the carriage and commiffion of the lovely Jefus. For, O Lord! where didft thou ever put fire and fword, prifons, halters, and gibbets, into thy commiffion? Or what was ever feen in thee, that could look like approving of any fuch kind of methods? Hadft thou ever faid to thine apoftles, go-preach the gospel, beginning at Férusalem; and they that will not believe, as you bid them, plunder, imprison, and starve them? Didst thou ever give thine apostles such powers? Are men to be forced by pain into the belief that this Jefus was the most merciful being, that his religion was the kindest thing in the world, and that his ministers are all fons of benignity and peace; and if they will not believe it, to call for the jailor and the rack to prove it. Such a commiffion would rather be supposed to come from Apollyon the destroyer, than from Jefus, the Saviour of mankindwho came into the world not to deftroy men's lives, but to fave to make the lamb and the wolf feed together that there might be no more destroying nor hurting, in all thy holy mountain.

If the hiftory of the world had ever afforded an inftance of a good prince, whofe government was most rightful; his administration, according to the best laws, tempered with equity and moderation; his temper gentle and mild, moft affable and condefcending; one that treated his subjects as any father could do his children, laying himfelf out entirely for their benefit and fervice; fo that the people could not but own he had done all

things well: How furprifing would it be to find, after all, that this good prince was affaffinated by thofe whom he had moft obliged; that there fhould be any beings, on this fide hell, capable of fuch a thing? Well-in the laft agonies of his life, he calls fome friends about him, and fays to this purpose I am dying of the wounds they have given me; I had reafon to expect a kinder return-however, I forbid all revenge upon any of those that relent upon it; and, before I die, I order that there be an act of grace forthwith drawn up and proclaimed, for the pardon of my murderers, upon condition only, that they be fenfible of what they have done, that they acknowledge their faults; and to give them affurance that they may depend upon it, I will have it fubfcribed and fealed with fome of that very blood which they have drawn. And fince I find myfelf dying away, I do command, with my last breath, that the heralds who fhall proclaim this, do fend the first copy of it to him that gave me the first wound, and the second to him that ftruck the deepest-and fo gave up the Ghoft. How would all the annals have rung of such an inftance as this? What a noife would it have made in the world! His name would have ftood for the figure of all goodnefs! Arts and fciences would have lavifhed all their treasures upon the memory of fo much grace, the hiftorian, the orator, the poet, the painter, the ftatuary; nor would they have refrained from raising altars to

fo much divinity incarnate.There is a perfon of whom all this is fact; there is a name to which this is due 'tis thine, Oh Jefus that lovely name; even Jefus, that hath delivered us from wrath to come, by dying under our hands and for our fakes.

Jefus with what a mind and frame of foul didft thou leave this world and go up to heaven? And art thou still the fame? Has the highest place in heaven only enlarged thy power of doing good according to the established economy and order of grace? And is that grace ftill as free, as full, as extenfive, as fufficient, as when firft offered to Jerufalem? Then I am thy captive, for who can hold out against all this? Who can deny any thing to it? Hear me but in the following prayer--that some portion of the fame fpirit that renders thee fo lovely, may defcend upon me, and then I am fure to be beloved by thee; for if this be thy carriage towards thine enemies, what is thy heart towards them that love thee as their own fouls? Let, therefore, all those paffions and affections, that held the apostles in ecstasy of attention, when they beheld at parting, the sweet majesty of thy humble grandeur; when they beheld the marks of thy late fufferings, and of prefent authority, of all power in heaven and earth, and of brotherly love, at once feated in thy divine afpect; when they beheld the heavens opening, heir Lord afcending, and followed thee with

eyes drowned in love, and stretching with curious wonder into the celeftial prefence; let the fame paffions and affections fo poffefs my foul, and devote me to thyfelf and fervice, that I may never give over looking upwards in expectation-till I fhall behold thee, IN LIKE MANNER, COMING THE SECOND TIME, WITHOUT SIN, UNTO SALVATION. AMEN..

I.

BY THE SAME AUTHOR.

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