time
Of rising, and appearing in his prime.
To shew the hills from whence salvation springs,
And chase the gloomy shade with golden wings,
The glorious husband now unveils his face,
And shews his glory full of truth and grace: (1)
Presents unto the bride, in that dark hour,
Himself a Saviour, both by price and power:
A mighty Helper to redeem the lost,
Relieve and ransom to the uttermost; (2)
To seek the vagrant sheep to deserts driven,
And save from lowest hell to highest heaven.
Her doleful case he sees, his bowels move,
And make her time of need his time of love; (3)
He shews, to prove himself her mighty shield,
His name is JESUS, by his Father sealed: (4)
A name with attributes engraved within,
To save from every attribute of sin.
With wisdom sin’s great folly to expose,
And righteousness its chain of guilt to loose,
Sanctification to subdue its sway,
Redemption all its woful brood to slay. (5)
Each golden letter of his glorious name
Bears full deliverance both from sin and shame.
Yea not privation bare from sin and woe,
But thence all positive salvations flow,
To make her wise, just, holy, happy too.
He now appears a match exactly meet
To make her every way in him complete,
In whom the fulness of the Godhead dwells, (6)
That she may boast in him, and nothing else.
In gospel lines she now perceives the dawn
Of Jesus’ love, with bloody pencil drawn;
How God in him is infinitely pleased,
And Heaven-avenging fury wholly appeased:
Law-precepts magnified by her beloved,
And every let to stop the match removed,
Now in her view her prison gates break ope,
Wide to the wall flies up the door of hope;
And now she sees with pleasure unexpressed
For shattered barks a happy shore of rest.

(1) John i. 14.
(2) Heb. vii. 25.
(3) Ezek. xvi. 6, 8.
(4) Matt. i. 21.
(5) 1 Cor. i. 30.
(6) Col. ii. 9, 10.