The second thing we are taught, is, that love is. a treasure which must be opened; that is, we must prefent it to the Lord. If we have received his love into our will, we must return it back again, by every duty of piety, worship, and fervice. The wife men came from the Eaft to Jerufalem, to prefent their offerings, and do homage to the newborn Saviour. We are not to think We are not to think any fervice too great, or any duty too burthenfome, which we are called upon to render-it is love, as the poet fays,

"That makes our cheerful feet in swift obedience move."

It is this that makes all worship, as prayer, praise, thanksgiving, and the like, not only easy, but defireable and pleafant. It is our meat and our drink to do the will of God. Thus we open our treasures, and present all our affections to the Lord, in every duty of piety, religious worship, and spiritual service.

But, fecondly, the next thing the wife men offered was frankincenfe; that is, as the word imports, FREE-INCENSE. You will fee this mentioned in feveral places of the holy word; in Lev. ii. 1, "And when "And when any will "offer a meat-offering unto the Lord, his offering " fhall be of fine flour; and he shall pour oil upon " it, and put frankincenfe thereon." See also verfes 15 and 16.

Now as every thing in the word corresponds to fomething fpiritual, fo by frankincenfe that which is fpiritual

fpiritual is fignified. As gold, therefore, correfponds to, and fignifies the celeftial principle; fo frankincenfe correfponds to the fpiritual principle; or, as gold applies to goodness and love, fo frankincenfe applies to truth and faith-and as the former refpects the will, the latter refpects the understanding.

The meaning therefore is, that as the wife men offered to the Lord the highest principle of love, goodness, and affection in the will; fo they united with it, the spiritual principle of truth and faith in the understanding. Their faith was grounded in love, and their truth in goodness. It is evident they were directed by divine truth, and influenced by a divine faith, or they never would have come fo far to worship the Lord Jefus Christ.

Had they not known, by the word, that Jehovah would come to fave mankind, and had they not believed that the child born at Bethlehem was the manifefted Jehovah, they would not, they could not, have worshipped him; for that very worship implied their firm belief that he was God as well as man. It was, therefore, frankincense, or a FREEINCENSE, which they offered; being convinced that Jefus was the Chrift, and the Lord their God. Their will, therefore, was not only under the influence of heavenly love, but their understanding, also, was directed by truth, to believe in Jefus Chrift as their Redeemer, and the object of their adoration.

And here, I prefume, you will see the abfolute neceffity of uniting these two principles, in order to

render

render an acceptable offering to the Lord our God. For take them separately, and what is their value? Why the gold becomes drofs, and the frankincenfe a disgusting smell. A profeffion of love to God, without a knowledge of him, and faith in him, cannot be an acceptable facrifice; and a knowledge of God, and faith in him, without love to him, must be equally unacceptable. How many are there. who pretend an affection for the Lord, and have much of this love upon their tongues; appear very devout and fanctified in their worship, and at the fame time have not in truth that love to God which causes them to do his will, and keep his commandments; are almoft totally ignorant of his nature and perfections, and destitute of a sound spiritual faith? These may imagine they offer gold to the Lord; but they will fooner or later be convinced, their gold was drofs and dirt.

Again, how many are there who have acquired a confiderable knowledge of God, his word, and the doctrines and truths thereof; and who boast much of, and depend greatly upon, faith in his name, his merits, and facrifice; and at the fame time this faith is ALONE? It is not derived from, or connected with, PURE LOVE to the Lord, and his holy commandments. Can this offering be acceptable to the bleffed God? Will he, who knoweth the beart, and requireth the heart, be pleafed with fuch a facrifice as this?—No, the frankincenfe has loft its perfume, and ftinks in the noftrils of the Moft High. The offering is not grounded in love, nor rooted in

the

the will, and therefore it afcends not to heaven, but is difperfed, and vanishes away.

And I am forry to fay it; yea, I do fincerely lament that I have fo much reafon to fay, that this is too much the state of profeffing christians in our day. By fome means or other, the doctrine of juftification by faith alone, has almost universally prevailed; and more than ever, I believe, within these twenty or thirty years past. Whereas one would think it must be evident, both from reason and scripture, that faith, if it be not grounded in love, and productive of good works, or true obedience to divine laws, can be of no value or use, nor in any sense acceptable to that God, who has told us by his apoftles, that a "faith which can re"move mountains is nothing, without love;" and that "faith without works is dead."

Let us, my chriftian brethren, give up, relinquish, and explode such a faith as this; it is of no ufe, will do us no good, nor ever be acceptable to the Lord Jefus. No facrifice can please him, but that which arises from the heart; a facrifice of pure love, founded in the knowledge of divine truth, and united with a found operative faith.

Proceed we further, to notice the other part of the offering the wife men prefented to the Lord. They presented unto him gifts, gold, frankincenfe, and MYRRH. Myrrh is an Arabian gum, extracted from the myrrh tree, and is frequently mentioned in the facred fcriptures. Exod. xxx. 23, "Take thou also unto thee principal spices, of pure

"myrrh

"myrrh five hundred fhekels;" as a part of the compound which was to anoint the tabernacle. And Pfa. xlv. 8, "All thy garments smell of myrrh, " and aloes, and caffia, out of the ivory palaces." And John xix. 39, "Nicodemus brought a mix"ture of myrrh, and aloes, about an hundred pounds weight," to anoint the body of Jefus.

Now as the word of the Lord is in itself spiritual, we may be affured these things have a spiritual fignification, and what they fignify can only be known by an acquaintance with the fcience of correfpondences, by which that word is written. This science leaves us not to mere conjecture, concerning the true meaning of this thing and the other; but opens that meaning from its fpiritual ground. As there is a trinity in the Lord, of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, in one person, so there is a trinity in the word, as it contains a celestial, fpiritual, and natural fenfe; there is alfo a trinity in man, as he poffeffes a body, a foul, and an operation; there is likewife a trinity in his internal, that is, a will, understanding, and action. Gold applies to his will, principle, or affection; frankincense to his underftanding principle; and myrrh to his active principle, or conduct. Or gold fignifies his love and goodness; frankincenfe, truth and faith; and myrrh, charity and good-works. The whole meaning of the text, therefore, in its internal and spiritual sense, is, that the wife men prefented unto the Lord pure love, true faith, and fincere obedience. This was the treasure they poffeffed, and which they had

received