But, father, I have heard of thy compaffions to the guilty when they confefs and forfake and turn to thee: Wherefore tho' I am afhamed like the pub. lican to lift up my eyes to heaven; yet let me with humble Magdalene come behind thee weeping, and wath thy feet with my tears, and kifs them. And let me hear the news of pardon from thy mouth. Thou cameft, Lord, not to call the righteous, but finners to repentance; and of thofe I am the chief. Lord, I am full of diseases, full of wounds, full of plague-fores, full of weaknefs and infirmities, full of fius and pollutions. Here, Lord, is work for thy ftrong hand, work for thy wonder-working blood, O ftretch out thy hand and fave.--Father I am not worthy to be called thy fɔn, make me as one of thy hired fervants; and thou knowest no hire, no wages will fatisfy ine but thyfelf; Lord, give me thy felf, be thou my exceeding great reward.

Lord I am fo vile a creature, that I may fear to come and prefent a petition to thee upon the knee, and far more to come and fit down with thee at thy holy table: If John Baptift, a faint of the first magnitude, thought himself not worthy to stoop down and loose the latchet of thy fhoes, fhall I, who am laden with fins, adventure to that holy feast, where angels wait as miniftring fpirits!But, Lord, in thy compaffion receive me, that comes not to excufe but to accufe myself, with eyes caft down, fmitting on my breaft with the Publican, Lord, be merciful to me a finner. Thou didst graciously accept of the publican's prayer, of Mary Magdalene's tears, the faith of the thief on the cross, the repentance of Peter, and of thofe that crucified thee. By those inftances of thy mercy, I am encouraged to draw near to thee; O fend me not away empty, left I faint by the way; But fatisfy my needy foul

with the food of thy heavenly banquet, that I may receive fpiritual ftrength and nourishment to eternal

life.

Lord, hear my cry, and hide not thy face from me: When Menajeb cried to thee, thou had refpect to his prayer: When the Ninivites humbled themselves before thee, thou waft intreated: yea, thou inviteft the most crimson and fcarlet coloured finners, to come and reafon with thee, and affures them, thou wilt caft out none that cometh. -Many thousands who have experienced the truth of thy word, are, at this hour, finging thy praises, and exalt. ing thy free grace. Lord, do thou also make me a monument of thy free grace to all eternity.

Ah, I may be ashamed to fpeak of mercy and grace, who have fo long abufed thy grace, and tramp. led on the blood that should fave me. O that I could mourn and weep all my life for it. O what shall I do with my ftony heart that will not break and melt for abufing God's mercy, and trampling Chrift's blood! Oh, fhall I mourn and weep for a dead corpfe, or departed friend, and not mourn for a dead heart, or for God's departing from me! Shall the dear Son of God weep, fweat, and bleed for us; and we not weep for ourselves, or for our fins that pierced his head with thorns, his hands with nails, and his fide with a fpear, and his heart with forrows. Lord Jefus, I look to thee with a penitent heart, feeing thou telleft me, thou art exalted for this very end, to give repentance to Israel.

Lord, whatis man that thou art mindful of bim? and what am I, the unworthiest of men, that thou fhouldft call me to fit down with thy children at thy table, who am unworthy as a dog to creep under it; yea, calleft me to eat the bread of angels, who am not worthy to eat the bread of men ?—Amazing

The remembrance of Christ's love, &c. 149

love! that God fhould court thcfe to obedience whom he can peremptorily command to it; and, in cafe of difobedience, punish inftantly in bell; that he should take poor flaves, condemned to the prifon of hell, and make them crowned kings in heaven; that he fhould not only be willing to dwell in flesh, but also to give us this flesh for our food; that he should not only fave us from hell, but even leave his throne in heaven, and lofe his life on earth, to enthrone us in his kingdom! These are prodigies of love, which thould engage us to love our Saviour, and moura 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 jutt, that I fhould offer up myself a living faerifice to my Redeemer, who offered up himself a dying facrifice for my redemption.

I

MEDITATION XXX.

From SONG i. 4.

-We will remember thy love.

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 cross for me; in memory of the infinite price of thy blood which thou didst fhed; in remory of the victory obtained by it over the foul; in memory of the deliverance enemies of my from wrath and the immortal glory thou haft purchafed by it for me: Tho' thou didit die and lye in the grave, yet thy love fall ever live in my heart.

N 2

Glory to thee, thou art now alive in heaven; O come and live with me; let thy love never be one nicment out of my view. I blefs thee for this lafting memorial of thy love.

I look on this facrament as no real or proper facrifice, 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 fa. crifice at the table, neither do I. He only did com. memorate 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, becaufe finners would have been redeemed by that of the fupper which went before.

but

Now is the time for a folemn commemoration of thy love; Ch, fhall I be unmindful of thy love at this feaft, when thou waft fo mindful of me at it, made thy teftament, put me in it, and left me precious legacies to caufe me to remember thee, fuch as light and life, 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 te oblige thee; nothing faweft thou in us to engage thy love to us; much didft thou fee in us to incenfe thee against us. When we were without frength, ungodly finners, and enemies, thou lovedit us, and died for us. Greater love bath no man than this, to lay down bis life for bis friends; but far greater love hath God-man, 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 ftooped to be united to a lump of earth, and therein fuffered for us, tho' it could not have paid

our debt. But, O my foul, here is one more valuable than all the angels in heaven that has ftooped to do it! The word was made flesh and dwelt among us! When I was like Isaac bound on the altar, he freely offered himself to be made a facrifice to fatisfy juftice for me, Father, faid he, to 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 a fon 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 remem ber his love with wonder! Can I behold the manger his bed, and not adore the love that brought him to lye in it? O how low were the circumstances of the heir of heaven, when he came to fojourn on earth, who had neither house to live in, nor an eftate 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 ftoops to dwell in flesh, and gives us his fleth 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 thro❜ 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 fhall 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 grass.

Lord, I am not worthy to touch the threshold of thy houfe, and yet thou calleft me to thy table!