.

largeft to fill it, Pfal. lxxxi. 10. O then, cry, Give me Chrift and deny me what thou wilt; a crumb of mercy from thy table, or elfe I am gone for ever. Endeavour to fay, as Ifa. xxvi. The defire of my foul is unto thee, and to the remembrance of thy name, O that I knew where to find him! When wilt thou come unto me? O for further tokens of his love, and clear evidences of my intereft in him! O for the fmiles of his face, and the voice of joy and gladness! There are many heavenly dainties here; here are all the fruits of the tree of life, the comforts of the fpirit, the influences of his grace, the bread and waters of life; therefore come with enlarged appetites. The spouse cries, Cant. ii. 4. Stay me with flagons; as if the had faid, My thirt is fo great, it is not a drop or a little cup that will quench it, I would have whole flagons. Fear not to wrong your neighbours; for there is a river to every one of you. Obferve how earnest Christ was to feast with us, Luke xxii. 15. With defire (fays he) have I defired to eat this fupper with you, tho' he had no need either of you or it: And will not you whose needs are fo great, fay, With defire have I defired to eat this fupper with Chrift before I die; it may be my last communion, O let me have fomething 6 to carry my expence through the wilderness; let ⚫ me have fomething to ftand me in ftead, when I go through the valley of the fhadow of death.

VI. Come with humility and felf denial, content to be nothing that Chrift may be all; and willing to fubmit to any thing. for a blink of his countenance. Be fenfible of your ill-defervings, and acknowledge a crumb will be a great mercy. Be content, with the prodigal and woman of Canaan, to be taken into Chrift's family, tho' it were in the meaneft ftation and employment let me be the meanest of Chrift's fervants, tho' I be never fo ill used, or ill refpected, will be thankful, if I be within Chrift's doors, have a relation to his family, and can call him master. Again, come felf-deniedly, renouncing all confidence

in yourself, your preparations, humiliations, or performances: Thele may be good graces, and good duties; but they will be ill Chrifts, and ill Saviours. Freely own that it is not your own righteousness that faves you, nor your own ftrength that quickens you; but only Chrift's righteoufnefs, and Chrift's ftrength. Say, Bleffed Jelus, I flee to thee alore; I have no hope in myself, nor in any thing befides thee; all my confidence is in the freeness of thy love, the < mercy of thy bowels, the merit of thy death, the worth of thy blood, the fufficiency of thy righteoufnefs, and power of thy interceffion.

VII. Come with charity and love to all men, even to your very enemies. Banish all malice and envy, pray for your enemies, forgive them, with well and do good both to their fouls and bodies, according to Chrift's example on the cross but especially, bring with you love and affection to God's people, delight in their fellowship above all others, for they are the excellent ones of the earth.

VIII. Come with honeft defigns to feal a marriage. covenant with Chrift. Confent frankly to Chrift to be your Prince and Saviour; do not think of halving it with Chrift, but be willing to take him entirely upon his own terms. Be content not only to be faved by him, but to ferve him, live for him, fight for him, and cleave to him all the days of your life; refolving that all the pleafures of fin, temptations of Satan, and allurements of the world; nay, the hopes of enjoying ten thousand worlds, fhall never prevail with you to part with Chrift. Come refigning yourselves, your hearts, and all you have, to Christ: Say, " Lord, tho' I had ten thousand hearts, and every one of them ten thousand times better than they are, they should be all thine.' Come with ftrong vows and purposes against fin, that mur

dered your Saviour; refolve never to harbour it, or make peace with it; but that you will fight against e

it to your last breath, and revenge the death of Chrift on it.

IX. Come with thankfulness and praise to God for redeeming love, and providing fuch a Saviour for you, Let the high praises of God be in your mouths; fend up whole vollies of praife to your Redeemer, for undertaking your deliverance. Invite the ongels and all the creation to aflift you in this work. Stir up your fouls and all that is within you to blefs his holy name, your fouls (like Mary) fhould magnify the Lord, and your Spirits rejoce in God your Saviour; your hearts fhould afcend, like Manoah's angel, in the fmoke of thanfgiving and praise. Say, Lord, what fhall I render to thee for all thou haft done. and-fuffered for me? Lord, what am i that thou fhouldft part with thy glory, yea, with thy blood, and with thy life, for luch a wretch as me? I am afhamed that I can love and praife thee no more: Oh! my heart is cold, my tongue is flow: Let heaven and earth, angels and men, join and extol his free grace and wondrous love; let all the world ring with his praife.'

X. Come with hope and expectation depending on God's promife and Ghrift's merits. You ought greedily to look to Chrift, expecting fomething from him, as the poor cripple did from Peter and John, Alts iii. 4. 5. Peter laid, Look on us: And he gave heed to them, expecting to receive fomething from them. We ordinarily receive little, because we expect little; God's mercy is upon us according as we hope in him, Pfal. xxxiii. ult. O raife your defires and expectations; for you come to a merciful and liberal God, that will not let the expectation of his poor creatures perish, Pfal. ix. 18. The needy fhall not always be forgotten, the expectation of the poor fhall not perish for ever.

Obj. Alas I am a poor, weak, heartless creature; I have little ground to hope..

Anf. You have God's call and promise to encou rage you. Groan under your deadnefs, and use the

means;

means; aim honestly at your duty, and look to God for accomplishing his promife. Do as the Ifraelites did in the wilderness, Num. xxi. 16, 17, 18. God had called them to the place where he promiled them water, which was very much valued in that dry de. fert: Well, did they fit ftill idly, waiting till the water fhould Spring? No, the nobles put to their faves, and digged in expectation of God's fulfilling his promile, and lung, Spring up, well, &c. Make an ho. neft mint, look up with hope, and cry for the spring ing of the well. Come, bring all your empty vel fels to the fountain, in expectation of a fill: Do as the poor widow, 2 Kings, iv. Bring not a few; for I am fure the veffels will fail before the oil fail. Plead with God for the accomplishing of his word: Say, Lord tho' we cannot fay, Pour water on us, for we are thirty; yet we can plead, Pour floods on us, for we are dry ground: Lord make us as hungry as we are empty, and thirsty as we are dry: Lord, if thou deal with us according to our fenfe of need, we will get little; but, Lord, we plead, thou wilt deal with us according to our real need, and thy royal bounty, and then we will be right enough.'.

O poor foul! Art thou longing for the springing of the well, faying, O that I knew in what part of this valley of Bacca the well would fpring, what ' ordinance, what duty would be the mean; there I would wait and ly, there I would dig and cry; one guth of these living ftreams would fatisfy my 6 longing foul? Poor foul, thou shalt not die for want you have the word of a king for it, Ifa. xli. 17, 18. When the poor and needy feek water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst, I the Lord will bear them, I the God of Ifrael will not forfake them. I will open rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the vallies: I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water. DIRECT.

Q 2

A

DIRECTION IV.

Fter you have this morning meditated, dealt with your hearts, wrestled with God, read his word, and performed family worship, with faith and fervency fuitable to this folemn occafion; you ought timeoufly to repair to the church against the folemn worthip begin. And let your hearts be breathing forth many heavenly ejaculations by the way; fuch as that, Pfal. xliii. 3. 4. Send out thy light and thy truth: let them lead me, and bring me to thy holy hill, and to thy tabernacles. Then will I go unto the altar of God, unto God my exceeding joy. O it were a plea. lant frame this morning, to be going with joy to draw water out of the wells of falvation! Let us be very thankful, that the waters of life do flow fo plea. fantly and plentifully to us, betwixt the banks of gofpel ordinances; blefs God that has not made the barren wilderness, our dwelling: but let us think, as we go, that as God rained down manna from hea ven on his people, fo he rained down fire and brim. ftone on Sodom and Gomorrah. This ferves to teach us to rejoice fo in the mercies which God rains downupon us in the facrament, as to fear his judgments in cafe they be abused.

more.

Again, think, I am now upon my way to mount Cal. vary; Lord forbid that Chrift's traitors be my attendants: Let all my lufts and idols be for ever banished from me, may they never find lodging in my foul any Lord help me to go this day, with such a melted heart and weeping eyes, as the holy virgin, Mary Magdelen, and the other tender heurted women of Jerufalem had, when they went to mount Calvary, to behold Ghrift crucified. Am not I going to behold the Jame crucifixion reprefented before my eyes?

As it was a part of your fecret work this mor ping to plead earnestly with God to direct his mes fengers to fpeak fuitably to your cafe; fo you ought

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