lions to him, till his thirft is quite allayed, and his longing after fouls is fatisfied. Let us afk our hearts in his prefence this question: Is he fatisfied with me? For all the travail of his foul, has he yet won me, and got me to be his happy reward and wages? Or has not all his labour and pains, and · have the influences of the Holy Ghoft allured me to him, or am I yet in my fins ?

O my dear friends, my brethren, for whom Chrift travailed and laboured, give him willingly your hearts. Let him be your Shepherd, and be you his willing fheep. May he lead you to his fold, and rejoice his heart over you, and no more for joy remember the grief he endured when he won you to himfelf, and paid your price. Do you want to be his? then plead the fufferings wherewith he merited you. Put him in mind of the travail of his foul, and urge before him his availing pangs and forrows. Be in earnest with him, and ceafe not your importunity till he has laid his bleeding hands upon you and bleffed you. Abide his poor needy and dependant fuppliants at the foot of his crofs, till his Spirit, which made his laft moments joyful and gladsome, affures you he has fealed you among his jewels, and is fatisfied with you and in you. Be ye alfo fatiffied in him, and be his joy and he yours to all eternity. Amen.

O Thou bleffed Lamb of God, who on my account haft humbled thyfelf, and been here in the world in the form of a fervant, and haft laboured day and night, and at laft poured out thy foul to death for me, take me into thy flock, and number me with thy people, the folk who fhall be the reward of thy fufferings for ever; look upon me, and remember I am a foul for whom thou hast been flain, and for whom all thy forrows have been borne. O let

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Olet thy heart be fatisfied with me, and rejoice over me as a bridegroom over the bride. Let thy bitter torments and horrors be weighty to me, and teach me rightly to esteem and value thy fufferings and death. Let me find all my happines in thy wounds and blood as long as I live, and be fure I am thy beloved and redeemed child, and when I come to depart this life, let thy dying pains and agonies fweeten my last moments to me and comfort me: be the God of my life; and let my death be precious in thy fight. Let nothing hinder me to be thine here and for ever. As long as I am a pilgrim and stranger in the world, abide near to me, and let me live to thy praife; and when I must go hence, O go with me, lead me into the strong city, into the new Jerufalem, and prefent me for thyfelf before all the angels as one of thy elect fouls, who has made his garments white in thy blood, and by means of thy meritorious travail and anguish, is arrived fafe, out of much tribulation, to the kingdom of God. Hear me in this one thing, and make me thy fure poffeffion, thy inheritance, and a part of thy wages; and be satisfied with me, and make me fatisfied with thee for evermore. Amen.

An HYMN.

Deareft Saviour, whofe I am,
And whom I ferve alone,

At thy pierc'd feet I blush for fhame,
And fit, like Mary, down.

2. I raise my eyes and fee what smart,
What grief I put thee to:

And yet ('tis ftrange) it heals my heart,
While I thy anguish view.

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3. I now

3. I know my fins prepar'd the wood,
The nails, and whips, and fpear,
Which tare and flew
my Lord and God,

And drew forth every tear.

4. I know that ev'ry stripe he had,
And ev'ry pang he bore,

And ev'ry grief, 'till he was dead,
Was my defert, and more.

5. This makes me at his crofs defign
To fit, and fee, and prize
That loving Lamb, that God of mine,
That wond'rous Sacrifice!

DISCOURSE

DISCOURSE XXIV.

THE BEATITUDES.

MARK V. 3, &c.

Bleed are the poor in fpirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

THIS

HIS is the beginning of our Saviour's fermon upon the mount, and is the more remarkable, becaufe as the Old Teftament, or the laft of the prophets, ends with a threatening and curfe, fo our Saviour begins his New-Teftament with a bleffing, and opens his mouth in the gofpel-difpenfation with gracious promifes. In this difcourfe he has taught his difciples many weighty leffons; the whole has been justly praised by all his people, and is a tranfcript of his mind, and the beft ecclefiaftical rule, ritual and rubric of his univerfal church.

He delivered this difcourfe upon a mountain (for great multitudes followed him), that fo all might fee and hear him. The Scribes and Pharifees without doubt defpifed him for this manner of preaching, and especially thofe who were fo fond of the temple that they had hated the Samaritans, and fuch as worshipped out of it: but hence we learn, that to our Saviour all places are alike, and may be used for the publishing his gofpel;

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and

and though houfes fet apart for his worship and the divine fervice are good and convenient, yet we must not forget that he dwells not in temples made with hands; but where two or three are met in his name, he is prefent in the midft. The true temple fhall be open and manifeft in another world, and this is God and the Lamb himself. We fhould not place any great matter in the form of fetting forth the word of God, fince Jefus frequently fat and taught the people. He meant by it the greateft familiarity, and fpoke with creatures as a father to his dear children. His being willing to be feen and heard by all, fhould teach us he is not willing any fhould be hindered to look upon him and be faved; nor is it of him, when he is not heard to eternal life. The god of this world is the fole author and cause of all that blindnefs, backwardnefs and unwillingness in men to come to Jefus that they might have life.

The time will not allow me to speak of all the bleffed doctrines contained in this fermon of our Lord's at this time; I will therefore only speak of those beatitudes or bleffings pronounced in the former part of it, and this I purpose to do in a fimple and free manner.

Bleffed are the poor in fpirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." It must not be left unobferved that the poor in fpirit, or the fpiritually poor people, have the first right to all the bleffings of God. This is to me very important.

When St. Luke relates the particulars of this divine difcourfe he mentions only the poor; but St. Matthew is more clear; for though our Saviour's difciples were poor men, and but few noble or rich called to his church, yet therefore, because the poor or common people heard him gladly