intimate, the agreeable union of heart and affection. with which praise fhould be offered to God. Every one faved by the Lord, whether Jew or Gentile, reflects with joy on his own personal deliverance, and exults in the glorious liberty into which he is introduced; and, therefore, each for himself, refolves to praise the Lord. I will extol the divine perfections of Jehovah, and magnify thofe eternal excellencies which I fhall never be able fufficiently to celebrate. How confummate that wifdom, which contrived and arranged all the works of the Moft High; which devised that aftonishing plan, whereby men are raised from the ruins of corruption, fin, and misery, through the intervention of a Mediator, exalted to the highest honours, and invested in the poffeffion of immortal felicity! How infinite that power, which created and preferveth the world; which united the divine and human nature in the perfon of our Saviour; which was exerted in the miracles that he wrought; which fuftained him under the fufferings he endured, rendered him victorious over death, exalted him to the highest glory, and still accompanies the miniftry of the gofpel! What high praifes are for ever due to that tender mercy, which reacheth unto all God's works; which extendeth to the guilty, perithing children of men, forgives all trefpaffes, admits them into favour, crowns them with loving-kindness, and, by means the most astonishing, confers upon them eternal life! Who can enough extol that greatnefs, which is unfearchable; that juftice, which is inflexible; and the beauties of that holinefs, which is for ever adored by innumerable angels, and all the fpirits of juft men made perfect! Who can utter the mighty acts of the Lord! who can fhew forth all his praife! Heaven refounds with his praises: the earth is full of his glory; and in the congregation of his faints, the high praises of Gol are in their mouths. Though furrounded with enemies, though encompaffed with dangers, perplexed with difficultics, and diftreffed with fpiritual distempers,

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diftempers, I will blefs the Lord, for the falvation of his Son, the gospel of his grace, the promise of his Spirit, the benefits with which he is daily loading me, and the joyful prospects he hath fet before me. By this heavenly exercise, I hope my mind fhall be diverted from difquieting thoughts, temptations to fin avoided, my heart kept under the influence of divine love, gratitude, and joy, other graces fhall be improved, and comfortable evidence enjoyed of my fincerity and integrity. Every day, therefore, will I blefs thee, O Lord, and I will praife thy name for ever and ever. Though thou waft angry with me. The righteous Lord is never difpleafed with any creature, except with finners who have offended him; and, therefore, his anger always fuppofes, that the perfon with whom he is difpleafed, hath been a tranfgreffor, and thus expofed himself to the wrath of the Almighty. What a heart-affecting acknowledgment ought this to be to every man! The Lord was angry with me, for having departed from him, and living a stranger to his love; for having been ungrateful for his mercies, difobedient to his commands, and indifferent to his promifes and threatenings. Had it been the anger of man, though the greateft earthly prince, it had been comparatively fmall. The wrath of a king is much to be dreaded, especially of an abfolute monarch, who hath the lives and properties of his fubjects at his difpofal: It is as the roaring of a lion (faith the wife man): whofo provoketh him to anger, finneth against his ' own foul,' Prov. xx. 2. The mightiest potentates on earth, clothed with majefty, and arrayed with terrors, are but feeble worms of the duft, who can do but little, even when moft enraged. Before God, they are nothing; yea, less than nothing, and vanity. How dreadful must be the anger of the King of kings, of whofe wrath none knoweth the power! How terrible the revelations he hath given of it from heaven, against all unrighteoufnefs and ungodlinefs of men! How awful then beyond defcription fhall it appear, when he

will come with fire, and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebukes with flames of fire. Did upright Job earneftly requeft, that God would hide him in the grave, and keep him fecret until his wrath be paft? Did Mofes require to be hid in the clift of the rock, while the glory of the Lord was revealed? Did they whofe hearts were tender, tremble at the denunciations of this wrath? were their fouls filled with trouble? did their ears tingle? did their lips quiver, and rottenness enter into their bones? for fear of the Lord, and the glory of his majefty, did they enter into the holes of the rocks, and caves of the earth. How dreadful then beyond measure must be the fierceness and wrath of almighty God! How fhall finners endure, when God fpeaketh to them in wrath, and vexeth them in his hot difpleasure. Whofe hands can be ftrong, or whofe hearts endure, when thefe awful words of God fhall be accomplished: I will tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury, and their blood fhall be fprinkled upon my garments, and I will ftain all my raiment +.' Were we fenfible as we ought, that the most high God was thus angry with us, with what raptures of gratitude and joy would we praise the Lord, and fay,

Thine anger is turned away. These words plainly intimate, the pleafing confcioufnefs of a happy deliverance from guilt, and obnoxioufnefs to punishment, with confequent freedom from the terrible effects of the divine difpleasure. They alfo import, the defirable enjoyment of thofe fatisfying proofs of the favour and loving-kindness of the Lord, from whence the mind can justly infer the truth contained in this grateful acknowledgment; fuch as the bleffednefs refulting from forgiveness of fins; fear of offending God; indignation against every fpecies of iniquity; the fpirit of love, the law of God, and the hope of glory, occu+ Ifaiah lxiii. 3.

* Ifaiah lxvi. 15.

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pying the heart, and uniformly operating upon the whole temper and conduct. The poffeffion of this ineftimable privilege, thus demonstrated, juftly affords, in every view, the moft ample ground of praise and thanksgiving, which will be expreffed by every one participating in this felicity, in fuch language as the following: Thine anger is turned away; who when thou lookeft on the earth, it trembleth; when thou toucheth the hills, they fmoke: the effects of thine anger are terrible, deftructive, and everlasting. The expreffions of thine awful difpleasure are now averted, and thou acteft toward me in a manner very different from that which I experienced when thou waft angry with me. The tokens of thy wrath, which thou fhewedft me in time past, are now happily exchanged for the most agreeable pledges of thy love. Thine anger, compared in thy word to thunder and lightning, from which I had just reason to dread everlafting deftruction, burft upon his head whom thou conftituted our Mediator, and fet forth to be the propitiation for our fins. When thy wrath, like a mighty torrent, rolled toward man with irrefiftible force, ready to overwhelm him in the boundless abyfs of mifery and wo, thou, in thy wonderful grace, raised up a mighty One, who kindly interpofed in our behalf, turned away thine anger, and caufed it to ceafe. I contemplate him with admiration and gratitude, drinking of the brook in the way, bearing the reproach and rage of men, fuftaining the attacks of the powers of darknefs, enduring the curfe of the law, pouring out his precious blood upon the earth, and laying down his facred life, to deliver men from the wrath to come.

And thou comfortedst me. What admirable condefcenfion, what unfpeakable love, what tender compaffion, doth God manifeft, in communicating divine confolations into the hearts of his people! Perfons may be liberated from flavery, by the arm of power; they may be refcued from oppreffion, by the exercise

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of justice; they may be relieved from want, by the hand of bounty: but to pour reviving confolation into the dejected mind, is the kind office of pure affection and pity. God promifed of old to his church, by our prophet, 'That as one whom his mother comforteth, fo will I comfort you: and ye fhall be comforted in Jerufalem *. By this beautiful fimilitude, God is pleafed to reprefent the endearing manner in which he performs the bleffed work here thankfully acknowledged. One whom a tender-hearted mother comforteth, is fuppofed to be in diftrefs and dejection, under which the kind parent is folicitous to adminifter relief. How manifold the fears, the afilictions, the forrows, and difcouragements, to which the people of God, from various caufes, afe obnoxious in this prefent world. Juftly may the man of God often say, How weak hath been my faith! how many have been my fears! how powerful my temptations! how ftrong my corruptions! how innumerable the defpondencies wherewith I have been oppreffed and difturbed! Amidst all the bitternels and uneafinefs to which these things have given rife, thou, Lord, haft reftored comforts to me: thou haft revived my enfeebled mind, and conveyed refrefhment to my foul, by the facred influence of thy Spirit, giving me an agreeable fenfe of thy mercy, the gracious affurance of thy favour, and the precious faith of thy elect, whereby I have joy and peace in believing thy exceeding great and precious promifes, which contain the molt enriching bleffings, to be enjoyed in due feafon. If the favours that God beftows upon innocent creatures, who never offended him, excite their gratitude and praife, are not our obligations greatly increased? and are not we bound, by many additional ties, to praise the Lord, who extends his confolations to us, who deferved his wrath, and are utterly unworthy of the smallest mercy?

*Ifaiah Ixvi. 13.

2 Behold,