ment of the power, which attends divine manifeftations.

3. Our wife Redeemer proportions the means to the end. If the effect of a manifestation of his love is to be exceeding great, the manifeftation must be exceeding bright. Suppofe the burden of guilt and hardness, temptation, and forrow, under which one groans is ten times greater than that, which oppreffes another, it is plain the manifeftation, which is to remove the tenfold weight is to be ten times ftronger. The fame rule holds alfo with regard to fufferings and labours. The hotter the fight of afflictions God's children are to go through, the ftronger and the brighter alfo is the celeftial armour put upon them, at the revelation of the Captain of their salvation.

4. Neither can it be doubted, but that our good God, in fixing the degree of divine manifeftations, hath a peculiar respect to the state and capacity of the fouls to whom he difcovers himself. The deeper finners mourn for him, the deeper he makes them drink of the cup of falvation at his appearing. Bleffed are they that greatly hunger and thirft after righteoufnefs; their fouls are thereby greatly enlarged to receive the oil of gladnefs, and the wine of the kingdom. Bleffed are the poor in fpirit, thofe, whofe fouls are empty as the veffels of the defolate widow, in the days of Elisha : when the heavenly Prophet fhall vifit them, the ftreams of his fulnefs fhall certainly flow according to the degree of their emptiness.

5. A fkilful phyfician prescribes weaker or ftronger medicines, according to the ftate of his patients. So does the Phyfician of fouls; he weighs, if I may fo fpeak, every dram of the heavenly power in the fcales of goodness and wifdom. He knows what quantity of the heavenly cordial our fpirits can bear, and will not, without the greatest care, put the ftrong wine of his powerful love into a weak veffel. He fees, that as fome perfons can stand, for a time, the fight of the meridian fun, when others are hurt by the firit appearance of a taper, fo fome Chriftians can bear the strong

beams of his gracious prefence, while others are almoft. overpowered by his fainter rays.

6. If fome live and die without any manifeftations of the Redeemer's love and glory, the reasons of it may poffible be found in the abyffes of his juftice and goodnefs. They grieve and quench the Spirit, that convinces the world of fin; and it is very fit they fhould not have him as a Comforter, whom they obftinately reject as a Reprover. Add to this, that as our Lord forefees, that if fuch people were favoured with tokens of his more diftinguifhing condefcenfion, they would only abuse them, as Cain and the Pharifees did, he puts them not to the trial, nor fuffers them to enhance their guilt by trampling richer mercy and love under foot: fo that this feeming feverity is, in fact, real benignity.

7. The Lord not only proportions the degree of his powerful appearance to the weakness of our fouls, but alfo to that of our bodies. He knoweth whereof we are made, and remembers that we are but flesh. If the natural fun, that glorious emblem of our Enmanuel, was to approach as near our earth, and shine as bright as poffible, the infufferable blaze and heat would inftantly blind and confume us. By a parity of reafon, was our bright Sun of righteousness to manifeft his unclouded glory, or to appear without the tempering medium of his manhood, no flesh could fupport the fight. The brain, unable to bear the high operations of the foul, would turn; the heart of the wicked, fwelled with intolerable pangs of fear, and that of the righteous, dilated by overwhelming transports of joy, would inftantly burst. God therefore fays, "No man can fee my face," without fome dimming veil," and live." Hence arofe likewife the grateful exclamations of Manoah and others, when the Lord had manifefted himfelf to thein concealed under human appearance, We have feen God, and live! We have beheld him and are not confumed!

8. This may, perhaps, help us to account why the Lord ftill hides his face from fome of his fincere feek

ers. They fit begging by the way fide of his ordinances, and yet he does not pafs by, fo as to restore to them their fpiritual fight, that they might know him. In all probability he designs them fuch a bright manifestation, as they are not yet able to bear. When their hearts are ftrengthened for the heavenly vifion, it fhall fpeak. Let them only wait for it. Let patience have its perfect work, and faith in the word be tried to the uttermoft; and he that cometh, will come and will not tarry. He will bring his reward with him, and a moment of his prefence will make them abundant amends for the waiting of an age. Were he to appear, before they are prepared by the humiliation of repentance and the patience of hope, they would be in the cafe of thofe carnal Ifraelites, who, far from being able to commune with God, could not fo much as fpeak to Mofes, when he came down from the mount, without first obliging him to put a veil over his fhining face.

Peter, James, and John were, it feems, the foremost of the apoftles in fpiritual ftrength and boldness; nevertheless, the manifeftation they had of Christ on the Imount almoft overwhelined them. Their body funk under the weight of his glory, and when they came out of their fleep or trance, they could not recover themfelves," they knew not what they faid." This had been before the cafe of Daniel, and was once more that of St. John. The comelinefs of the man greatly beloved was turned to corruption; he retained no ftrength. And the beloved Apoftle, when he faw his Saviour with fome additional beams of glory, fell at his feet as dead. St. Paul not only loft his fight on fuch an occafion, but was near lofing his life, being unable to take any refreshment for three days and three nights. And it is alfo generally fuppofed, that Mofes actually died under the overpowering difplays of the Redeemer's love. Hence we learn, that God's way and time are beft, and that we are to leave both to his gracious wifdom; ufing the means, in which he has

promifed to manifeft himself to thofe who diligently

feek him.

VII. What thofe means are is what I come in the laft place to confider. The agent or author of every divine manifeftation is the eternal God, one in three, and three in one. The Father reveals the Son freely, the Son freely difcovers himself, and the Holy Ghost freely teftifies of him. Nevertheless, the fcriptures, in general attribute this wonder of grace to the bleffed Spirit."No man can" experimentally, "fay, that Jefus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghoft." It is his peculiar office to convince the world of righteoufnefs, by giving us to know favingly the Lord our righteoufnefs. "He hall glorify me," fays Chrift, "for he fhall take of mine, and fhew it unto you." And this he does, without any merit of ours, in the means, which God hath appointed, and which he enables us to use aright.

Thefe means are both outward and inward. The outward are what our church calls "the means of grace;" particularly hearing or reading the word, partaking of the facraments, and praying together with one accord for the manifeftation of the Spirit, as the primitive Chriftians did.* These means are to be ufed with the greatest diligence, but not to be trusted to; the only proper object of our confidence is God, who works all in all. It was not Mofes's rod, which parted the red fea, but that Almighty arm, which once divided the water from the water without a rod. Nevertheless, as Mofes was not to throw his rod away, under pretence of trufting in God alone, neither was he to rely on the weak inftrument, as if the divine power refided in it.

Though the Lord in general works by means, he ties bimfelf to none, and fometimes work without any. The fame fpirit, which fell upon Cornelius, while Peter preached, fell upon Peter on the day of pentecoft without any preaching. And the fame Lord, who

*Acts ii. I.

A a

opened Lydia's heart by the miniftry of St. Paul, opened the heart of St. Paul by the fole exertion of his power. We hence learn, that as on the one hand, we ought not with the profane and enthusiasts to tempt the Lord, by neglecting the use of any of the means he hath appointed; fo on the other hand, we must beware of confining God to particular means, times, and places, as the bigotted and fuperftitious do; reinembering, that when we are cut off from all outward means, it is our privilege to wait for the immediate difplay of God's arm, in the afe of the inward means.

Of thefe the 1ft is a believing there will be a performance of the Lord's promife, and that he is willing and able to manifeft himfelf to us as he does not to the world this is the very root of prayer, fervency, hope, and expectation. Without the actings of this preparatory faith, the foul droops, and becomes an eafy prey to defpondency, vanity, or floth. Where this talent is buried, the Lord feldom works. Believeft thou, that I am able to do this for thee? is generally the first question, that he puts to the feeker's heart. If it is anfwered in the negative, he can do no great miracle, becaufe of this unbelief. Nevertheless, it 'must be acknowledged, that St. Paul was bleffed with the revelation of the Son of God, without any previous defire or expectation of it. In him, and others was this fcripture fulfilled, "I was found of them that fought me not, I was manifefted to them that asked not after me." But, in general, where the gospel is preached, the Lord will be enquired of by the house of Ifrael to do this; and if he visits any with conviction, as he did St. Paul, it is only to make them pray, as that apostle did, until he manifefts himself, by the Holy Ghoft, in a way of confolation and love.

The 2d inward means of the manifeftation of Chrift is refignation, as to the particular manner, time, and place of it. Through patience, as well as faith and prayer, we inherit this promifed bleffing. Some, according to their carna wifdom and forward imagination, mark out the way in which falvation is to come to