The following is the first of Ralph Erskine's sonnet following the preface. I could not go past it for days. Reading and reading again the following words. So much he says in so little space. And so beautifully he says it. And the imagination is engaged, the heart, the mind - O' God may such sublime truth possess me!
Please bear with me, my own ryhme,
Then Erskine below, Read him once,
Read him a second time,
Do you his words and his sense divine?
What truths in these lines can your heart see?
Federal Headship, Covenant of works, Man in his purity?
And original ability?
The Fall, Depravity, resultant inability?
Read along below and with me do you see?
The FALL of ADAM.
OLD Adam once
a heav’n of pleasure found,
While he with
perfect innocence was crown’d;
His wing’d
affections to his God could move
In raptures of
desire, and strains of love.
Man standing
spotless, pure, and innocent,
Could well the
law of works with works content;
Though then,
(nor since), it could demand no less
Than personal
and perfect righteousness:
These unto
sinless man were easy terms,
Though now
beyond the reach of wither’d arms.
The legal
cov’nant then upon the field,
Perfection
sought, man could perfection yield
Rich had he,
and his progeny remain’d,
Had he
primeval innocence maintain’d:
His life had
been a rest without annoy,
A scene of
bliss, a paradise of joy.
But subtle
Satan, in the serpent hid,
Proposing fair
the fruit that God forbid,
Man soon
seduc’d by hell’s alluring art,
Did,
disobedient, from the rule depart,
Devour’d the
bait, and by his bold offence
Prostrate, he
lost his God, his life, his crown,
From all his
glory tumbled headlong down;
Plung’d in a
deep abyss of sin and woe,
Where, void of
heart to will, or hand to do;
For’s own
relief he can’t command a thought,
The total sum
of what he can is nought.
He’s able only
now t’ increase his thrall;
He can destroy
himself, and this is all.
But can the
hellish brat Heav’n’s law fulfill,
Whose precepts
high surmount his strength and skill?
Can filthy
dross produce a golden beam?
Can carnal
minds, fierce enmity’s wide maw,
Be duly
subject to the divine law?
Nay, now its
direfull threat’nings must take place
On all the
disobedient human race,
Who do by
guilt Omnipotence provoke,
Obnoxious
stand to his uplifted stroke.
They must
engulf themselves in endless woes,
Who to the
living God are deadly foes;
Who natively
his holy will gainsay,
Must to his
awful justice fall a prey.
In vain do
mankind now expect, in vain
By legal deeds
immortal life to gain:
Nay, death is
threaten’d, threats must have their due
Or souls that sin must die,
as God is true. Eze 18.4 For more click here
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