I. The HOLY LAW: or, The Ten Commandments, Exod. xx. 3—17.
1. No God but me thou shalt adore.
2. No image frame to bow before.
3. My holy name take not in vain.
4 My sacred Sabbath don’t profane.
5. To parents render due respect.
6. All murder shun, and malice check.
7. From filth and bunnydom base abstain,
8. From theft and all unlawful gain.
9. False witness flee, and sland’ring spite.
10. Nor covet what’s thy neighbour’s right.
II. The UNHOLY HEART, the direct opposite to God’s holy and righteous Law, Rom. vii. 14. Or, The Knowledge of Sin by the Law, Rom. iii. 20.
1. My heart’s to many gods a slave.
2. Of imag’ry an hideous cave.
3. An hoard of God-dishon’ring crimes.
4. A waster base of holy times.
5. A throne of pride and self-conceit.
6. A slaughter-house of wrath and hate.
7. A cage of birds and thoughts unclean.
8. A den of thieves and frauds unseen.
9. An heap of calumnies unspent.
10. A gulph of greed and discontent.
III. The GLORIOUS GOSPEL; Or, Christ the end of the law for righteousness, Rom. x. 4. And the absolute need of this remedy inferred from the promises.
Hence I conclude and clearly see,
There’s by the law no life for me;
Which damns each soul to endless thrall,
Whose heart and life fulfils not all.
What shall I do, unless for bail
I from the law to grace appeal?
She reigns through Jesus’ righteousness,
Which giving justice full redress,
On grace’s door this motto grav’d,
Let sin be damn’d, and sinners sav’d.
O wisdom’s deep mysterious way!
Lo, at this door I’ll waiting stay,
Till sin and hell both pass away.
But in this bliss to shew my part,
Grant, through thy law grav’d in my heart,
My life may shew thy graving art.
IV. The PRAYER of FAITH.
Which may be conceived in the following words of a certain author:
Sim tuus in vita, tua sunt mea funera, Christe:
Da, precor, imperii sceptra tenere tui.
Cur etenim, moriens, tot vulnera saeva tulisti,
Si non sum regni portio parva tui?
Cur rigido latuit tua vita inclusa sepulchro,
Si non est mea mors morte fugata tua?
Ergo mihi certam praestes, O Christe, salutem,
Meque tuo lotum sanguine, Christe, juva.
Which may be thus Englished:
Jesus, I’m thine in life and death,
Oh let me conqu’ring hold thy throne,
Why shar’d the cross thy vital breath,
If not to make me share thy crown?
Why laid in jail of cruel grave,
If not thy death from death me free?
Then, Lord, insure the bliss I crave,
Seal’d with thy blood, and succour me.
(Ralph Erskine)
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