the proposing of these objects to us in a course of sermons is sufficient to weary us. However, I affirm, that, if we have not been affected with what Christ hath done for our salvation, it hath not been owing to our thinking too much, but to our not thinking enough, and perhaps to our never having thought of the subject once, with such a profound attention as its interesting nature demands.

Bow thyself towards the mystical ark, christian! and fix thine eyes on the mercy-seat. Revolve in thy meditation the astonishing, I had almost said, the incredible history of thy Saviour's love. Go to Bethlehem, and behold him, who upholdeth all things by the word of his power, (I use the language of an apostle) him, who thought it no usurpation of the rights of the Deity, to be equal with God; behold him humbling himself, (I use here the words of St. Paul, Heb. i. 3. Phil. ii. 6.

His

words are more emphatical still.) Behold him annihilated; for, although the child, who was born in a stable, and laid in a manger, was a real being, yet he may seem to be annihilated in regard to the degrading circumstances, which vailed and concealed. his natural dignity: behold him annihilated, by taking upon him the form of a servant. Follow him through the whole course of his life; he went about doing good, Acts x.. 38. and exposed himself in every place to inconveniences and miseries, through the abundance of his benevolence and love. Pass to Gethsamane; behold his agony; see him as the Redeemer of mankind contending with the Judge of the whole earth; in an agony, in which Jesus resisted with only prayers and suppli cations, strong crying and tears, Heb. 5. 7. an agony, preparatory to an event still more terrible, the bare idea of which terrified and troubled him, made his sweat as it were great drops of blood

falling to the ground, Luke xxii. 44. and produced this prayer so fruitful in controversies in the schools, and so penetrating and affecting, so fruitful in motives to obedience, devotion, and grati tude, in truly christian hearts, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt, Matt. xxvi. 44. Go further yet Christian! and after thou hast seen all the sufferings, which Jesus Christ endured in going from the garden to the cross, ascend Calvary with him; stop on the summit of the hill, and on that theatre behold the most astonishing of all the works of almighty God. See this Jesus, the brightness of the Father's glory, and the express image of his person, Heb. i. 3. see him stripped, fastened to an accursed tree, confounded with two thieves, nailed to the wood, surrounded with executioners and tormentors, having lost, during this dreadful period, that sight of the comfortable presence of his Father, which constituted all his joy, and being driven to exclaim, My God! my God! why hast thou forsaken me? Matt. xxvii. 40. But behold him, amidst all these painful sufferings, firmly supporting his patience by his love, resolutely enduring all these punishments from those motives of benevolence, which first engaged him to submit to them, ever occupied with the prospect of saving those poor mortals, for whose sake he descended into this world, fixing his eyes on that world of believers, which his cross would subdue to his government, according to his own saying, I, if I be lifted up from earth, will draw all men unto me, John xii. 32. Can we help feeling the force of that motive, which the scripture proposeth in so many places, and so very emphatically in the se words, The love of Christ constraineth us, 2 Cor. v. 14. that is to say, engageth and attacheth us closely to

him; The love of Christ constraineth us, because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead, and that he died for all, that they, which live, should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him, which died for them, aud rose again. Yea, The love of Christ forceth us, when we think what he hath done for us.

III. My third article, which should treat of the inclination of a christian, is naturally contained in the second, that is, in that which treats of his engagements. To devote ourselves to a master, who hath carried his love to us so far; to devote ourselves to him by fear and force; to submit to his laws, because he hath the power of precipitating those into hell, who have the audacity to break them; to obey him on this principle only, this is a disposition of mind as detestible as disobedience itself, as hateful as open rebellion. The same arguments, which prove that a christian is not his own by engagement, prove that he is not his own by inclination. When, therefore, we shall have proved that this state is his felicity also, we shall have finished the plan of this discourse.

IV. Can it be difficult to persuade you on this article? Stretch your imaginations. Find, if you can, any circumstance in life, in which it would be happier to reject christianity than to submit to it.

Amidst all the disorders and confusions, and (so. to speak,) amidst the universal chaos of the present world, it is delightful to belong to the governor, who first formed the world, and who hath assured us, that he will display the same power in renewing it, which he displayed in creating it.

In the calamities of life, it is delightful to belong to the master, who distributes them; who distri

butes them only for our good; who knows afflictions by experience; whose love inclines him to terminate our sufferings; and who continues them from the same principle of love, that inclines him to terminate them, when we shall have derived those advantages from them, for which they were

sent.

During the persecutions of the church, it is delightful to belong to a guardian, who can curb our persecutors, and control every tyrant; who useth them for the execution of his own counsels; and who will break them in pieces with a rod of iron, when they can no longer contribute to the sanctifying of his servants.

Under a sense of our infirmities; when we are terrified with the purity of that morality, the equity of which we are obliged to own, even while we tremble at its severity; it is delightful to belong to a judge, who doth not exact his rights with the utmost rigor; who knoweth our frame, Psal. ciii. 14.. who pitieth our infirmities; and who assureth us, that he will not break a bruised reed, nor quench the smoking flax, Matt. xii. 20.

When our passions are intoxicated, in those fatal moments, in which the desire of possessing the objects of our passions wholly occupies our hearts, and we consider them as our paradise, our gods; it is delightful, however incapable we may be of attending to it, to belong to a Lord who restrains and controls us, because he loves us: and who refuseth to grant us what we so eagerly desire, because he would either preclude those terrible regrets, which penitents feel after the commission of great sins, or those more terrible torments, that are inseperable from final impenitence.

Under a recollection of our rebellions, it is delightful to belong to a parent; who will receive us

favorably when we implore his clemency; who sweetens the bitterness of our remorse; who is touched with our regrets who wipes away the tears, that the remembrance of our backslidings makes us shed; who spareth us, as a man spareth his own son, that serveth him, Mal. iii. 17.

In that empty void, into which we are often conducted, while we seem to enjoy the most solid establishments, the most exquisite pleasures, and the most brilliant honors, it is delightful to belong to a patron, who reserves for us objects far better suited to our original excellence, and to the immensity of our desires. To live to Jesus Christ then, is the

felicity of a christian.

But, if it be a felicity to belong to Jesus Christ while we live, it is a felicity incomparably greater to belong to him when we die. We will conclude this meditation with this article, and it is an article, that I would endeavor above all others to impress on your hearts, and to engage you to take home to your houses. But, unhappily, the subject of this article is one of those, which generally make the least impressions on the minds of christians. I know a great many christians, who place their happiness in living to Jesus Christ but how few have love enough for him to esteem it a felicity to die to him! Not only is the number of those small, who experience such a degree of love to Christ; there are very few, who even comprehend what we mean on this subject. Some efforts of divine love resemble very accurate and refined reasonings. They ought naturally to be the most intelligible to intelligent creatures, and theyare generally the least understood. Few people are capable of that attention, which takes the mind from every thing foreign from the object in contemplation, and fixeth it not only on the subject, but also