enthrone us in his kingdom! Thefe are prodigies of love, which should engage us to love our Saviour, and mourn for fin while we live. Lord Jefus, pity a relenting, returning prodigal; take him home, and make him thy fervant for ever. It is highly juft, that I fhould offer up myself a living facrifice to my Redeemer, who offered up himself a dying facrifice for my redemption.

MEDITATION XXX.

From SONG i. 4. We will remember thy love.

I Go, bleffed Jefus, at thy call, to remember thy love at thy holy table; thy words have an awful found in my ears, Do this in remembrance of me. I fee much in them; in obedience to them I'll do this in remembrance of thy dwelling in flesh; in memory of thy love that carried thee to the manger, to the garden, and to the crofs, for me; in memory of the infinite price of thy blood which thou didft fhed; in memory of the victo ry obtained by it over the enemies of my foul; in memory of the deliverance from wrath, and the immortal glory thou haft purchased by it for me: Though thou didft die, and lie in the grave, yet thy love fhall ever live in my heart. Glory to thee, thou art now alive in in heaven; O come and live with me; let thy love never be one moment out of my view. I bless thee for this lafting memorial of thy love.

I look on this facrament as no real or proper facrificce, as many do, but only as a reprefentation or commemoration of the real facrifice Chrift offered on the crofs. I do no more at the Lord's table, than what Chrift did at it: Since he offered no facrifice at the table, neither do I. He only did commemorate that facrifice he was going to offer; and the fame, and no more, do I. If any fhould fay, that Chrift offered a real facrifice, when he inftituted this facrament, then

the oblation on the crofs would have been fuperfluous, because finners would have been redeemed by that of the fupper which went before.

Now is the time for a folemn commemoration of thy love: Oh, fhall I be unmindful of thy love at this feaft, when thou waft so mindful of me at it, made thy testament, put me in it, and left me precious legacies to cause me to remember thee; fuch as, life and light, pardon and peace, righteoufnefs and ftrength, grace and glory. O how heroic, how generous and free, is thy love to finful worms! We had done nothing to oblige thee; nothing faweft thou in us to engage thy love to us; but much didft thou fee in us to incenfe thee against us. When we were without ftrength, ungodly finners, and enemies, thou lovedft us, and diedft for us Greater love hath no man than this, to lay down his life for his friends; but far greater love hath Godman, who laid down his life for his enemies! O what fhall I think of this love! It had been wonderful love in an angel to have stooped to be united to a lump of earth, and therein fuffered for us, though it could not have paid our debt. But, O my foul, here is one more valuable than all the angels in heaven, that has flooped to do it! The Word was made flesh, and dwelt am ng us! When I was, like Ifaac, bound on the altar, he freely offered himself to be made a facrifice to fatisfy juftice for me; Father, said he, Lo I come, to do thy will I take delight!

Remember this love, O my foul, the Son of God is become the fon of man for thee, that thou mighteft be raised to the dignity of the son of God! He that was infinitely rich, for my fake became poor, that I, a poor naked creature, might become rich and well clothed. How can I look on the incarnation and birth of my Redeemer, and not remember his love with wonder! Can I behold the manger his bed, and not adore the love that brought him to lie in it? O how low were the circumstances of the heir of heaven, when he came to fojourn on earth, who had neither a houfe to live in,

nor an estate to live upon, but must be fubfifted by the hofpitality of others, and frequently his fare was very mean. Amazing prodigy of divine love! God stoops to dwell in flesh, and gives us his flesh to feed upon in the facrament! He not only pardons our fins, and faves us from hell; but leaves his throne in heaven, lofes his life on earth, and wades through hell to enthrone us in his kingdom, and make us crowned kings for ever. Bleffed be the Lord that gives me a communion-fabbath to remember this love. What shall I render to thee for it? A day of glad tidings! Thou haft often on fuch a day, vifited the earth and watered it, and made it rich with thy fhowers. May thy grace and Spirit drop on us this day, like rain on the mown grafs.

Lord, I am not worthy to touch the threshold of thy house, and yet thou calleft me to thy table. Not wor thy to ftand among thy fervants, and yet thou wouldst have me fit with my Redeemer. Not worthy to lie at thy footstool, and yet thou woulft make my heart thy throne. Not worthy to eat the bread of men, and yet thou calleft me to eat the bread of angels! O love worthy to be remembered to all generations! Lord enlighten my eyes, and give me a clearer view of thy love, than ever I got; and while I am mufing on it, let the fire burn; O make my heart burn within me with love to him that loved us.

O my foul, confider the greatest of Chrift's love in the cup he drank for thee! How legible is it in his tears and prayers, his groans and cries, his agony and fweat, his wounds and blood, and all for us? O let this matchlefs love beget in me the warmeft love and affection to him that loved us! O let the fire of Chrift's love burn up my lufts and worldly love like ftubble; and remove the coldnefs of my heart to him! Oh, that I could weep bitterly, that I cannot bring this vile. heart of mine to love the Lord Jefus more! Oh, fhall I throw away, my affections upon every worthless object, and yet have none for the lovelieft object of the M

whole creation of God; and yet one that would needs die for me, to become my ransom, facrifice, and atonement? Is it the character of those who are Chrift's fpouse? Is it the character of the whole army of martyrs, and of every believer, to love Chrift, and fhall not I love him too? Oh, the virgins love thee, the upright love thee; and every one of them cry, O thou whom my foul loveth; and fhall not I join thofe chafte lovers? Or fhall I be expofed to the terrible fate of thofe who want love to Chrift? 1 Cor. xvi. 22. If any man love not the Lord Jefus Chrift, let him be Anathema, Maranatha. O that I could exprefs my love to him in adorations and praifes, in defiring his prefence, loving his members, promoting his kingdom on earth, and longing to be with him for ever.

MEDITATION XXXI.

From a. liii. 5. He was rounded for our transgressions.

How amazing is the love of God to fallen man, in taking a body to be pierced and wounded for him. Man did caft off the image of his Maker, and became a rebel and run away from God: And, behold, his Maker takes on him man's image, to restore him again to favour: Yea, he affumes our nature, when at the lowest, that so he might figh, groan, grieve, weep, forrow, fweat, bleed, and die for undone man; and he did this, to raife him from his miferable ftate, to a hap pier condition than he was in before his fall. Had not God become man, we could not have enjoyed him fo nearly, fo familiarly as we may do now. The enjoyment of God as a Redeemer, a husband, a brother, is another manner of enjoyment of him than of God as a Creator. Though we ruined ourfelves, and fell under wrath, yet God, by the incarnation has recovered us, and made us up far above all we had to lofe. But, ere this be done, he must not only be man, but he

must be wounded for and by man's fins; yea, wounded to death, and crucified, before man could be raised up to live with God.

Many, yea innumerable, were the wounds my God Redeemer received for me; as by the thorns that pricked his head, by the pincers that plucked his hair, by the fcourge that tore and furrowed his back; befides the five big wounds made in his hands and feet by the four nails, and in his fide by the fpear; and the many wounds given his foul by the curfes of the law. Now, all these wounds are opened as fo many mouths to call us to flee into them for safety from the fword of juftice. Now thefe wounds were unfpeakably painful, being envenomed by our fins. Crucifying, in itself was an exceeding painful death; the four big nails whereon the body hung, pierced the most finewy and nervous parts of the body, and confequently moft fenfible of pain And hence the Romans expreffed torment by a word borrowed from the cross ; and make cruciate fignify to torment. Thus was our innocent Saviour wounded on the cross, cruciate or tormented, and all to fave us from eternal torments.

Aftonishing fight! The eternal Son of God, whom all the angels worship, wounded to death, hung by nails on a cross, tortured and racked for several hours, and, in the mean time, loaded with reproach and fcorn from thofe he died for! Never fuch a fight as this! it ftruck terror in the whole creation. The fun hid its face, and could not behold it, the vail of the temple rent in twain, the earth quaked, the rocks rent, the dead were moved, and their graves opened: And even his enemies were ftruck with amazement, and made to fhrink and fay, Truly this was a righteous perfon; this was the Son of God. O my foul, employ all thy faculties, all thy thoughts, to study, pore, and penetrate into this awful fubject; it deferves the profoundeft regard and closest attention: Hence the great apoftle determined to study and know nothing but it.

This amazing tragedy ought to create in me the