Benjamin Keach on Saving Faith

'Tis easy to believe that Christ hath dy'd,
But, ah, how hard to get his blood apply'd!
Men may as easy raise the Dead again,
As of themselves true saving faith obtain:
For all their Wit, their Learning and their Skill;
Nothing obstructs it more than Man's own Will;
'Till God's almighty Pow'r makes that to bend,
'Twill not an Ear to Christ the Saviour lend:
No Pow'r but that which rais'd him from the Dead,
Works Faith in Saints, and quickens with their Head.
A Faith of Credence, verbally believ'd,
Is easy found and readily receiv'd:
But precious Faith, the Faith of God's Elect,
Wherewith Christ's Spouse is inwardly bedeck'd;
With other Graces, this will ne'er be found,
But in the honest heart by Grace made found.
This blessed Seed, sow'd in a Garden pure,
Yields timely Fruit, and endless shall endure.
Now when this faith in any one is wrought,
That Soul is truly to Christ Jesus brought:
Then is he only its beloved one,
Whom it receives, and wholly rests upon.
Now if the Lord this Gift hath given thee,
Sin thou abhor'st, and all Iniquity:
Nor doth one Lust predominate and reign,
If thou by Faith art truly born again.
Christ is thy Prophet, Priest, and only King,
And thou to him submit'st in ev'ry Thing.
He doth in thee his Sceptre freely sway,
And thou art govern'd by him Night and Day.
Sin can't prevail, such is thy happy Case,
If thou hast got this rare victorious Grace.
It purges fair, and purifies the heart,
Wholly renewing it in ev'ry Part,
Man by its Fruits true Faith can only know;
It works by Love, its Fruits for ever grow.

—Benjamin Keach, War with the Devil