the facrifice for them. In choofing fallen men, and not angels, God gave an amazing inftance of the fovereignty of his grace, that he would be merciful to whom he would be merciful; would pass by the fuperior nature, and choose the inferior; prefer veffels of clay to veffels of gold! What can we fay? Nothing, but wonder at God's free grace! Unfpeakable love! Lord, it had been much if thou hadft provided an angel to mitigate our fufferings in hell, by giving us drops of water to cool our tongue; but that thou thouldft have condefcended to come and change rooms with us, lie in hell for us, and fuffer the very pains and agonies due to us, is love that. paffeth knowledge.

Lord, when I confider thy diftinguishing pity, and low stoop, to purchase and recover fuch cleds of earth and fin with thy blood and agonies, I am amazed at thy love, confounded at my own ingratitude, and afhamed at the coldness and hardness of my heart! Oh! was Chrift willing to change rooms with the like of me, and shall not I be willing to change rooms with him, and at his demand to part with the filthy rags of my fins, and take on the robe of his rightoutnefs? O fhall not this amazing love of Chrift constrain me to love him again, and live to him that died for me? fhall it not constrain me to think on him? constrain me to clofe with and trust in him? constrain me to commend him? constrain me to hate and avoid his enemy, fin? conftrain me to adhere to Chrift's truths and ways? to perfevere in prayer, praise and holy walking?

Are fallen angels left, and failen men pitched upon to be the monuments of free grace, to fill up the va cant rooms which angels fell from? What thall I fay to this, but, even fo, Father, for fo it pleafed thee; let thy fovereign free grace be the eternal fong of both men and angels. Not unto us, not unto us, but unto thy name be the glory. Bleffed be God, that I hear this joyful found of reconciliation with fallen men, and of a treaty of peace carried on with them: The devils never heard, and never fhall hear fuch news.-But Oh, if I come not in, and accept of the terms and offers made to me

in the gofpel, I'll put myself in a worfe cafe than the devils: For it cannot be charged upon fallen angels, as on fallen men, that God was willing to be reconciled to them, and they would not. Now then, when the gofpel treaty is proclaimed, God forbid I be found guilty of refufing his terms, fcorning his offers, and defying his threatnings. O how shall I escape, if I neglect fo great and wonderful falvation as is tendered to me? Neglect it, Lord, I dare not, I will not. Lo, I come, I accept, I embrace, Itake hold of thy covenant, and the feal of it tendered to me: I renounce the old covenant, I break league this day with all thy enemies, I proclaim war against them: I clofe with Chrift Jefus, both as my righteousness and ftrength: I make a full and free furrender and refignation of myfelf unto the Lord, to be his and his only, in all I am, and in all I enjoy, to be ordered and disposed of for his glory and fervice. Lord, I am thine; I will not be my own, I will not be the world's, but I'll be thine, thine only, and thine wholly; thine to love thee, ferve and obey thee without referve: fince thou wouldst have no nature but mine, I will have no will but thine. I renounce my own will, and take thine for my rule. Lord, I am thine, O fave thou me; and I will trumpet forth the praises of free grace and redeeming love for Amen.

ever.

THE

He hath not dealt fo with any nation.

HE nation of Ifrael was fingularly privileged a bove others; ; they were taken into covenant with God, they had God's word and ordinances, the means of coverfion and falvation; they had the gofpel revelation, the knowledge and promifes of the Meffiah.-But we under New-Teftment times, and in Britan, are yet more peculiarly privileged with clearer light and difcoveries of the Meffiah than the nation of Ifrael had. They lived under a darker and harfher difpenfation of the covenant of grace by Mofes, whofe firft miracle

was the turning of water into blood; but we live under the clearer and fweeter difpenfation of it by Christ himself, whose first miracle was the turning water into wine, that cheers the heart. The nation of Ifrael were called a people near unto God; but in gospel times we are allowed yet nearer accefs to God than they had. The children of Ifrael were not allowed fo much as to touch the mount on which the Lord came down: the men of Bethshemish had not liberty to lock into the ark, the place of his refidence:- But, behold, we are allowed to take a near view and fteady look of a crucified Jefus in the facrament, who is the image of the invifible Ged, the brightness of his Father's glory, and the exprefs image of his perfon; yea, we have liberty not only to look to him, but also to touch him, handle his wounds, embrace his perfon, and lodge him in our hearts.

The advantage of a clear revelation of a crucified Chrift in the gofpel ordinances, and particularly in the Lord's fupper, is an invaluable privilege. If the royal Pfalmift admired the divine goodness in caufing the fun, moon, and stars, to fhine in the firmament for man's behoof, and therefore cries, what is man that God is thus mindful of him? How far greater cause have we to fay fo, when we obferve how God caufes the Sun of Righteoufnefs fhine fo brightly in the firmament of gofpel ordinances, and the day spring from on high to vifit us with the light of faving knowledge, and of eternal falvation through him?-Again, if the Pfalm. ift exalts God's goodnefs fo much in his giving the beails of the field, fowls of the air, and filhes of the fea, to be food for man; what ground have we to admire and praife God's infinite mercy, in giving us the fieth and blood of his own dear Son to preferve the lives of our fouls! O what are gofpel-feats are thefe which God allows us in the land wherein we dwell? and O how wonderfully are they preferved and continued with us, from time to time, by the miraculous working of God's mercy and power? while others are vifited with cleanness of teeth, and a famine of the word of God. He hath not dealt with every nation as with us.

And, Lord, how diftinguishing is thy goodness unto me a moft unworthy creature! By thy mercy I was born in a valley of vifion? and I dwell in a lightfome Gofhen, when multitudes of others, in pagan and po pifh nations, are covered with Egyptian darkness, and fit in the region of the fhadow of death. I hear heaven's free market-days of grace proclaimed, when others. have filent Sabbaths: I am invited to a rich banquetinghoufe, when others are ftarving for want of the bread of life. O that I could value my mercies aright!

It is a great privilege that I am allowed to fpeak to the great God in prayer, and to hear him fpeak unto me in his word! But ftill he puts a greater honour upon me, by calling me to enjoy intimate communion and fellowfhip with himself, yea, inviting me to fit down with him athis table, and feaft upon the fruits of Christ's death, and benefits of his purchase!-Oh, I am not worthy of the leaft crumb that falls from the children's table, and far lefs of being fet down at the table with the children to eat of their bread, and fhare of the dainties provided for them by their heavenly Father; if Peter, after having feen Chrift's glory and his own vilenefs, judged himself unworthy to be in the fame fhip with Chrift, and therefore cried, depart from, for I am a finful man; how fhall I, the chief of finners, adventure to fit at the fame table with him, and feed upon his flesh and blood? Aamzing condefcenfion!

O what distinction doth God make among nations, in fending the gofpel to them, with clear views and prefing offers of a crucified Jefus to perifhing fouls! And what caufe have we in these nations of admiring the diftinguishing goodnefs of God to us in this relpect beyond others! Would we not admire his goodness, if he caufed the fun to fhine only in our horzion, as he did on Goshen, when other nations were covered with darkness, as the land of Eygpt was? yet furely the gofpel-fun is by far a greater mercy.-The gofpel is indeed a joyful found, Píaim lxxxtx 15. fo called, with allufion to the filver trumpets made ufe of under the law to call people to the folemn affemblies, and to intimate to em the feast of the paffover, which reprefented the

love and fufferings of the Meffiah. A joyful found the gofpel is indeed, if we compare it with the found of the law's curfes and threatnings thundered from mount Sinai against finners. But, behold, this joyful found, bringing falvation, comes from heaven, even to heavendaring finners, who had openly rebelled againft the God of Heaven! Glad news! Bleffed are they who know this joyful found; know it fo as to believe it, admire it, entertain it, and comply with it, fo as to receive Chrift offered therein to lost sinners.

Lord, I make this joyful found welcome; it is mufic to my ear, and a cordial to my heart. I reckon their feet beautiful who bring fuch glad tidings to my foul. O how welcome would men make them, who fhuold bring them in an invention that would fecure their eftates from consuming, their houses from burning, or their bodies from dying!-but here we have the fure news of an invention that doth much more for us than all this, even a device that fecures us from hell, and enfures us of heaven. Ought I not then chearfully to comply with this joyful found, and fall in with the call thereof? God forbid that I fhould stop my ears at it; it had been better for me then never to have heard of it at all: How dreadful would my case be at the judgment-day! How would devils, Turks, heathens, and my own confcience, upbraid me in hell to all eternity for my folly in flighting this joyful found! furely God may flight the mournful found of their prayers in time of diftrefs, who flight the joyful found of his gofpel in time of health.-But, Lord, I bless thee for it, I love it, I receive it, I welcome it, I fall heartily in with it, and will admire it for ever.

MEDITATION IV.
From 1 John iii. 1.

Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us!

IN

N the amazing work of our redemption, we are called to behold and admire both the love of the Father, and the love of the Son. Unfpeakable love of the Father!