the fulness of the ever-bleffed Godhead, which dwells in Jeffe's Branch, difplays his omniprefence and omnipotence in the fouls of thoufands of poor finners, and unites them (as boughs in the cedar) to himfelf; in which almighty power, love, and goodnefs, manifefted and put forth in the heart of the finner, the foul refts satisfied and contented, and finds and feels his fhadow a fweet fcreen from Satan's fiery darts, and from the piercing fentences of a fiery law. In the fhadowing branches of this goodly cedar fhall the birds of paradife dwell. Sing care away, Philomela; for our beloved" giveth fongs in the night." Sing of his right hand and ftretched-out arm, which got himself the victory over thy heart, and over all thy foes. Sing of mercy and of judgment; of judgment paft, and of mercy come. Sing of thy well beloved touching his vineyard, and of union with the living vine. Sing of his glorious triumph, of his dying love, and of his redeeming blood; and fing glory to the righteous. "Joy and gladness fhall be found therein, thanksgiving and the voice of melody; for as well the fingers as the players on inftruments fhall be there; all my fprings are in thee."

He that receives his teftimony into his heart, namely, that we must be born again (John iii. 11), and that he that believes in him fhall be faved (John iii. 32), and he that follows him shall have the light of life (John xxi. 24), is fealed; the testimony

teftimony is come home to his foul with power, in the Holy Ghoft, and in much affurance; which affurance is the fealing, confirming, and establishing, the foul in the certainty and enjoyment of the teftimony received; and of a part and lot in all the bleffings and benefits promised and teftified of. He fets his hand to the feal that God is true; he fubfcribes the evidence, and the book of the purchase. "One fhall fay, I am the Lord's," for he hath taken me as a prey from the mighty; "and another fhall call himself by the name of Jacob," saying, I have got both the birthright and the bleffing; " and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord, and furname himfelf by the name of Ifrael," crying aloud, I have prevailed in prayer; I have looked at my beloved till I have overcome him; and I fhall be more than conqueror (over heaven and earth) through him that hath loved me; " for as a prince have I power with God and with man, and have prevailed."

These are golden days, Philomela! Make the moft of them now, while the evil days come not; now, while Wisdom leads thy foul through all her myftic gates, wards, and doors, and exhibits her glorious and vifionary scenes before thee. "She stands on the top of high places,” Prov. viii; on Calvary, on mount Zion, and on every little hill thereof; on the munition of rocks, and on all the ancient mountains, and on the everlafting

hills of electing love, and " by the way in the places of the paths." Here fhe ftands, in all these watering places, breathing places, refting places, halting places, and fainting places, in order to give caution, encouragement, refreshment, seasonable counfel, ftrength, and comfort; by all which they go from ftrength to strength, "while paffing through the valley of Baca." Heavenly showers fill the pools: "I will pour water on him that is thirfty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will make the wilderness pools of water, and the dry land fprings of water."

"She crieth at the gates ;" and the voice of her cry is, "The Lord loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob. Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation, which keepeth the truth, may enter. This is the gate of the Lord, into which the righteous fhall enter."

"She crieth at the entry of the city," saying, "Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of God. Ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerufalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general affembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the fpirits of juft men made perfect, and to Jefus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of fprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel. Wherefore thou art no more a stranger and a foreigner,

foreigner, but a fellow-citizen of the faints and of the household of God. See that ye refuse not him that speaketh."

"She crieth at the coming in of the doors." Prov. viii. 3. The firft doors fhe cries at are the doors of death's fhadow: "Haft thou feen the doors of the fhadow of death?" Job xxxviii. 17. Thefe doors are the covering and veil that is spread over all nations (Ifa. xxv. 7), and the difmal gloom that the god of this world hath blinded our minds with, left the light of the glorious gofpel of Christ should shine into us, and we should be faved. But Wisdom cries at these doors, faying, "The people that walked in darkness have feen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.” Ifa. ix. 2. The light of the Lord penetrates through and opens thefe doors, and the understanding receives the light, and goes forth in it, and we begin (the doors being opened)" with open face to behold, as in a glass, the glory of the Lord." 2 Cor. iii. 18. But, though the underftanding is gone forth, the foul is not wholly enlarged: "Light is given to him that is in mifery, and life to the bitter in foul." Job iii. 20.

Then Wisdom leads us to another door, saying, "Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her. And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of E 4

hope."

hope." Hofea ii. 14, 15. Now hope enters in, and expectation goes forth; and the cry of Wifdom at this door is, " Bleffed is the man that trufteth in the Lord, and whofe hope the Lord is; for he fhall be as a tree planted by the waters, which fpreadeth out her roots by the river, and fhall not fee when heat cometh; but his leaf fhall be green, he fhall not be careful in the year of drought, nor fhall he ceafe from yielding fruit." Thus Wisdom rends the veil, and opens the doors of death's fhadow, and lets the understanding look out of obscurity, and out of darkness. Then she banishes black defpair, and opens the door of hope, when hope enters the foul, and expectation of better times goes forth.

And next the leads us to another door, faying,

They rehearfed all that God had done by them, and how he had opened the door of faith unto the Gentiles." Acts xiv. 27. The feat, or proper place, of faith is the heart: "With the heart man believeth unto rightcoufnefs," &c. Obdurate hardness and unbelief are the doors that keep the word and faith out of the heart, till a divine power attends the voice of Wifdom. But the cries at this door, and her powerful voice is, "As foon as they hear of me they fhall obey me." Now faith goes into the heart by hearing, and hearing by the word of God; then our obdurate hardnefs gives way, the door of faith opens, and the right hand of the Lord makes the injurious

bolt