to ourselves: Humility and Soberness of Mind; Temperance and Chastity; the right Government of all our Appetites, Paffions, and Affections. We are taught to lead quiet and peaceable Lives in all Godliness and Honeftya, to purfue after the highest Happiness in this Life, to qualify us for the moft perfect Happiness in that which is to come !---Ò divine Teacher, thou heavenly Prophet! thy Doctrine plainly fhews itfelf to come from God: And yet thou haft been pleased to confirm it by thofe unexceptionable Atteftations, MIRACLES and PROPHECIES. Thou didst fupply natural Defects, didft repair accidental Infirmities, didft cure the most malignant and inveterate Difeafes, didft fubdue the Rage of Devils, didft give Speech to the Dumb, Hearing to the Deaf, Sight to the Blind, Strength to the Impotent, Limbs to the Maimed, nay, Life to the Dead: Surely none could do fuch Miracles, except God were with him."---The Accomplishment of the Prophecies is also an undeniable Proof of thy Miffion and Authority; thofe that had been delivered aforetime, and alfo diverse others utter'd with thine own divine Mouth As, thou didst foretell the Treachery =of Judas, and the Cowardice of Peter; thine own Crucifixion and Refurrection; thy Afcenfion, and the Miffion of the Holy Ghoft; the Deftruction of Jerufalem, and of those who were once thy chofen People; the Success of thy Gofpel, and the wonderful Increase of the Profeffors of thy Name, not only against Flesh and Blood, but against Principalities, against Powers, (a) 1 Tim. if, 2.

(b) John iii, 2.

againft

against the Rulers of the Darkness of this World, against fpiritual Wickedness in high Places. So mightily grew the Word of God, and prevailed!

And to all this, by thy gracious Condefcenfion in affuming our Nature to inftruct us, there is further added to illuftrate and exemplify and confirm thy holy Doctrine, a perfect unerring Pattern of a Life without Blemish and without Spot, full of Love and full of Truth dd Our divine Teacher did not, like the Pharifees of old, bind heavy Burthens, and grievous to be born, and lay them on Mens Shoulders, whilst they themfelves would not touch them with one of their Fingers; but he was himself a Pattern of the moft fublime Virtues, of the most rare and unufual, of the moft hard and difficult, of fuch Virtues as are of the most common and ordinary, as well as of the moft neceflary Ufe throughout the whole Course of our Lives.

Refolve then with thyfelf, O my Soul, (but refolve in an humble Dependance upon God, and upon the Help and Succour of his Grace) that thou wilt conftantly follow the Doctrine. and Example of thy dear Redeemer; and being light in the Lord, thou wilt walk as a Child of Light, knowing that it had been better for thee not to have known the Way of Righteousness, than after thou hast known it, to turn afide from. the holy Commandment delivered unto thee. Embrace and receive, honour and obey him, as the anointed Prophet of the Lord to teach and

(c) Eph. vi, 12. [dd] John i, 14. (g) 2 Pet. ii, 21.

(cc) Acts xix, 20. (e) Matth. xxii, 4.

(d) 1 Pet. i, 19. (f) Eph. v, 8. guide

guide thee: Follow him in what he requires and commands thee; follow him in the Example he has left us, and conftantly endeavour to do as he has done:---Follow his Holinefs in what he' did; follow his Patience in what he suffered : Follow him to his Table, there to contemplate his Life and Sufferings, and to thank him (among other Inftances of his Goodness) for giving us the Knowledge of Salvation, whereby the Day Spring from on high hath visited us, and given Light to us that fat in Darkness and in the Shadow of Death, to guide our Feet into the Way of Peace: Follow him in Life, and follow him in Death; and follow him thro' the Gates of Death, till thou meet with him in the Life everlafting, when thou shalt ever be with the Lord', and reign with him for evermore, Amen.

A Meditation on our Saviour's Priestly Office.

ORD, how malignant is the Nature, how terrible the Effects of Sin! What a Tranfformation does it make in Creatures formed after thine own Image and Likeness? What a difinal and doleful Separation between thee and them? How miferable was the Cafe of fallen Man? Tho' made holy and upright by his Creator, he, by his voluntary Tranfgreffion, funk into a corrupt, degenerate, and curfed Condition; not only deprived of the Image of God, in which he was created, but liable to the Punishment of his incenfed, almighty, vin

(h) Luke i, 77. (i) 1 Theff. iv, 17. (k) Gen. i, 26. (1) Ecclef. vii, 29.

dictive

dictive Juftice; and in that miferable forlorn, Condition, how could he recover himself from that Abyss of Mifery in which he was plunged? Did not Juftice, and Truth, and Holinefs, require that the Soul that finneth, it shall die? Was it agreeable to the divine, Attri butes to remit the Punishment without fome fuitable Satisfaction?---But who could make fuch Satisfaction? No One of the human Race; fince all Flesh has corrupted its Way on the Earth", fince all have finned and fallen hort of the Glory of God, and therefore were involved in the fame Condemnation P. No Man could redeem his Brother, or give his Life a Ranfom for him, for it coft more to redeem their Souls, fo that he must let that alone for ever 9. But Oh! the unfathomable Depth of almighty and redeeming Love, that could entertain any Thoughts of Salvation for rebellious. finful, wretched Creatures)! O the Depth of the Riches both of the Wisdom and Goodness of God! how unfearchable are his Judgments, and his Ways paft finding out !--Nothing less than infinite Love could fuggeft the Thought; nothing but infinite Wildom, which is wonderful in Counfel, and excellent in working, could contrive the Way;-nothing but infinite Power could put it in Execution.

Behold, the Son of God paffes by us, and fees us polluted in our own Blood: He fays unto us when we were in our Blood, live; yea

be

[m] Ezek. xviii, 4. [n] Gen. vi, 12. [o] Rom. iii, 23. [P] Luke xxiii, 40. [q] Pf. xlix, 7, 8. [r] Rom. [t] Eze. xvi, 6.

xi, 33.

[f] Ifa. xxviii, 29.

He:

faid unto us, when we were in our Blood, live! He condefcends to leave the Glory which he had before the World was ", to become our High Priest and our Sacrifice. that was boly, harmless, undefiled, Jeparate from Sinners, undertakes to make Reconciliation for the Sins of the People; and as a Lamb without Blemish and without Spot ", to give his Life a Ranfom for many zz. He his ownself bore our Sins in his own Body on the Tree"," that we might be redeemed from the Gurfe of. the Law, being made a Curfe for us ". He is. made Sin for us, who knew no Sin, that we might be made the Righteoufnefs of God in Him..

Thus were we redeemed not with corruptible Things, as Silver and Gold, but with the precious Blood of Chrift, the Blood of God; and therefore if the Blood of Bulls and of Goats fanctified to the purifying of the Flesh, how much more fball the Blood of Chrift, who, through the eternal Spirit, offer'd himself to God, cleanse us from: all Unrighteoufnefs & ?

O thou who art called of God an High Prieft after the Order of Melchifedeck ", I fee in thy eternal Godhead the Fulness of that Merit which attoned for all our Sins, and purchafed for us an Entrance into Life everlast. ing; and in thy human Nature I fee thee capable of being made an Offering for the Sins of the whole World!

[u] John xvii, 5. [x] Heb. vii, 26.

[y] Ib. ii, 17. [z] Pet. i, 19. [zz] Matth. xx, 28. [a] 1 Pet. ii, 24. [b] Gal. iii, 13. [c] 2 Cor. v, 21. [d] 1 Pet. i, 19. [e] Acts xx, 28 [f] Heb. ix, 14. [5] 1 John i, 7.

[h] Heb. v.. 10.