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An Exhortation to All Apart from Christ

by Ralph Erskine (1685-1752)

The following selection is taken from the sixth chapter of Erkine's Gospel Sonnets as found in The Sermons and Practical Works of Ralph Erskine (Glasgow: W. Smith and J. Bryce Booksellers, 1778) vol. 10, pp. 96-112. The original title of this piece appears as follows: "An Exhortation to all that are out of Christ; in order to their closing the match with him: containing also motives and directions." The electronic edition of this text has been newly type set and edited by Shane Rosenthal for Reformation Ink. In numerous cases antiquated characters have been replaced and the spelling has been modernized. In some instances sections have been edited for clarity. This particular version therefore is not in the public domain. It may be copied and distributed only for personal or educational use.

 

F E A T U R I N G :

 

Section I. Conviction offered to sinners, especially such as are wedded strictly to the law, or self-righteousness, that they may see the need of Christ's righteousness.

 

Section II. Direction given with reference to the right use of the Means, that we rest not on these instead of Christ, the glorious Husband, in whom our help lies.

 

Section III. A Call to believe in Jesus Christ, with some hints at the Act and Object of Faith.

 

*Section IV. An Advice to Sinners to apply to the sovereign Mercy of God, as it is discovered through Christ, to the highest honour of Justice and other divine attributes, in order to futher their Faith in him unto salvation.

 

*Section V. The terrible Doom of Unbelievers, and Rejecters of Christ, or Despisers of the Gospel.

 

* These sections are not currently available.

 

SECTION I.

Conviction offered to sinners, especially such as are wedded strictly to the law, or self-righteousness, that they may see the need of CHRIST'S righteousness.

 

If never yet thou didst fair Jesus wed,

Nor yield thy heart to be his marriage-bed;

But hitherto are wedded to the law,

Which never could thy chain'd affections draw

From brutish lusts and sordid lovers charms;

Lo! thou art yet in Satan's folded arms.

Hell's pow'r invisible thy soul retains

His captive slave, lock'd up in many chains.

O sinner then, as thou regard'st thy life,

Seek, seek with ardent care and earnest strife

To be the glorious Lamb's betrothed wife.

For base corrivals never let him lose

Thy heart, his bed of conjugal repose.

Wed Christ alone, and with sever remorse

From other mates pursue a clean divorce;

For they thy ruin seek by fraud or force.

As lurking serpents in the shady bow'rs

Conceal their malice under spreading flow'rs;

So thy deceitful lusts with cruel spite

Hide ghastly danger under gay delight.

Art thou a legal zealot, soft or rude?

Renounce thy nat'ral and acquired good.

As base deceitful lusts may work thy smart,

So may deceitful frames upon thy heart.

Seeming good motions may in some be found,

Much joy in hearing, like the stony ground;

Much sorrow too in praying, as appears

In Esau's careful suit with rueful tears.

Touching the law, they blameless may appear,

From spurious views most specious virtues bear.

Nor merely be devout in mens esteem,

But prove to be sincerely what they seem,

Friends to the holy law in heart and life,

Suers of heav'n with utmost legal strife;

Yet still with innate pride so rankly spic'd,

Converted but to duties, not to Christ;

That Publicans and harlots heav'n obtain

Before a crew so righteous and so vain.

Sooner will those shake off their vicious dress,

Than these blind zealots will their righteousness,

Who judge they have (which fortifies their pride)

The law of God itself upon their side.

Old nature, new brush'd up with legal pains,

Such strict attachment to the law retains,

No means, no motives can to Jesus draw

Vain souls, so doubly wedded to the law.

 

But wouldst the glorious Prince in marriage have,

Know that thy nat'ral husband cannot save.

Thy best essays to pay the legal rent

Can never, in the least, the law content.

Didst thou in pray'rs employ the morning-light,

In tears and groans the watches of the night,

Pass thy whole life in close devotion o'er;

'Tis nothing to the law still craving more.

There's no proportion 'twixt its high commands,

And puny works from thy polluted hands;

Perfection is the least that it demands.

Wouldst enter into life, then keep the law;

But keep it perfectly without a flaw.

It won't have less, nor will abate at last

A drop of vengeance for the sin that's past,

Tell, sinful mortal, is thy stock so large

As duly can defray this double charge?

"Why these are mere impossibles," sayst thou:

"Yea, truly so they are; and therefore now,

That down thy legal confidence may fall,

The law's black doom home to thy bosom call.

"Lo! I (the divine law,) demand no less

"Than perfect, everlasting righteousness;

"But thou hast fail'd, and lost thy strength to DO:

"Therefore I doom thee to eternal wo;

"In prison close to be shut up for ay,

"Ere I be baffled with thy partial pay.

"Thou always didst, and dost my precepts break;

"I therefore curse thee to the burning lake.

"In God, the great Lawgiver's glorious name,

"I judge thy soul to everlasting shame."

No flesh can by the law be justified.

Yet darest thou thy legal duties plead?

As Paul appeal'd to Caesar, wilt thou so

Unto the law? then to it thou shalt go,

And find it doom the to eternal wo.

 

What! would ye have us plung'd in deep despair?

Amen; yea, God himself would have you there.

His will it is that you despair of life,

And safety by the law or legal strife;

That cleanly thence divorc'd at any rate

His fairest Son may have a faithful mate.

'Till this law-sentence pass within your breast,

You'll never wed the law-discharging Priest.

You prize not heav'n, till he through hell you draw;

Nor love the gospel, till ye know the law.

 

Know then, the divine law most perfect cares

For none of thy imperfect legal wares;

Dooms thee to vengeance for thy sinful state,

As well as sinful actions small or great.

If any sin can be accounted small,

To hell it dooms thy soul for one and all.

For sins of nature, practice, heart, and way,

Damnation-rent it summons thee to pay.

Yea, not for sin alone, which is thy shame,

But for thy boasted service too, so lame,

The law adjudges thee and hell to meet,

Because thy righteousness is incomplete.

As tow'ring flames burn up the wither'd flags,

So will the fiery law thy filthy rags.

 

 

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SECTION II.

DIRECTION given with reference to the right use of the Means, that we rest not on these instead of CHRIST, the glorious Husband, in whom our help lies.

ADAM, where art thou? Soul, where art thou now?

Oh! art thou saying, Sir, what shall I do?

I dare not use that proud self-raising strain,

Go help yourself, and God will help you then.

Nay, rather know, O Israel, that thou hast

Destroy'd thy self, and canst not in the least

From sin nor wrath thyself the captive free.

Thy help, says Jesus, only lies in me.

Heav'n's oracles direct to him alone,

Full help is laid upon thy mighty One.

In him, in him complete salvation dwells;

He's God the helper, and there is none else.

Fig-leaves won't hide thee from the fiery show'r,

'Tis he alone that saves by price and pow'r.

 

Must we do nothing then, will mockers say,

But rest in sloth till Heav'n the help convey?

Pray, stop a little sinner; don't abuse

God's awful word, that charges thee to use

Means, ordinances, which he's pleas'd to place,

As precious channels of his pow'rful grace.

Restless improve all these, until from heav'n

The whole salvation needful thus be giv'n.

Wait in his path according to his call,

On him whose pow'r alone effecteth all.

Would'st thou him wed? in duties wait, I say;

But marry not thy duties by the way.

Thou'lt wofully come short of saving grace,

If duties only be thy resting place.

Nay, go a little further through them all,

To him whose office is to save from thrall,

Thus in a gospel-manner hopeful wait,

Striving to enter by the narrow gate;

So strait and narrow, that it won't admit

The bunch upon thy back to enter it.

Not only bulky lusts may cease to press,

But ev'n the bunch of boasted righteousness.

 

Many, as in the sacred page we see,

Shall strive to enter, but unable be:

Because, mistaking this new way of life,

The push a legal, not a gospel-strife:

As if their duties did JEHOVAH bind,

Because 'tis written, Seek, and ye shall find

Perverted scripture does their error fence,

They read the letter, but neglect the sense.

While to the word no gospel-gloss they give;

Their seek and find's the same with do and live.

Hence would they a connection native place

Between their moral pains, and saving grace:

Their nat'ral poor essays the judge won't miss,

In justice, to infer eternal bliss.

 

Thus commentaries on the word they make,

Which to their ruin are a grand mistake:

For, through the legal bias in their breast,

They scripture to their own destruction wrest.

Why, if we seek, we get, they gather hence;

Which is not truth, save in the scripture-sense.

There Jesus deals with friends, and elsewhere faith,

These seekers only speed that ask in faith.

The prayer of the wicked is abhorr'd,

As an abomination to the Lord.

Their suits are sins, but their neglects no less,

Which can't their guilt diminish, but increase.\

They ought, like beggars, lie in grace's way;

Hence, Peter taught the sorcerer to pray;

For though mere nat'ral mens address or pray'rs

Can no acceptance gain as work of theirs,

Nor have, as their performance, any sway;

Yet as a divine ordinance they may.

But spotless truth has bound itself to grant

The suit of none but the believing saint.

In Jesus persons once accepted, do

Acceptance find in him for duties too.

For he, whose Son, they do in marriage take,

Is bound to hear them for their Husband's sake.

 

But let no Christless soul, at prayer appear,

As if JEHOVAH were oblig'd to hear:

But sue the means, because a sov'reign God

May come with alms in this his wonted road.

He wills theeto frequent kind wisdom's gate,

To read, hear, meditate, to pray and wait;

Thy Spirit then be on these duties bent,

As gospel means, but not as legal rent,

From these don't thy salvation hope nor claim,

But from JEHOVAH in the use of them.

The beggar's spirit never was so dull,

While waiting at the gate call'd Beautiful,

To hope for succor from the temple-gate,

At which he daily did so careful wait:

But from the rich and charitable fort,

Who to the temple daily made resort.

Means, ordinances, are the comely gate,

At which kind heav'n has bid us constant wait:

Not that from these we have our alms, but from

The lib'ral God, who ther is wont to come.

If either we these means shall dare neglect;

Or yet from these th' enriching bliss expect,

We from the glory of the King defalk;

Who in the galleries is won't to walk;

We move not regular in duties road,

But base, invert them to an idol-god.

 

 

 

SECTION III.

A CALL to believe in JESUS CHRIST, with some hints at the Act and Object of Faith.

 

In this new cov'nant judge not faith to hold

The room of perfect doing in the old.

Faith is not giv'n to be the fed'ral price

Of other blessings, or of paradise:

But Heav'n by giving this, strikes out a door

At which is carry'd in still more and more.

No sinner must upon his faith lay stress,

As if it were a perfect righteousness.

God ne'er assign'd unto it such a peace;

'Tis but at best a bankrupt begging grace.

Its object makes its fame to fly abroad,

So clse it grips the righteousness of God;

Which righteousness receiv'd, is, without strife,

The true condition of eternal life.

 

But still, say you, pow'r to believe I miss.

You may; but know you what believing is?

Faith lies not in your building up a tow'r

Of some great action by your proper pow'r.

For Heav'n well knows, that by the killing fall

No pow'r, no will remains in man at all

For acts divinely good; 'till sov'reign grace

By pow'rful drawing virtue turn the chase.

Hence none believe in Jesus, as they ought,

'Till once they do believe they can do nought,

Nore are sufficient e'en to form a thought.