they also impose upon themselves by || pose, is this, that there are none of false hopes, as if it were enough to Un them, who are not miferable by choice, beggars in the midst of the greatest wealth; and not only miferable by choice, but obstinately so, from an invincible and distracted fondness for the immediate causes of their mifery'; for who but a downright madman would reject such golden offers. hear of these great blessings, and dream themselves happy, because these founds had reached their ears. happy men! what will all these immense riches signify 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 these words of the gospel 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 emptiness; "because in him all fulness doth dwell." But what advantage can it be to us to hear these riches of our Jesus spoke of at great length, and to excellent purpole, or even to speak 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 description 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, struggling with all the rigours of cold and hunger? should one, in these circumtances, hear or read of those immense treasures; or should any one describe them to him in the most striking manner, either by word of mouth, or with the advantage of an accurate pen, can it be doubted, but this empty displa" of riches, this phantom of wealth and affluence, would make his fense of want and misery the more intolerable; unless it be supposed, that despair had already reduced him to a state of infensibility? What further enhances the misery of those, who hear of this treafure, and think of it to no pur To give a brief and plain state of the cafe: to those, that fincerely and with all their hearts receive him, Chrift is all things; to those that receive him not, nothing. For, how can any good, however suitable or extensive, be actually enjoyed; or, indeed, any such enjoyment conceived, without fome kind of union between that good, and the person suppofed to stand 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 Jesus, in whatever sense you take it: he ought truly to be called the union of unions; who, that he might with the greater consistency, and the more closely unite our fouis to God, did not difdain to unite himself to a human body. The great, the chief, the main business of our life, therefore, is this acceptance of Chrift, and this inseparable 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 last 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 absolutely perfect and everlasting. But that it may be coeval with eternity, and last for ever, it is absolutely necessary that this union should have its beginning in this short and fleeting life. And what hinders those of us, that have not entered into this union before, to enter into it without delay Seeing the bountiful Jesus not only rejects none that come unto him, bat alio also offers himself to all that do some relation to his victory over Go- Ver. 1. I will give thanks unto thee, O Lord, with my whole heart; I will speak of all thy marvellous works. over him say, My beloved C. MEANWEL. 2. I will be glad and rejoice in thee; yea, my fongs will I make of thy name, O thou most highest. 3. While or when mine enemies are driven back; they shall fall and 4. For thou hast all along maintained my right, and my cause, and thou art fet in the throne that judgeft right. 5. Thou hast rebuked the heathen, and destroyed the ungodly; thou hast put out their name for ever and ever. 6. O thou enemy! the destructions (a) which thou boastingly haft threatened to my people, are come to a perpetual ena! Here is an end of all thy Ith threats; and they are even as the cities, which in thy imagination thou haft destroyed, and whereof thou haft Said memorial is perished with them. in thine own vain thoughts, their 7. But boast thou never so much the Lord shall endure for ever; he hath also prepared his feat for judgment. 8. For he shall judge the world in righteousness, and minister true judgment unto the people. 9. The Lord also will be a defence for the oppressed; 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 seek thee. (a) Ver. 6. O thou enemy, destructions, &c.] The most natural fenfe that we can put upon this verse, which is a little obscure, feems to be that which is given above, viz, to confider it as containing a beautiful irony; figure which David frequently made use of, to great advantage, in his writings. 11 11. O praise therefore the righttous Lord which dwelleth in Sion: new the people of his doings. 12. For when he maketh inquifition for blood, he remembereth them, and forgetteth not the complaint of the poor. 13. Have mercy upon me, O Lord, confider the trouble which I fuffer of or from them that hate me; thou that liftelt me up from the gates of death. 14 That I may shew all thy praises within the ports, gates, of the daughter of Sion: yea I will rejoice in thy salvation. 15. For the Heathen are funk down (b) in the pit that they made; in the same 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 bis own hands. 17. And this shall always be the safe, the wicked shall 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 shall not always be forgotten; and the patient abiding of the meek shall not perish for ever. (b) Ver. 18. The beatben are funk down, &c.]. This makes a fine break in the Pralmist's poem, and David so often does it that I shall not always take notice of it. You see his imagination is warmed to that degree, that he seems already to fee the destruction of his foes, and in a fort of prophe. sic rapture he proceeds to defcribe their defziny. (c) Ver. 17. The word bell, in this Verse, doth not mean the state 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 sense throughout the pfalms, and particularly in these placés following: Pf. xvi. 11. xlix. 14. lv. 16. lxxxvi. 13. CAVI. 3. xxxx. 7. Vol. II. No. 12. 19. May it please thee to give us an instance 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 selves to be but men. MEDITATION VII. CONFESSION OF SIN. A LL wife, just, and holy God! A trembling sinner, prostrate before thy mercy feat, would lament the degeneracy of his nature, and his manifold tranfgreffions. Father, might I be permitted to call thee by that name, I have finned against Heaa ven, in fight of holy Angels; of just men made perfect; in thy fight, O thou who art of purer eyes than to 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 separated between me and my God. Therefore I abhor myself, and would repent in duit and ashes. Should I say, I have no fin, I de ceive myself, and the truth would not be in me. Is there one command in the decalogue, that I have nor 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 givent 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 flesn, 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 set my affections on earthly things? have L have I honoured, or loved the creature more than my Creator? but, ah! suppose I should have trodden underfoot the son of God, counted the blood of the new covenant an unholy thing, and have done despite unto the spirit of his grace? alas! wretched man that I am! what have I to do to declare thy statutes, 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 say? 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 sustainer of my forfeited life; thou hast of free grace, from unbounded goodness, supplied my wants, after having bestowed upon me great and precious promises; but I have, though thus drawn by the cords of love, rebelled against thee. The ox knoweth its owner; but I, whom thou hast blessed with a reasonable immortal nature, have forgotten, have forsaken thee. I have abused thy pity, indulgence, forbearance, and tender mercies, by daily, by repeated, by innumerable provocations. Ten lepers were cleansed, 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 cleansed me! how has thy goodness followed me all the days of my life, especially in permitting me to live, and in giving me, from time to time, a little longer space 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 present with me, but not to do. The law is spiritual, 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 present 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! shameful ingratitude! Shall I then invent excuses? shall I endeavour to palliate my guilt by false pretences? Were I to attempt this, my own heart would condemn me. Were I to say I am innocent, it would also prove me perverse. I will not contend, I will not plead with a heart-fearching God. How can such a finner as I am justify myself in his fight; in his presence, who chargeth his angels with folly? how much less can I answer him, or chuse out my words to reason with him? whom, though I were righteous, yer would I not answer, but I will make supplication to my Judge: I will lay my hand upon my mouth, I will be filent, or I will only say, in the language of the humble publicanGod be merciful to me a finner:Pardon my transgressions, and take away my iniquity. Who can understand his errors ? either the magnitude or number of them? cleanse thou me from secret faults. Forgive all my presumptuous sins. Rebuke me not in thine anger, neither chaften me in thy hot displeasure. Thou defireft not facrifice, else would I give it. Thou delightest not in burnt offerings. Thy facrifices most pleasing to thee, are a broken, a contrite heart; these thou wilt not despise. O! foften this ftony heart of mine. Pluck me as a brand out of the fire. Say unto me, compaffionate Jesus, thy fins are forgiven. And may these words, these meditations that come not from feigned lips, be acceptable in thy fight, my strength, and my faviour, my Lord, and my God! B. RIDLEY. DIVINITY. DIVINITY. EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. [Continued from page 37.] CONSIDER ONSIDER the time when our pronounced thofe words, Matt. x. 32. "Whosoever shall confefs me before men, him will I confefs also before my father who is in heaven: but whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my father who is in heaven." Had you heard him speak after this manner, when as yet his disciples were under no fuch trials, you would certainly have said within yourself, if these speeches of Jesus are true, and if according to his prediction, governors and kings undertake to ruin and destroy those who shall profess themselves his disciples, we will believe, not only that he is a prophet, but that he has received power from God sufficient to preserve and propagate his religion; and that he would never talk in such a peremptory and discouraging 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 struck with admiration, when he represents to himself our Saviour at that time foretelling, that his gospel should be preached in all the world, for a witness unto all nations, or as Origen (who rather quotes the sense than the words) to serve for a conviction to kings, and people, when, at the same 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 Christ? As for us, says this great author, in another part of his book against Celfus, When we fee every day those events exactly accomplished which our Saviour foretold at so great a diftance; that his gospel is preached in all the world, Matt. xxiv. 14, that his disciples 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 stronger proofs can Celfus ask for the truth of what he spoke? Origen infifts with great strength on that wonderful prediction of our Saviour concerning the destruction of Jerufalem, pronounced at a time, as he observes, when there was no likelihood nor appearance of it. This has been taken notice of and inculcated by fo many others, that we shall refer you to what this father has faid on the subject in the first book againft Celfus. And as to the accomplishment of this remarkable prophecy, shall only observe, that whoever reads the account given us by Josephus, 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 must here observe, that Origen would still have triumphed more in the foregoing arguments, had he lived an age longer, to have seen the Roman emperors, and all their governors and provinces, fubmitting themselves to the Christian religion, and glorying in its profession, as fo many kings and fovereigns ftill L2 place |