of thy course. It is not indifferent to him whether thou obeyest or disobeyest the gospel; whether thou turn and repent or no; that he is truly displeased at thy trifling, sloth, negligence, impenitence, hardness of heart, stubborn obstinacy, and contempt of his grace, and takes real offence at them.

3. He hath real kind propensions towards thee, and is ready to receive thy returning soul, and effectually to mediate with the offended Majesty of heaven for thee, as long as there is any hope in thy case. 4. When he sees there is no hope, he pities thee, while thou seest it not, and dost not pity thyself. Pity and mercy above are not names only; it is a great reality that is signified by them, and that hath place there, in far higher excellency and perfection, than it can with us poor mortals here below. Ours is but borrowed and participated from that first fountain and original above. Thou dost not perish unlamented, even with the purest heavenly pity, though thou hast made thy case uncapable of remedy. As the well-tempered judge bewails the sad end of the malefactor, whom justice obliges him not to spare, or save.

And now let us consider what USE is to be made of all this. And though nothing can be useful to the persons themselves, whom the Redeemer thus laments as lost, yet that he doth so, may be of great use to others; which will partly concern those who do justly apprehend this is not their case; and partly such as may be in great fear that it is.

I. For such as have reason to persuade themselves it is not their case. The best ground upon which

any can confidently conclude this, is that they have in this their present day, through the grace of God, already effectually known the things of their peace, such, namely, as have sincerely, with all their hearts and souls, turned to God, taken him to be their God, and devoted themselves to him, to be his: entrusting and subjecting themselves to the saving mercy and governing power of the Redeemer, according to the tenor of the gospel-covenant, from which they do not find their hearts to swerve or decline, but resolve, through divine assistance, to persevere herein all their days.

Now for such as with whom things are already brought to that comfortable conclusion, I only say to them,

Christ,

1. Rejoice and bless God that so it is. your Redeemer, rejoices with you and over you; you may collect it from his contrary resentment of their case who are past hope; if he weep over them, he no doubt, rejoices over you. There is joy in heaven concerning you. Angels rejoice, your glorious Redeemer presiding in the joyful consort. And should not you rejoice for yourselves? Consider what a discrimination is made in your case! To how many hath that gospel been a deadly savour, which hath proved a savour of life unto life to you ! How many have fallen on your right hand and on your left, stumbling at that stone of offence, which to you is become "the head-stone of the corner, elect and precious!" Whence is this difference? Did you never slight Christ? never make light of offered mercy? was your mind never blind or vain?

was your heart never hard or dead? were the terms of peace and reconciliation never rejected or disregarded by you? How should you admire victorious grace, that would never desist from striving with you till it had overcome! You are the triumph of the Redeemer's conquering love, who might have been of his wrath and justice! Endeavour that your spirits may taste, more and more, the sweetness of reconciliation, that you may more abound in joy and praises. Is it not pleasant to you to be at peace with God? to find that all controversies are taken up between him and you? that you can now approach him, and his terrors not make you afraid? that you can enter into the secret of his presence, and solace yourselves in his assured favour and love? How should you "joy in God through Jesus Christ, by whom you have received the atonement !" What have you now to fear? If, when you were enemies, you were reconciled by the death of Christ, how much more, being reconciled, shall you be saved by his life? How great a thing have you to If God be for you, oppose to all worldly troubles? who can be against you? ? Think how mean it is for the friends of God, the favourites of heaven, to be dismayed at the appearance of danger that threatens them from the inhabitants of the earth! What if all the world were in a posture of hostility against you, when the mighty Lord of all is your friend? Take heed of thinking meanly of his power and love! Would any one diminish to him

self, whom he takes for his God? All people will walk, every one in the name of his God; why should

not you much more in the name of yours, glorying in him, and making your boast of him all the day long? O the reproach which is cast upon the glorious name of the great God, by their diffidence and despondency, who visibly stand in special relation to him, but fear the impotent malice of mortal man more than they can trust in his almighty love! If indeed you are "justified by faith," and have peace with God, it becomes you so to rejoice in the hope of the glory of God, as also to glory in tribulation, and tell all the world that in his favour stands your life, and that you care not who is displeased with you, for the things wherewith you have reason to apprehend he is pleased.

2. Demean yourselves with that care, caution, and dutifulness that become a state of reconciliation. Bethink yourselves that your present peace and friendship with God is not original, and continued from thence, but hath been interrupted and broken; that your peace is not that of constantly innocent persons. You stand not in this good and happy state because you never offended, but as being reconciled, and who, therefore, were once enemies. And when you were brought to know, in that your day which you have enjoyed, the things belonging to your peace, you were made to feel the smart, and taste the bitterness of your having been alienated, and enemies in your minds by wicked works. When the terrors of God did beset you round, and his arrows stuck fast in you, did you not then find trouble and sorrow? Were you not in a "fearful expectation of wrath and fiery indignation" to consume

and burn you up as adversaries? Would you not then have given all the world for a peaceful word or look? for any glimmering hope of peace? How wary and afraid should you be of a new breach! How should you study acceptable deportments, and to "walk worthy of God unto all well-pleasing!" How strictly careful should you be to keep faith with him, and abide steadfast in his covenant! How concerned for his interest! and in what agonies of spirit, when you behold the eruptions of enmity against him from any others! not from any distrust, or fear of final prejudice to his interest, but from the apprehension of the unrighteousness of the thing itself, and a dutiful love to his name, throne, and government. How zealous should you be to draw in others; how fervent in your endeavours, within your own sphere, and how large in your desires, extended as far as the sphere of the universe, that "every knee might bow to him, and every tongue confess to him." They ought to be more deeply concerned for his righteous cause, that remember they were once most unrighteously engaged against it. And ought besides to be filled with compassion towards the souls of men, yet in an unreconciled state, as "having known the terrors of the Lord,” and remembering the experienced dismalness and horror of that state; what it was to have divine wrath and justice armed against you with almighty power! and to have heard the thunder of such a voice, "I lift my hand to heaven, and swear I live for ever: if I whet my glittering sword, and my hand take hold on vengeance, I will recompense fury to mine