they alfo impofe upon themselves by falfe hopes, as if it were enough to hear of thefe great bleffings, and dream themselves happy, because these founds had reached their ears. Unhappy men! what will all these immenfe riches fignify to you, if you are not allowed to use them, or rather, if you know not how to avail yourselves of them ?

We therefore earnestly wish, that thefe words of the gofpel were well fixed in your minds: "He was in 'the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not; but as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the fons of God."

In him all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hid, and without him there is nothing but empt nefs; "because in him all fulnefs doth dwell." But what advantage can it be to us to hear these riches of our Jefus fpuke of at great length, and to excellent purpole, or even to fpeak of them Ourielves, if, all the while, we talk of them as a good foreign to us, and in which we have no concern, because our hearts are not yet open to receive him. What would the moit accurate defcription of the fortunate islands, as they are called, or all the wealth of the Indies, and the new world, with its golden mines, fignify to a poor man half naked, ftruggling with all the rigours of cold and hunger ? fhould one, in thefe circumtances, hear or read of thofe immenfe treasures; or fhould any one defcribe them to him in the most ftriking manner, either by word of mouth, or with the advantage of an accurate pen, can it be doubted, but this empty difpla" of riches, this phantom of wealth and affluence, would make his fenfe of want and mifery the more intolerable; unless it be fuppofed, that defpair had already reduced him to a fate of infenfibility? What further enhances the mifery of thofe, who hear of this treafure, and think of it to no pur

pofe, is this, that there are none of them, who are not miferable by choice, beggars in the midft of the greatest wealth; and not only miferable by choice, but obftinately fo, from an invincible and diftracted fondness for the immediate caufes of their mifery; for who but a downright madman would reject fuch golden offers.

To give a brief and plain ftate of the cafe to thofe, that fincerely and with all their hearts receive him, Christ is all things; to thofe that receive him not, nothing. For, how can any good, however fuitable or extenfive, be actually enjoyed; or, indeed, any fuch enjoyment conceived, without fome kind of union between that good, and the perfon fuppof ed to ftand in need of it? To be united to God, is the great, and the only good of mankind; and the only means of this union is Jefus, in whatever fenfe you take it: he ought truly to be called the union of unions; who, that he might with the greater confiftency, and the more clofely unite our fouis to God, did not difdain to unite himself to a human body.

The great, the chief, the main bufinefs of our life, therefore, is this acceptance of Chrift, and this infeparable union with him, which we are now recommending. Thrice happy, and more than thrice happy are they, who are joined with him in this undivided union, which no complaints, nor even the day of death can diffolve; nay, the laft day is happy above all other days, for this very reason, that it fully and finally compleats this union, and is fo far from diffolving it, that it renders it abfolutely perfect and everlafting.

But that it may be coeval with eternity, and laft for ever, it is abfolutely neceffary that this union, fhould have its beginning in this fhort and fleeting life, And what hinders thofe of us, that have not entered into this union before, to enter into it without delay? Seeing the bountiful Jefus not only rejects none that come unto him, bat

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alfo offers him felf to all that do not wilfully reject him, and ftanding at the door, earneftly begs to be admitted. O! "why do not thefe everlasting doors open, that the king of glory may enter" and reign within us? Nay, though he were to be fought in a far country, and with great labour, why should we delay, and what unhappy chains detain us? why do we not, after shaking them all off, and even ourselves, go as it were out of ourfelves, and feek him inceffantly till we find him? then rejoicing over him fay, My beloved is mine, and I am his." This propriety is always reciprocal. No man truly receives Jefus, that does not, at the fame time, deliver up himself wholly to him. Among all the advantages we pursue, there is nothing comparable to this exchange. Our gain is immenfe from both, not only from the acceptance of him, but also from furrendering ourselves to him: fo long as this is delayed, we are the most abject flaves: when one has delivered himself up to Christ, then and then only he is truly free, and becomes mafter of himself. Why should we wander about to no purpose? To him let us turn our eyes, on him fix our thoughts, that he, who is ours by the donation of the Father, and his own free gift, may be ours by a chearful and joyous acceptance. us a child is born, to us a fon is given." Let us therefore make ufe of what is ours, for our own advantage, and let us be his for ever, never forgetting how dearly he has bought us.

Το

C. MEANWEL.

fome relation to his victory over Goliab: but all that is certain about it is, that it was occafioned by fome great diftrefs, from which it pleased God to deliver him.

Ver. 1. I will give thanks unto thee, O Lord, with my whole heart; I will fpeak of all thy marvellous works.

2. I will be glad and rejoice in thee; yea, my fongs will I make of thy name, O thou most higheft.

3. While or when mine enemies are driven back; they fhall fall and perish at thy prefence:

4. For thou haft all along maintained my right, and my caufe, and thou art fet in the throne that judgeft right.

5. Thou haft rebuked the heathen, and deftroyed the ungodly; thou haft put out their name for ever and

ever.

6. O thou enemy! the deftructions (a) which thou boastingly baft threatened to my people, are come to a perpetual end! Here is an end of all thy threats; and they are even as the cities, which in thy imagination thou haft deftroyed, and whereof thou haft faid in thine own vain thoughts, their memorial is perished with them.

7. But boast thou never so much the Lord fhall endure for ever; he hath alfo prepared his feat for judgment.

8. For he fhall judge the world in righteousness, and minister true judgment unto the people.

9. The Lord also will be a defence for the oppreffed; even a refuge in due time of trouble.

10. And they that know thy name, will put their trust in thee; for thou, Lord, haft never failed them that feek thee.

15. For the Heathen are funk down (b) in the pit that they made; in the fame net that they hid privily is their foot taken.

16. This is not an accidental thing, for thus the Lord is known to execute judgment; and from him it is that the ungodly is trapped in the work of his own hands.

17. And this shall always be the safe, the wicked fhall be turned into hell, c) or the grave, and all the people that forget God.

18. For though they stem to be fo for a time, the poor fhall not always be forgotten; and the patient abiding of the meek fhall not perish for ever.

(b) Ver. 18. The beatben are funk doain, &c.] This makes a fine break in the Pfalmift's poem, and David fo often does it that I fhall not always take notice of it. You fee his imagination is warmed to that degree, that he feems already to fee the deftruction of his foes, and in a fort of prophetic rapture he proceeds to defcribe their defziny.

(c) Ver. 17. The word hell, in this erfe, doth not mean the ftate of the damned, as it now does in common ufe; but only the state of departed fouls, or the grave, the place of the dead. This we may learn, in the place before us, from the following verfe? for the wicked were to be turned into the grave, for the deliverance of the poor.

And this word is always to be taken in this fenfe throughout the pfalms, and parficularly in thefe places following: Pf. xvi. 11. xlix. 14. lv. 16. lxxxvi, 13. c、vi. 3. exxxix. 7.

Vol. II. No. 12.

19 May it pleafe thee to give us an inftance now, to confirm the truth of this general doctrine; up, Lord, and let not man have the upper hand; but let the heathen be judged in thy fight.

20. And put them in fear, O Lord, that the heathen may know theme felves to be but men.

MEDITATION VII.

CONFESSION OF SIN.

A A

LL wife, juft, and holy God! A trembling finner, proftrate before thy mercy feat, would lament the degeneracy of his nature, and his manifold tranfgreffions. Father, might be permitted to call thee by that name, I have finned against Hea ven, in fight of holy Angels; of juft men made perfect; in thy fight, O thou who art of purer eyes than tơ behold iniquity! My fins have gone over my head. As a heavy burden they are too heavy for me. I am full of confufion. Thy dread is fallen upon me. My iniquities have feparated between me and my God. Therefore I abhor myself, and would repent in duit and ashes.

Should I fay, I have no fin, I deceive myself, and the truth would not be in me. Is there one command in the decalogue, that I have nos broke either in thoughts, words, or deeds? have I not walked in the ima ginations of an evil heart? have not my feet run to do evil? have not I given my mouth to deceit? has not my tongue blafphemed thy holy name? have I not caft off the fear of God? have I not restrained prayer before him? have I not by taking his name in vain, by not keeping his fabbaths, by committing adultery, by the luft of the filefn, by the pride of life, and many other heinous offences, crucified the fon of God afresh ? have I not spent my money, my abilities, my privileges, my precious time, for that which fatisfieth not? have I not let my affections on earthly things? have

have I honoured, or loved the creaturé more than my Creator? but, ah! fuppofe I fhould have trodden underfoot the fon of God, counted the blood of the new covenant an unholy thing, and have done defpite unto the fpirit of his grace alas! wretched man that I am! what have I to do to declare thy ftatutes, or that I should take thy facred name within my lips? feeing I have hated inftruction, and caft thy words behind me.

What shall I fay? what plea have I to alledge? what can I plead that will not aggravate my guilt? thou, Lord, created; thou, haft brought me up; thou haft been the fuftainer of my forfeited life; thou haft of free grace, from unbounded goodness, fupplied my wants, after having bestowed upon me great and precious promifes; but I have, though thus drawn by the cords of love, rebelled against thee. The ox knoweth its owner; but I, whom thou haft bleffed with a reafonable immortal nature, have forgotten, have forfaken thee. I have abused thy pity, indulgence, forbearance, and tender mercies, by daily, by repeated, by innumerable provocations. Ten, lepers were cleanfed, but one only returned to give God thanks. Alas! I am among the ungrateful nine! how often haft thou awakened my fleeping confcience! how often haft thou cleanfed me! how has thy goodness followed me all the days of my life, efpecially in permitting me to live, and in giving me, from time to time, a little longer fpace for repentance: yet have I not returned unto thee with my whole heart, nor made a right improvement of unmerited bounties. To will, indeed, is prefent with me, but not to do. The law is fpiritual, but I am carnal, fold under fin; for what I would do, that I do not, but what I hate, that I do. When I would do good evil is prefent with me. For I delight in The law of God after the inward man;

but I find another law in my members warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of fin. And against whom is it that I have rebelled? Against my father, my benefactor, my best friend, my redeeming, merciful, reconciled God. O! fhameful ingratitude!

Shall I then invent excufes ? fhall I endeavour to palliate my guilt by falfe pretences? Were I to attempt this, my own heart would condemn

me.

Were I to fay I am innocent, it would alfo prove me perverse. I will not contend, I will not plead with a heart-fearching God. How can fuch a finner as I am juftify myfelf in his fight; in his prefence, who chargeth his angels with folly? how much lefs can I anfwer him, or chufe out my words to reafon with him? whom, though I were righteous, yer would I not answer, but I will make fupplication to my Judge: I will lay my hand upon my mouth, I will be filent, or I will only fay, in the language of the humble publicanGod be merciful to me a finner:Pardon my tranfgreffions, and take away my iniquity. Who can underftand his errors? either the magnitude or number of them? cleanfe thou me from fecret faults. Forgive all my prefumptuous fins. Rebuke me not in thine anger, neither chaften me in thy hot difpleasure. Thou defireft not facrifice, elfe would I give it. Thou delightest not in burnt offerings. Thy facrifices moft pleafing to thee, are a broken, a contrite heart; these thou wilt not defpife. O! foften this ftony heart of mine. Pluck me as a brand out of the fire. Say unto me, compaffionate Jefus, thy fins are forgiven. And may thefe words, thefe meditations that come not from feigned lips, be acceptable in thy fight, my ftrength, and my faviour, my Lord, and my God!

B. RIDLEY.

DIVINITY.

Saviour pronounced those words, Matt. x. 32. "Whofoever fhall confefs me before men, him will I confefs alfo before my father who is in heaven: but whofoever fhall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my father who is in heaven." Had you heard him fpeak after this manner, when as yet his difciples were under no fuch trials, you would certainly have faid within yourfelf, if thefe fpeeches of Jefus are true, and if according to his prediction, governors and kings undertake to ruin and deftroy thofe who fhall profefs themfelves his difciples, we will believe, not only that he is a prophet, but that he has received power from God fufficient to preferve and propagate his religion; and that he would never talk in fuch a peremptory and difcouraging manner, were he not affured that he was able to fubdue the most powerful oppofition, that could be made against the faith and doctrine which he taught.

Who is not ftruck with admiration, when he reprefents to himself our Saviour at that time foretelling, that his gofpel fhould be preached in all the world, for a witness unto all nations, or as Origen (who rather quotes the fenfe than the words) to ferve for a conviction to kings, and people, when, at the fame time, he finds that his gospel has accordingly been preached to Greeks and Barbarians, to the learned and to the ignorant, and that there is no quality or condition of life able to exempt men from fubmitting to the doctrine

of Chrift? As for us, fays this great author, in another part of his book againft Celfus, "When we fee every day thofe events exactly accomplished which our Saviour foretold at fo great a dif tance; that his gofpel is preached in all the world, Matt. xxiv. 14, that his difciples go and teach all nations, Matt. xxviii. 19, and that thofe, who have received his doctrine, are brought for his fake before governors, and before kings, Matt. x. 18, we are filled with admiration, and our faith in him is confirmed more and more. What clearer and itronger proofs can Cel fus afk for the truth of what he fpoke?

Origen infifts with great ftrength on that wonderful prediction of our Saviour concerning the destruction of Jerufalem, pronounced at a time, as he obferves, when there was no likelihood nor appearance of it. This has been taken notice of and inculcated by fo many others, that we fhall refer you to what this father has faid on the fubject in the first book againft Celfus. And as to the accomplishment of this remarkable prophecy, fhall only obferve, that whoever reads the account given us by Jofephus, without knowing his character, and compares it with what our Saviour foretold, would think the hiftorian had been a Chrißian, and that he had nothing elfe in view but to adjust the event to the prediction. We muft here obferve, that Origen would ftill have triumphed more in the foregoing arguments, had he lived an age longer, to have feen the Roman emperors, and all their governors and provinces, fubmitting themfelves to the Chriftian religion, and glorying in its profeffion, as fo many kings and fovereigns ftill L 2 place