It is the order, the eternal law,

The true free grace, that never can withdraw;
Observance of it will, of course, be blest,
And opposition to it self-distrest;

To them, who love its gracious author, all,
Will work for good, according to St. Paul.

An easy key to each abstruser text,
That modern disputants have so perplext;
With arbitrary fancies on each side,

From God's pure love, or man's freewill deny'd; Which, in the breast of saints, and sinners too, May both be found self-evidently true.

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

THE love of God with genuine ray
Inflam'd the breast of good Cambray;
And banish'd from the prelate's mind
All thoughts of interested kind:
He saw, and writers of his class,
(Of too neglected worth alas!)
Disinterested love to be
The gospel's very A B C.

When our redeeming Lord began
To practice it himself, as man;
And, for the joy then set before
His loving view, such evils bore;
Endur'd the cross, despis'd the shame-
Had he an interested aim?
Surely the least examination
Shows, that the joy was our salvation.

For us be suffer'd, to make known
The love that seeketh not its own;
Suffer'd, what nothing but so pure
A love could possibly endure:
No less a sacrifice than this

Could bring poor sinners back to bliss;
Or execute the saving plan

Of reuniting God and man.

This love was Abra'm's shield and guard;
Was his exceeding great reward;
This love the patriarchal eye,
And that of Moses could descry;
In this disinterested sense

They sought reward, or recompense,
City, or country, Heav'n above,
The seat of purity and love.

This the high calling, this the prize,
The mark of Paul's so steady eyes;
For, with the self-forgetting Paul,
Pure love of God in Christ was all:
The text of the beloved John
Has all, that words can say in one;
For God is love-compendious whole
Of all the blessings of a soul.

What helps to this a soul may want,
Pure love is ready still to grant;
But with a view to wean it still
From selfish, mercenary will:
Of all reward, all punishment.
This is the end, in God's intent,
To form, in offsprings of his own,
The bliss of loving his alone.

ON THE SAME SUBJECT.

I LOVE my God, and freely too,
With the same love that he imparts;
That he, to whom all love is due,
Engraves upon pure loving hearts.

I love, but this celestial fire,
Ye starry pow'rs! ye do not raise:
No wages, no reward's desire,
Is in the purely shining blaze.

Me, nor the hopes of heav'nly bliss,
Or paradisic scenes excite;

Nor terrours of the dark abyss,
Of death's eternal den, affright.

No bought, and paid-for love be mine,
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, Love will pursue its wonted rout.

Be there no hope if it persistPersist it will, nor ever cease;

No punishment if 'tis dismistWhat caus'd it not will not decrease.

Should'st thou give nothing for its pains, It claims not any thing as due;

Should'st thou condemn me, it remains Unchang'd by any selfish view.

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.

Ev'ry good, perfect gift, cometh down from

above,

AS APPLIED TO GOD IN SCRIPTURE.

THAT God is love-is in the scripture said;
That he is wrath-is no where to be read;
From which, by literal expression free,
"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
Of an impenitently harden'd heart:" [part
When love reveals its own eternal life,
Then wrath and anguish fall on evil strife;
Then lovely justice, in itself all bright,
Is burning fire to such as hate the light.

If wrath and justice be indeed the same,
No wrath in God-is liable to blame;
If not; if righteous judges may, and must,
Be free themselves from wrath, if they be just,
Such kind of blaming may, with equal sense,
Lay on a judge the criminal's offence.

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.

Any word should be strain'd to inculcate a thought Of a wrath in his mind, or a change to be wrought.

All wrath is the product of creaturely sin; In immutable love it could never begin; Nor, indeed, in a creature, 'till opposite will [ill, To the love of its God had brought forth such an To the love that was pleas'd to communicate bliss In such endless degrees, thro' all Nature's abyss; Nor could wrath have been known, had not man

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,
As the image of God, had the goodness of all:
When he fell, and awakened wrath, evil, and curse
In himself and the world, was God become worse?
Who so lov'd the world still, that, when wrath
was begun,

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, orany 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;
Full conquest of wrath ever striving to make,
And blotting transgressions out for its own sake;
Wanting no satisfaction itself, but to give
Itself, that the world might receive it, and live---

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,
The restorer of God's true, original plan;
"The one quencher of wrath, the atoner of sin,
And the bringer of justice and righteousness in,"
The renewer, in man, of a pow'r, and a will
To satisfy justice-that is, to fulfil.

There is nothing that justice and righteousness
hath

More opposite to it, than anger and wrath;
As repugnant to all that is equal and right,
As falshood to truth, or as darkness to light.
Of God, in himself, what the scripture affirms
Is truth, light, and love-plain significant terms;
In his deity, therefore, there cannot befall
Any falshood, or darkness, or hatred at all.

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
Order, and rule, and rectitude of things;
Thro' outward nature, his apparent throne,
Visibly seen, intelligibly known:
Proofs of a boundless pow'r, a wisdom's aid,
By goodness us'd, eternal, and unmade.

Cudworth perceiv'd, that what divines advance
For sov'reignty alone is fate, or chance:
Fate, after pow'r had made its forcing laws;
And chance, before, if made without a cause:
Nothing stands firm, or certain, in a state
Of fatal chance, or accidental fate.

Endless perfections, after all, conspire,
And to adore, excite, and to admire;
But to plain minds, the plainest pow'r above
Is native goodness, to attract our love:
Centre of all its various power, and skill,
Is one divine, immutable good will.

IMMUTABLE RECTITUDE.

TH' eternal mind, e'en Heathens understood,
Was infinitely powerful, wise, and good:
In their conceptions, who conceiv'd aright,
These three essential attributes unite:
They saw, that, wanting any of the three,
Such an all-perfect being could not be.

For pow'r, from wisdom suff'ring a divorce,
Would be a foolish, mad, and frantic force:
If both were join'd, and wanted goodness still,
They would concur to more pernicious ill:
However nam'd, their action could but tend
To weakness, fully, mischief without end.

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:
When fire itself upon a Sodom fell,
It was the law to stop a growing Hell:
So on-the law with riches, or with rods,
Come as it will, is good, for it is God's.

Men who observe a law, or who abuse,
For selfish pow'r, are blind as any Jews;
On sabbath, constru'd by rabbinic will,
God must not save, and men must seek to kill;
Such zeal for law has pharisaic faith,
Not as 'tis good, but as it worketh wrath.

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.

In other cases, men may form a doubt, Whether their alms be properly laid out; But in the objects, here, before your eyes, No such distrust can possibly arise; Too plain the miseries! which well may melt An heart, sincerely wishing them unfelt.

The wise consider this terrestrial ball,
As Heav'n's design'd infirmary for all,
Here came the great physician of the soul,

To heal man's nature, and to make him whole:
Still, by his spirit, present with all those,
Who lend an aid to lessen human woes.

A godlike work; who forwards it is sure,
That ev'ry step advances his own cure:
Without benevolence, the view to self
Makes worldly riches an unrighteous pelf;
While blest thro' life, the giver, for his love,
Dies to receive its huge reward above.

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.
FROM THE GERMAN.

JESU! teach this heart of mine
True simplicity to find;
Child-like, innocent, divine,

Free from guile of every kind:
And since, when amongst us vouchsafing to live,
So pure an example it pleas'd thee to give;
O! let me keep still the bright pattern in view,
And be, after thy likeness, right simple and true.

When I read, or when I hear

Truths that kindle good desires;
How to act, and how to bear

What Heav'n-instrcted faith requires ;
Let no subtle fancies e'er lead me astray,
Or teach me to comment thy doctrines away;
No reas'nings of selfish corruption within,
Nor slights by which Satan deludes us to sin.

Whilst I pray before thy face,

Thou! who art my highest good!
O! confirm to me the grace,

Purchas'd by thy precious blood:
That, with a true filial affection of heart,
I may feel what a real redeemer thou art;
And, thro' thy atonement to justice above,
Be receiv'd, as a child, by the father of love.

Give me, with a child-like mind,
Simply to believe thy word;
And to do whate'er I find

Pleases best my dearest Lord:
Resolving to practise thy gracious commands;
To resign myself wholly up into thy hands:
That, regarding thee simply in all my employ,
I may cry," Abba! Father!" with dutiful joy.
Nor within me, nor without,
Let hypocrisy reside;
But whate'er I go about,

Mere simplicity be guide:
Simplicity guide me in word, and in will;
Let me live-let me die-in simplicity still:
Of an epitaph made me let this be the whole-
Here lies a true child, that was simple of soul.

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!