pear among the thorns; thofe that have long lain, felf-condemned, among the pots and potsherds of the earth, obtain the wings of a dove, and their feathers fhine with burnished gold, while the voice of the turtle bemoans his mate. "Nor will he deliver the foul of his turtle dove unto the multitude of the wicked, nor forget the congregation of his poor for ever." Pfalm lxxiv. 19. Two turtle doves were always offered together under the old difpenfation; but one was never offered alone. Jefus died not alone; we were crucified with him. How precious is the facrifice of a crucified Saviour to poor perifhing finners! and how precious is the facrifice of a broken and contrite heart to Chrift Jefus! These were both offered up, and they will ever go together; as in type, so in truth. The voice of the heavenly turtle is heard and underftood; and his approving and commanding voice to his mate is, "O my dove, that art in the cleft of the rock, in the fecret places of the ftairs! Let me fee thy countenance; let me hear thy voice; for fweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely." Love in the heart ravishes him, and truth on the tongue charms his bleffed ears; while a cheerful countenance, reflected from a joyful conscience, carries all before it, and holds him a willing and a joyful captive to the charms of a mortal's affections: "The King is held in the galleries." How humbling, how condescending, is the King of kings, and Lord Lord of lords, to bow the heavens and come down to manifeft himself, and pay his divine vifits to rebels, to criminals in chains, who are shut up in unbelief, in legal bondage, and in the strong holds of fin and Satan! But he comes; and "his reward is with him, and his work before him." He enters and takes poffeffion of the purchase of his own blood, and rejoices over the trophy of his own victory; feparates the objects of his choice from among the reft of the captives, and efpoufes the foreigner. What a brilliant train of glory, majefty, and power, attend him when the everlasting doors are lifted up, and the King of glory enters in! Then we bow to his fceptre, fubmit to his eafy yoke, embrace the heavenly proclamation, and, with joy unfpeakable, come over to the divine ftandard; while the banner, that he has given to them that fear him, is difplayed, that his beloved may be delivered from that fear and torment that is more bitter than death. How wonderful are his works to the children of men! The clay lies paffive in the hand of the potter, while he forms the broken pitcher into another veffel, as it feemeth good unto the potter to make it. He enlightens the understanding to behold his beauty, fuitableness, and worth; he renews the mind, writes the law of faith in it, and entertains it with heavenly things; he binds up the broken heart, and fheds abroad his love in it; he purges the confcience, and endows it with everlasting B 2 everlafting peace, and the witness of our adoption; he informs the judgment, and inclines the will to choose, embrace, and hold fast, the better part, that cannot be taken from us. Truth, in the love of it, flows in, and the promises flow in with their richest bleffings, in all their sweetness, power, love, and joy unfpeakable; while the bleffed and adorable Comforter opens them up, explains them, and applies them as nails, faftened by the Mafter of affemblies. He also helps our infirmities in prayer, teftifies of Jefus, and of our intereft in him, and fills both heart and mouth with a thoufand thanks, bleffings, and praifes. "This people have I formed for myself; they fhall fhew forth my praise." O could we continue in this mount without the company of Mofes and Elias! This would be heaven on earth. But, alas! how often is this fweet enjoyment of his company interrupted. So fearful is the foul of offending,. left he should awake and depart; what weeping, praying, cleaving, and ftruggling to hold faft, when he is about to withdraw; and what tormenting anxiety, when gone, for fear he should return no more! Then comes that wicked counfellor, that enemy of all righteoufnefs, with a "Where is now thy God?" But he returns again and again, according to his appointed times of life, and revives and renews his vifits and his work, faying, " For a small moment have I forfaken thee, but with great mercies will I gather I gather thee; in a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment, but with everlafting kindness will I have mercy on thee, faith the Lord thy redeemer." So fpeaks the great Jehovah; fo fings Philomela; fo I muft fubscribe. But the arch enemy will lay many traps for thee in thy new and glorious connexion, in thine exalted state, and in the happy enjoyment of that dignity to which thou art fo unexpectedly preferred. And, as thou haft been fo long habituated to the legal embraces of Mofes, thou wilt find a felf-righteous fpirit within, that will at all times bend thee that way; and there will be a cleaving to him, notwithstanding all the hard treatment thou haft met with from him. His firft wife was a Cufhite, or Ethiopian; and all are black, but none comely, to this day, that are wedded to him. Contending, finding fault, curfing, and accufing, are all that can be expected by thofe who fue not out a divorce from him. His embraces gender nothing but bondage to fear; and all conception by him is followed with endless foul-travail and fruitless labour; and the whole iffue is " fruit unto death," and nothing elfe. No wedding garment, no ring, no beautiful feet with fhoes, ornament thofe who abide by the fide of that husband. "A bloody husband art thou unto me," fays the Cufhite, " because of the circumcifion." Then fhe is fent back; and how long the remained in widowhood I know not. However, B 3 However, her father brought her to him again in the wilderness; for I do not read that he ever went after her himself; and what became of her afterwards, none know. I think he ftarved her to death for Mofes gave them not the true bread from heaven; they ate manna, and are dead. John vi. 32, 49. And I think that he hath ftarved all the wives that he hath had fince; and, if at any time he gets a little comfort in his own heart, which makes him appear with a bright and cheerful countenance, he is fure to put a veil over his face, that nobody may look to the end of it but himself. 2 Cor. iii. 13. There is no such thing as living with him, nor with any of his family. What a life had our poor venerable mother Sarah all the time that Hagar was in her tent! She wanted to be the princess, though she was in bonds; and expected that her fpurious fon would have been heir both of the promises and of the homestall, till, by an order from the higher powers, they were both banished from the pavilion, which was to be inhabited by the legitimate offspring of the free woman. But, notwithstanding all that I have faid, thou wilt get into these legal embraces, veiled, blinded, bound, ftraitened, barren, lifeless, peevish, fretful, rebellious, hardened; yea, and thou wilt even cleave to these things, as foon as ever the best Beloved hides his face, withdraws, and provokes thee to jealousy, in order to try thy love, thy faithfulness, and thine attachment to him; not that he may |