that contrived our redemption, pitched upon and gave the Redeemer. O how readily accepted he of the Son's offer to fuffer and fatisfy infinite juftice for fin in our room! Upon our fall, he might justly have said, No, the foul that fins fhall die perfonally, I'll admit of no furety. But, glory to the bleffed Father, fuch was his love to us, that when the dear Son faid, Father, I will be furety for the finners of mankind, let my blood be shed for theirs, let the blow light on me, let me die in their room; fuch was the love and pity of the Father to us, that he presently accepted the offer, held our Redeemer at his word, faying, Be it as thou haft faid: Awake, O fword against the Man that is my fellow: Smite the Shepherd, and fpare the fheep. I'll glorify my juftice upon my own dear Son, rather than upon them. Amen, faid the bleffed Son of God: I will be the facrifice!

O love unspeakable, both in the Father and the Son! Human love, angelical love, is nothing to it! O what is the love of creatures one to another, to this love of God to man! Astonishing love! that the eternal Son of God, intreated by no man, but hated of all men, fhould in his love and pity intreat for men; yea, undertake and die for them, when enemies to God and all that is good! O the breadth, O the length, O the depth, O the height of this love of Christ, which passeth knowledge! I may possibly feel it, but I cannot fathom it. The love of creatures is nothing to the love of Chrift. It was great love that Jacob bare to Rachel, that he endured the heat of fummer, and frofts of winter, for her: But all that was nothing to the winter-ftorm which Chrift fuffered for us. It was extraordinary love that Jonathan had to David, that he would peril his life to avert his fathers wrath from him: but what was that to Chrift's love, that took on his eternal Father's wrath, which was infinitely greater than 'Saul's, and actually laid down his life to avert that dreadful ftorm of wrath from us! What love was it that made him stand before the mouth of hell furnace, and fuffer himfelf to be scorched with it, in the most terrible manner, that he might stop the flame from breaking out on us! Behold him receiving the fword of justice into his bowels,

to prevent its being fheathed in our hearts! Behold, when the fea of God's wrath raged and was tempeftuous, threatning to fwallow us all up; Chrift came, and faid, like Jonah, Spare thefe poor finners; take me up, and caft me into the fea in their ftead, that the storm may be appeased against them! Chrift was willing to be caft into the fea of wrath, to be a bleffed plank of mercy for fhipwrecked fouls to grip to, and be faved.

Admirable love of the Father of our Lord Jefus Chrift, who would give his dearly beloved Son, out of free love and pity to man, to die and suffer wrath for him! and would chufe rather to fee his dear Son agonizing and ftruggling under infinite wrath for a time, than to fee an elect world struggling in hell among devils for ever! O who can utter the mighty acts of the Lord! who can fhew forth his praife! O Father of mercies, from all eternity thou forefaw our fall and misery, and, in thy wisdom and love, didft contrive a noble remedy for us: Thou even didt provide a Surety for man before the debt was contracted, a faviour for him before he was loft; and by this glorious Surety thou haft found out a noble way to fatisfy both the demands of juftice and intreaties of mercy, and glorify both thofe divine perfections at once.By this, Lord, we know thou loveft us, that thou haft not with-held thy Son, thine only Son from us, to be facrificed in our room; and graciously calleft us to commemorate thy love, in providing this facrifice, at thy holy table.Inftead of this, thou mighteft juftly have called multitudes of us together, to make us a facrifice to thy juftice for our heinous fins and rebellions against heaven. But behold, thou calleft us together to thy Table upon a quite other design, even to intimate to us a facrifice of thy own providing, fufficient for us all; and actually to behold the bleeding victim of the innocent Lamb of God, who willingly, at his Father's call, gave himself to be flain to take away the fins of the world! Lord, what didft thou fee in fuch creatures, to make thee love us after this manner? Nothing, but much to make thee lothe us; yet the time when we were moft lothfome thou mad'it it the time of love! Surely B

thy thoughts are not as our thoughts, nor thy ways as our ways! How aftonishing was thy conduct in redeeming us when loft? And worfe are we than devils if we be not ravished with the love of the Father in projecting our redemption, and with the love of his eternal Son that made him leave his glory in heaven, and even wade through hell to fave the dregs of the creation.

O what manner of love is this, that the Father did give his eternal Son, to die for those who deserved eternal wrath for their rebellion and treason against himself! When notice was first given in this lower world, that the Son of God was coming down to it from heaven; what could have been expected, but that his bufinefs here would be to condemn the world, and hasten the execution of those he found in arms against him? But O! who can think, and not wonder, that he should have fent him to fuffer and die for fuch as forfeited their lives, and deferved to be flain; yea, for such as were alienated from the life of God, and full of enmity against him, unworthy of any place of abode upon earth, and by their wickednefs fully prepared for hell! O how furprifing it is, that God would, in this our miserable state, fend the fon of his love to die for us, to rescue us from deferved wrath, and purchase a new title for us to life and glory! Behold what manner of love this is, that the juft fhould fuffer for the unjust, the juft Prince for the unjust rebels that were in arms against him, the King of Glory for the children of disobedience, the obedient Son for mortal enemis? O this is fuch a manner of loving, that the higheft tranfport of wondering cannot reach: For fcarcely for a righteous man will one dare to die; but God commends his love to us, in that, while we were yet finners, Chrift died for us. Rom. v. 7, 8.

Oh how am I able to hear, speak, or think of this love, and my heart not burn with an admiring sense of the freenefs and riches of God's grace; and with a vehement hatred and indignation against my fins, which contributed to pierce and crucify my glorious Redeemer! Can I be but ravifhed with love to him, when he comes to communicate his love to me at his table, and say, Behold how

I have loved you, and given myself for you! I was cut off, but not for myself; I was wounded for your tranfgreffions, and bruifed for your iniquities. It was for you I was betrayed, reviled, condemned, and crucified; for you my hands and feet were nailed to the tree, my head crowned with thorns, and my fide pierced with a fpear: And all this I fuffered, that you might be faved from hell, and get fin forgiven, and God reconciled to you for ever.

What is Man, that thou art mindful of him? 7HEN David beheld the heaven, with its glorious luminaries, the fun, moon, and ftars, and the mighty works of God in the creation, and confidered what a mean figure man made amongst them; he admires God's condefcenfion and goodnefs in his concern and pains about him, in his works of providence and redemption. Lord, what is man, fallen man, that thou shouldst notice him so much? a poor, vile, finful worm! And yet how fingularly minded and honoured is he, in God the Son his undertaking to be his cautioner and ranfom! had he done it for angels, it had not been fo marvellous; but what is man, that God should visit him in this manner? fhould pay him a homely vifit in human nature, to fee what ailed him, to hear his complaints, and know feelingly his wants and miferies, that he might the better fympathize with him, relieve and supply him!

But who is this that comes to pay this vifit to man? Even he that is King of kings, and Lord of lords, who is infinite in majesty and power, in riches and glory. How awful are the defcriptions given us of him in the Bible ? Great is our Lord, and of great pouver, his underflanding is infinite. He calls the fars by their names. Whatsoever he pleaseth, that doth he in heaver and in earth, in the feas and all deep places. And it is faid of his coming to judgement, Dan. vii. 10. A fiery fream ifjued forth. from before him, thousand thousands miniftred unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand flood before bin. And yet

this almighty perfon, the great God, condefcends to clothe himself with our nature, and stoops to the very ground, in the moft lowly manner, to pay a kind vifit to his rebellious creature, man, even man that is a worm; and when he gets not access to him at firft, he continues to stand and knock at his door.-O how marvellous is this, that he who is omnipotent, that could by a word have annihilated fallen man, and created a more amiable creature in all refpects in his room, should floop fo low to him! that he who is omnifcient, and perfectly knew man's unworthinefs, his enmity, his ingratitude, and what unkind returns he would make for the greateft kindness, should court him so earnestly! that the Judge of heaven fhould come down from the bench, and put on the pannel's clothes, that he might anfwer and fatisfy the law for him! that the great General of the armies of heaven fhould put himself in the room of a poor condemned deferter, to fuffer for him! that the Creator fhould ftoop to die for the creature, even the great God for a worm, man, is love that fwallows up our thoughts and language! What can we think, what can we fay of it! It is love that paffeth knowledge! the most penetrating angel cannot fathom its height, its depth, its breadth, or its length! Why? for its height, it is infinitely higher than the higheft heavens. For its depth, none can fee its bottom, for it made him ftoop as low as hell. For its breadth, it is as broad as the whole earth, and the whole heavens too; it comprehends all his people, even the poorest outcast on earth, as well as the highest faint in heaven. For its length, it never ends, but continues without interruption, notwithstanding of provocations; nay, it is drawn out parallel with the longest line of eternity.

Lord, what is man that thou shouldst have minded him, vifited him, and loved him fo! a creature most unlovely, ugly, and black as hell; that had got the image of God razed out, and the image of Satan pictured in its room.-A creature lame and impotent, that could not rife but as Chrift lifted him, could not ftand but as he upheld him, could not walk but as he