fo as to fhed his blood, and bleed to death for them. For as lovely as Sarah was, while alive, yet when dead, Abraham could look on her no more, but would have her buried out of his fight. But Chrift faid not fo of his elect fpouse when dead; no, said he, let me bleed and die for her to bring her to life; tho' at the fame time she was more loathfome than Job with his boils, Lazarus with his fores, or any dead carcafe with vermin. Q what cause could be given for the love of a bleeding Jefus? well might he fay, I loved you, because I loved you; and I love you freely. And O with what forrow, pain, and agony, was his bleeding love attended, while his dear foul was overwhelmed with the terrible billows of his Father's wrath! Chrift knew well beforehand all these fufferings, and all the ingredients in the cup, yet he would needs drink it for us: He forefaw the poifon of God's arrows that would drink up his fpirits; the burning thirst that the heat of divine wrath would create in him; yet willingly did he go to bleed and die, like a lamb to the flaughter. O love that paffeth knowledge! 2. In Christ's blood I fee the glory of infinite wifdom difplayed: Who could have found out a way to reconcile juftice and mercy, and faftisy both their demands about Adam's fallen race? A general council of angels could never have thought of the Son of God's being made flesh, and shedding his blood! How thocking would the fuggeftion have been, if God had not made it? But, behold hereby infinite wifdom hath discovered a way to gratify both juftice and mercy; to punish fin, and yet pardon the finner; to maintain the honour of the lawmaker, and yet preferve the life of the law-breaker: Hereby mercy is fatisfied in fparing the rebel, and yet juftice more glorified, and fin rendered more odious, than if the finner himself had been eternally damned for it.-Nay, though all the men on earth had been caft into hell fire for fin, and the angels with them, it had been no fuch inftance of juftice, as Chrift's bleeding and dying for fin: For what is the punifhing of creatures, to the fuffering of the Creator! 3. This blood being the blood of God, hath infinite virtue and efficacy; it hath purchased the Church of God, and all grace and glory to her, Acts xx. 28. it protects all who come under the covert of it from the wrath of God, Exod. xii. 13. When I fee the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague fhall not be upon you to destroy you, when I Smite the land of Eygpt.-This blood, which is the price of our redemption, hath marvellous effects; it pleads for the guilty, and obtains pardon of fin, peace with God, nearness to and communion with him. It cleanses, heals, fatisfies, and beautifies perishing fouls; it feals the New Testament, overcomes our eneimes, liberates the prifoners, opens heaven's gates, and gives boldness to enter in: The perfon of our Redeemer being preferable to a million of worlds full of men and angels, his blood alone might well serve for an elect world. What fins can be fo heinous or fo numerous but the blood of God can wash away! This was famous Cranmer's fupport that day he fuffered martyrdom; when his heinous fin of renouncing the truth ftared him in the face, and he was greatly dejected for it; he brake out, Surely God was made flesh, and fhed his blood, not for leffer fins only, but for great fins afo: This relieved him and made him die with courage. This blood can help in all straits, deliver from all fears, and is able to fave to the uttermoft. It hath faved many who have condemned themfelves, and thought their. falvation impoffible. It hath eafed many confciences, when the tetrors of the Almighty have furrounded them, and his arrows have stuck fait in them. It hath unitinged death, and carried many through its darkest valleys. This blood hath cleanfed many whofe hearts were filthy as the mire, and whose lives fwarmed with the most abominable lufts, fuch as the Corinthians, 1 Cor. vi, 11. and three thousand of thofe who had embrued their hands in shedding of it, Acts ii. 36. Nay, it is able to take away the fins of a world, John i. 29. and much more the fins of any one foul, though like a mountain for weight, or the fand for number. 4. I fee this redeeming blood to be a fuitable remedy for all my maladies: O that I could look to it by faith, apply it to my fores, and plead it with God: Lord, I • am an unrighteous creature, but here is juftifying blood; my heart is unholy, but here is fanctifying • blood; my foul is wounded, but here is healing blood; my lufts are ftrong, but here is mortifying blood; my heart is hard, but here is foftning blood; my affections are dead, but here is quickening blood; my love is cold, but here is heart-warming blood-When I am • at the holy table, I am near this bleffed remedy: O • let me not mifs a cure when the Balm of Gilead is among my hands; let me not perish in my guilt befide the open fountain. Oh, this blood hath healed thoufands, and fhall I remain under my plagues?-Lord, • let that innocent blood, which runs from thy hands, heart, and fide, drop on my guilty foul, and cleanse me from all fin. O my glorious bleeding Lamb, if thou • quilt thou canst make me clean. O fay to me, as thou'didft to the leper, I will, be thou clean. Surely thy blood is more able to fave me, than my fins are to deftroy me.' 5. How juft is it that I should commemorate the fhedding of this blood in the way that Chrift appoints? Lord, help me to go to thy table, and realize the fhedding of this blood to myself, as much as if I had stood by the cross, and feen it with my eyes flowing from his wounds. Let my faith be the evidence of things not seen, and let it realize the shedding of Chrift's blood as evidently to me as if I had actually feen it. Ah, I cannot say it is fo, while my eyes are fo dry, and my heart fo hard; alas for my ftupid unconcerned heart, that doth not burst into love and tears at the facramental view of this bood. fhedding! How can I fee these hands, that fway the fceptre of the heavens, nailed to the tree of reproach, and not mourn? How can I fee these feet, that trample on the powers of hell, nailed to a tree, and not weep? Did the earth tremble, rocks rend, fun hide, and heavens darken, and will not my rocky heart rend for fin that caufed all?-Since thou, Lord, comeft to me, in ftreams of blood, let me go forth and meet thee with ftreams of tears.-Oh! fhall I be more fparing of my tears for Chrift, than he was of his blood for me? Can I fee this precious blood run down in ftreams, and my eyes not pour out fome drops? Can I refufe drops of water for ftreams of blood? Can I fee the blood of the King of kings fpilt like water on the ground, and the earth drinking it up, and my heart not rend for fhedding it? Oh, that my head were waters, and mine eges a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the flain Lamb of God! 6. How dreadful muft the crime be to tread this blood under foot by unbelief, or unworthy communicating!Had Zimri peace that flew his mafter? And can I have peace if I be guilty of the blood of him that is my mafter and Redeemer both! How fad will my cafe be, if that blood, which alone can procure my pardon, fhall' cry for my eternal punishment? Deliver me from blood guiltinefs, O God.-O that I could value and esteem, plead and apply this precious blood more! Lord, accept of it as a full fatisfaction for all my fins, and an all-fufficient price for my foul's redemption. Is not one drop of thy Son's blood of more value than a sea of mine? My fins, alas! have shut me out of Paradise, but O let this blood open Paradise to me again; and let me, thro' this red fea, enter into the heavenly Canaan; I know I can have no other paffage into it. Lord, impute not the guilt, but the merit of this blood to me. MEDITATION From Pfalm lxxii. 6. XVII. He fhall come down like rain upon the mown grafs, as showers that water the earth. HIS is fpoken and promised of Chrift, and ferves to teach us, that Chrift coming to his church and people, by the gracious influences of his Holy Spirit, is moft ufeful and refreshing to their fouls, like fhowers of rain to the dry ground, or a meadow newly cut to make it fpring again.--Chriftlefs fouls are like the dry ground, without the moisture of faving grace, their hearts are hard; neither rods, mercies, nor fermons, make impreffion upon them: Why? they are without Chrift, the fountain of grace and fpiritual influences. Before the fall, man's foul was like a well watered garden, beauti ful, green, and fragrant; but, by his apoftacy from God, in Adam, our first head, the fprings of grace and holinefs are quite dried up in his foul; and there is no curing of this drought, but by the foul's union with a new head, to wit, Chrift our fecond Adam, who has the Spirit given him without measure for the use of his members. Now, when we are united by faith to Chrift, our head of influences, the dry land is turned into water Springs. Chrift comes down as the rain by his fpirit of regeneration, and brings the fprings of grace into the foul. He is the first and immediate receptacle of the Holy Spirit, and all regenerating and fanctifying ifluences, and out of his fulness we must by faith receive them. And when at any time the fprings of grace are interrupted in the foul by fin or unbelief, fo as the ground turns dry, the plants wither, and the things which remain are ready to die; the foul hath need to look up to Jefus Christ, to come down with new showers upon the thirty ground, and decayed plants. 1. As the rain is the free gift of God to the dry ground, it comes free and cheap to poor and rich, fmall and great, and costs them nothing: So Chrift, with his blefligs, is God's free gift to a dry perifhing world, for which we fhould continually be thankful. 2. As nothing can ftop the falling of the rain; fo nothing can hinder Chrift's gracious influences, when he defigns to awake, convince, or foften a hard heart. When these showers do fall on finners, the moft obftinate will muft yield, and cry, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? 3. As the rain is moit neceffary and suitable to the dry ground, and to the various plants it produceth, and alfo to the different parts of every plant or tree; fuch as the root, trunk, branches, leaves, flowers, and fruit: So Christ is abfolutely neceffary, and his influences moft fuitable to all his people's fouls, and every faculty of them, the understanding, will, memory, and affections; and to all their different graces, faith, love, repentance, &c. to root and eftablith them, ftrengthen and confirm them, quicken and increase them, cherish and preferve them. 4. As the rain comes down in diverfe ways and manF |