chased for thee by the Son' whom thou hast | may we ask, Who shall be saved? There is 'kissed,' and who thus addresses thee, 'Because not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and I live, thou shalt live also.' 'I have gone to my Father, and to thy Father, to my God, and thy God, and I will come again and receive thee unto myself; that where I am, there thou mayest be also.' Amen, and Amen.

SEVENTH DAY.-MORNING.

Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the
Greeks, repentance towards God, and faith to
wards our Lord Jesus Christ,' Acts xx. 21.
It is from an attentive view of the whole law that
we have the knowledge of sin. We must consider
the character of the God who delivered it, and
each precept contained in it, so connected with
its every other enactment, that he who offends
in one point is guilty of all.' It is in this way
we are led to perceive that it is by the law thus
contemplated in all its extent, strictness, equity,
and holiness, we can become sensible of the true
nature, and when the Spirit works effectually,
'the exceeding sinfulness of sin.' What shall we
say then? God forbid! Nay, so far is the law
from being sinful, 'I had not known sin but by
the law; for I had not known lust,' strong evil
desire, 'to be sin, except the law had said, Thou
shalt not covet. But sin taking occasion by the
commandment, wrought in me all manner of con-
cupiscence,' the strong desire of all things for-
bidden, and thus discovered to me my natural
depravity. For without the law sin was dead,'
in a dormant and inactive state, and I was alto-
gether unconscious of my inherent corruption.
But when the commandment came' in its extent
and power to my conscience, and I beheld it in its
spirit as holy, and requiring holiness in heart,
speech, and behaviour,' 'sin revived,' it was now
understood and felt to be a real, living, and active
principle of mischief, working in me all unrighte-
ousness, and rendering me, with all my fancied
excellence, an object of the divine displeasure:
And I died;' I saw myself spiritually dead, and
was convinced, 'that by the deeds of the law no
man,' though like Paul himself, he had lived a
pharisee after the most strictest sect of his reli-
gion, could be justified.' The law provides no
pardon; perfect obedience is its absolute condi-
tion, and no grace to help; because in the very
terms of it, we undertake to do all that it de-
mands, on the ground that we are fully able, by
our own exertions, to do justly, to love mercy,
and walk humbly with our God.' Well, then,

sinneth not.' This is the unequivocal language
of revelation; and equally explicit is the declara-
tion of the same record, 'The soul that sinneth,
it shall die.' There is no distinction between
Jew and Gentile. All have sinned, and come
short of the glory of God.' The first point then
to which the apostle called the attention of all,
whether they were the lost sheep of the house
of Israel,' or worshippers of 'dumb idols' among
the heathen, was 'repentance toward God; and
to this topic the ministers of Christ have as much
need as ever to direct the thoughts of the flocks,
'whose blood,' if they fail in their duty, will be
required at their hand.' If we think at all on
the subject; if we cast even the hastiest glance
at the duties incumbent on us, and reflect on the
manner in which we have performed them, can
we, with any thing like common honesty, to say
nothing of Christian sincerity, affirm that we have
walked inGod's statutes and ordinances blameless?”
If then iniquity has often prevailed against us; if
we have frequently been guilty of secret faults,'
and even of 'presumptuous sins,' can there be
any hope whatever of ascending the hill of the
Lord with all our imperfections, to speak as
gently as we can, on our heads, with affections
bound to the world, and with passions which will
allow no limits to their gratification, though we
know that God is the perpetual Inspector of their
every movement, and that hell, if we ‘die, and
make no sign,' must be our abode through eter-
nity. 'What resource, then, have we in such
alarming and dangerous circumstances? How shall
we be delivered from the body of this death?
Only by immediate, sincere, and complete repent-
ance.

'Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish,' Repentance must not be delayed to a more convenient season.' It must be instantly begun. It must not be assumed to give a false peace to the soul, and to soothe the conscience with the belief that we are passed from death unto life. It must have its rise in the heart, and be as entirely without partiality, and without hypocrisy,' as we shall wish it had been on that day when 'the dead, small and great, shall stand before God.' It must be rigid in condemning every vice; uncompromising in its opposition to all appearance of evil,' and determined, in exclusive reliance on the Spirit's agency-for his grace must commence, carry on, and complete the saving change-to 'draw water from the wells of salvation.' But the gospel 'testifies also faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.' The conviction that we are sinners by nature and prao

6

tice, and that salvation is utterly unattainable by and no eye to pity him, 'Live;' and adding gift to ourselves, leads to the conclusion, that a very gift, and grace to grace, till he is perfect through different scheme of restoration to the friendship my comeliness, which I have put upon him, saith of God must be sought and found by the anxious the Lord God.' And now the natural expression inquirer before he can say, with any prospect of of his soul, renewed and sanctified, is love to God, a satisfactory answer, 'What shall I do to be and love to all that bear his image. The great saved?' The plan so essential to our peace is objects of his wishes, and the things which he fully disclosed in the gospel, and this plan we longs for,' and prays for, and labours for, are must regard as 'worthy of all acceptation,' and 'glory to God in the highest, on earth peace, and feel to be indispensable to our everlasting well- good will to men.' He that believeth hath' being. We must consider it in its origin, indeed everlasting life.' Though it is to be emanating from the sovereign mercy of God the enjoyed fully only in the kingdom prepared for Father, and view it in its accomplishment as con- the Christian by his heavenly Father, the possesducting our Daysman' through humiliations sion of it is secured, and he receives an earnest of its which are incomprehensible, and through dangers being his as assuredly as if he were already there, which he only could overcome, till the cross on in the joy which the prospect of it imparts to his Calvary carried our sins bound up in our adorable mind, in all the difficulties, hardships, struggles, Substitute, and thenceforth became the emblem sicknesses and pains of his earthly pilgrimage. of redeeming grace to all them that believe. If such then be the spiritual triumphs, and even God forbid, then, that we should glory, save in the temporal advantages of faith in the Son of the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. God forbid God as our Saviour, our shield, and our exceedthat we should go about to establish a righteous- ing great reward,' what must be the guilt and ness of our own, to the loss of our immortal the danger of unbelief, to which the human souls, and God forbid that we should continue a moment longer indifferent to the important truth, that if any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his! Now the Lord is that Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there,' and there only, 'is liberty.'

SEVENTH DAY.-EVENING.

He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him,' John iii. 36.

THERE is a blessedness in believing, which they only know who have experienced its workings and its effects in the soul. A stranger' to the Redeemer's saving power, intermeddleth not' with the Redeemer's communicated joy; a joy which gladdens the Christian's heart in the hour of sickness; a joy which cheers his spirit on the bed of death; a joy which accompanies him to God's right hand; a joy which shall continue, nay, increase, through eternity. And while such is his support in every change, of a changeable, because mortal scene, he has the outward conduct to point to, as evidence of his faith, purifying the heart, overcoming the world, and working by love.' 'He knows in whom he hath believed, and on whom he rests, as his all in all. Love that 'passeth understanding,' has done every thing for him, saying unto him, when he was cast out in the open field,'

6

heart is so prone, even after it has tasted of the
heavenly gift and the power of the world to come?'
The sinfulness of this principle consists in its
making God a liar,' by denying the truth of
what he has declared to be as certain as the pro-
positions that he is, and is the rewarder of all
who diligently seek him, or that he is, and is the
avenger of his own cause, on those who will not
receive his testimony, and perfer darkness to
light, their deeds being evil.' While unbelief
demoralizing influences over the soul,
continues to spread its blinding, benumbing, and
sin remains there as in its strong hold, and of
every

other

course wrath also abideth on that soul; wrath originally incurred when man rebelled against his Maker, and dreadfully heightened and deepened by the sinner's obduracy, and confirmed opposition to whatever has for its object the destruction of Satan's dominion in the heart, and the establishment in its stead of that kingdom which is love, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.' Hence we see, that the lives of unbelievers are in fearful consistency with their pernicious principles. The word of God is to them a despised, and therefore sealed book,' a series of cunningly devised fables,' beneath the attention, or even notice of the independently thinking mind, and regarded as divine by those only who are the slaves of prejudice and superstition. And what is the cause of their thus hating the gospel, and contemptuously spurning away from them its transcendant blessings? The love of sin. The characteristic of the scoffers who were to come

inflicted on such a Saviour!— and mourn.' The door of mercy is still open, and your impenitence only can shut it. From his side' still issues blood and water;' blood, without the shedding of which there can be no remission,' and ' water,' by which, as typical of the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost,' you are cleansed,' refreshed, strengthened, and enabled to go on your journey, 'faint' it may be at times, yet' still pursuing. Every step you advance in your progress Zionward, will convince you more and more, that wisdom's ways are ways of pleasantness, and that all her paths are paths of peace.' 'My lips shall greatly rejoice, when I sing unto thee, and my soul which thou hast redeemed.'

in the last days,' is that they would walk after | you have pierced,' by your sins, each of your their own lusts.' The gospel levels with the sins-and O how many wounds must have been dust the natural pride of man. The gospel declares goodness of heart, till it be 'created anew in Christ Jesus,' a fiction, and self-righteousness 'a broken reed,' which will pierce and kill the soul,' of him that 'leans' on it. The gospel proclaims Jesus a perfect Saviour, and allows no merit to be mixed up with his, in the sinner's salvation. The gospel lays restraint on every passion, and pronounces the smallest deviation from the law, as a rule of life, a ground of God's displeasure. And therefore the gospel, and its doctrines, and duties, are disliked and hated by the unbeliever.He rejoices in his youth, his heart cheers him in the days of his youth. He walks in the ways of his heart, and in the sight of his eyes, but' he will not know, that for all these things the Lord will bring him into judgment.' 'I have loved strangers, and after them will I go. Yet thou sayest, Because I am innocent, surely his anger shall turn from me. Behold I will plead with thee, because thou sayest, I have not sinned. For the Lord hath rejected thy confidences, and thou shalt not prosper in them.

Will such scenes as these which thou art contemplating, O hardened, presumptous sinner, continue to smile for ever? Will thy sun shine always without a cloud? Is there no danger of his setting in everlasting darkness? Thou art not placed here in a garden of delights, where the fruit is abundant and tempting, and thou mayest pluck when thou pleasest, and eat. Thou art indeed only of yesterday, but to-morrow thou art not, even though death should lay his cold hand upon thee, to cease to be for ever. Thou art not then, thou pilgrim of a day, to enjoy the little sunshine as thou listest, and permit no flower of the spring to pass thee by. Eternity is not a mockery, and a future judgment is not the churchman's dream. Heaven and hell are not the visions of fanatics to embitter the cup of humanity. Conscience is the minister of God, when he arises to take vengeance on his adversaries; godliness is a reality, and Christian 'virtue,' any thing but an empty name.' Consider this, ye who forget God.' Stop in your headlong, sinful career. 'Give glory to the Lord your God, before he cause darkness, and before your feet stumble on the dark mountains, and while ye look for light, he turn it into the shadow of death, and make it gross darkness.' Remember who it is that hath said, 'He that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.' 'Look unto him whom

EIGHTH DAY.-MORNING.

'And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications; and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his first-born,' Zech. xii. 10.

As the Jews are here represented to feel and act, when they are brought to a knowledge of their guilt in having crucified the Lord of glory, so will be the feelings and actings of every sinner who has been awakened to a just apprehension of his state, and has had Jesus set before him in all his sufficiency and willingness to save. The promise of his Spirit is the plea which he uses in prayer for the fulfilment of it. Jehovah hath spoken, and pledged his faithfulness to do as he hath said. No doubt remains to cloud the believer's mind, or to shake his confidence in the divine veracity. He experiences what it is to have his heart enlarged, his views more exclusively directed to heavenly objects, and his desires more steadily, warmly, and reposingly fixed on the glory which is to be revealed.' The shadows and the vanities of time disappear, and the certainties of eternity are brought before him with a vividness, and an overpowering sense of their importance, which testify that the Spirit is triumphing gloriously,' detaching his thoughts from the earth, and the earth's concerns, and making Jesus and his salvation all that should engage the attention of a soul redeemed. But he rejoices with trembling.' The

promise realized leads to sorrowing over his sins. They are now a burden difficult to be borne; for they rise up before him in all their multitude, and with all their aggravations. Not one of them is left unnumbered-not one of them does he attempt to explain away, or even to modify. They are set in order before his face,' and all of then tending to this conclusion as to a centre, that he has crucified' the Lamb of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.' The lovely and glorious Jesus has been wounded in the house of his friends,' and 'pierced' to the quick by one • whom he loved, even unto the death.' How deep the mourning! and how agonizing the groans bursting from a heart that is now subdued, and made susceptible of every good impression, when the sinner, now a saint, recals the wonderful work which has been wrought in his soul, and dwells on the character and doings of that Saviour, 'whose arrows were sharp in him' as an enemy, before he displayed in his redemption the riches of his grace! No coldness or indifference on his part could quench, or even allay for a moment the Redeemer's love. As Jesus revealed himself to those who surrounded him, when he hung on the cross, and amidst the tortures of his dying hour, prayed to his Father for pardon to the inflictors of his pains, so does he still manifest himself as full of compassion and ready to forgive; and in the unutterably benevolent and affecting petition which he then presented, the mourning believer sees and feels the source of his hopes, and of his ⚫ strong consolations.' The very words, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do,' are a balm to his wounded spirit. When he contemplates such a scene as this, and listens to such expressions as those, and is persuaded that he was not only the cause of the Saviour's sorrows, but has an interest in this, the Saviour's prayer, which has been graciously answered in his individual case, surely he will look on Him whom he has pierced' by his ingratitude, and mourn' for him, on account of what he has done by his sins, to repeat the Redeemer's ignominy and agony, as one that mourneth for an only son' in whom all his hopes were centered, as one that is in bitterness for his first-born,' the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power. The very identification of himself with the accusers and 'murderers of the holy One and the Just,' is a powerfully constraining motive to view every sin

wrench to the nails which transfixed his hands and his feet, and as whetting to a sharper point, and causing a more deadly plunge to the spear which penetrated his side, and forthwith came thereout blood and water.' If this be the truth, and nothing but the truth, and if we are convinced that it is so, the effect must be that sin will appear to us in all its hatefulness, in every aspect in which it can be looked upon, an entirely new train of emotions will be awakened within us, by the change which has taken place in our moral perceptions, and estimate of a Redeemer's love, and the language of our hearts be that of the keenest remorse for our having, by our every transgression, increased the load of Messiah's physical sufferings, and given greater poignancy to the mental anguish that wrung his righteous soul, when for our sakes, and in our stead, he bowed his head and gave up the ghost. Such, O my soul, are the reflections called forth by the Spirit of grace, and of supplications poured' on thee from on high, in causing thee to take into thy serious consideration thy grievous guilt, when viewed in connection with the vicarious humiliations, sufferings, and death of the Son of God. It must be beheld in the scenes which it produced in Gethsemane and on Calvary, if thou wouldst see it in all its essential and unqualified wickedness, baseness, and malignity. It must be regarded in the effect which it had on Him, who knew no sin, that thou mightest be made the righteousness of God in him,' if thou wouldst feel the full force of the Lord's questions to the prophet Ezekiel, and through him to thee, Hast thou seen this, O son of man? Is it a

6

light thing to the house of Judah, that they commit the abominations which they commit here? Is it a small matter to weary men: but will ye weary my God also?' Hast thou experienced what it is to be agitated and disquieted with a sense of thy sins, even after thou hast received the remission of them? flee more anxiously to Jesus, and cleave still more closely to him as thy strength and thy Redeemer. Plead gospel promises, and rest assured of gospel blessings. Trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon thy God.'

EIGHTH DAY.-EVENING.

which he has committed as adding another thornFor thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive;

to the crown of mock royalty which lacerated his Saviour's sacred head, as putting another bitter ingredient into the draught that was presented to his parched lips, as giving another excruciating

and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee,' Psal. lxxxvi. 5.

JEHOVAH sits upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filleth universal nature as his

appropriate temple.' Above it stand the sera- | sentence of exclusion was executed. No creature, phim; ‘each one having six wings; with twain he covereth his face; with twain he covereth his feet, and with twain he doth fly. And what are their acclamations? One crieth unto another, and saith, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.' A Being so unspeakably glorious and independent, is infinitely happy in the possession, exercise, and enjoyment of his own incommunicable perfections. He has no need of us, or of our services. He would have continued the same though man and angels had never been called into existence. Dwelling in unapproachable light, his uncreated splendour, because the reflection of himself, would have supplied the want of their songs of gratitude, and of their anthems of praise, 'for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.' But how much are our conceptions of the divine attributes enlarged, when we think on the condition to which we are reduced by the fall and our own folly? 'Shapen in iniquity, and conceived in sin; transgressors by imputation, and transgressors by practice, the image of God has been effaced from the soul. The seeds of all moral evil have been sown within us. The standard of rebellion has been raised; and by its inscription, as well as by our thoughts, words, and actions, we have proclaimed ourselves traitors. The entire inner man is struck with the spiritual plague. The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.' 'A sinful generation, a people laden with iniquity, we have forsaken the Lord, we have gone away backward.' And yet though we have held fast deceit, and refused to return,' the Father, in terins of his covenant with the Son, is good and ready to forgive.' Though he hearkened and heard, but we spake not aright; no man repented of his wickedness, saying, What have I done? every one turned to his course, as the horse rusheth into the battle,' still the Lord is not willing that any should perish.' 'Yea, though the stork in the heavens knoweth her appointed times, and the turtle, the crane, and the swallow observe the time of their coming, but we know not, and will not know the judgment of the Lord,' still his language, by his own servant, is, 'Let Israel hope in the Lord, for with the Lord there is mercy and plenteous redemption. This is indeed the Lord's doing, and it should be marvellous in our eyes. The seed of evil-doers, we had forfeited his favour, and incurred his displeasure. The gates of Eden were closed against Adam and his lapsed posterity; and the Lord God placed cherubims, and a flaming sword, that turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.' The

how exalted soever in the scale of being, could open the everlasting doors of a better paradise, or effect our restoration to the rank from which guilt had displaced us, by reconciling us to that God, whom we had compelled to become our enemy. But O the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! He who was his Shepherd, and the Man that was his fellow,' had voluntarily undertaken our cause, and when the time appointed for the deliverance of the condemned and bound prisoners waiting their execution, had arrived, Emmanuel descended from heaven, appeared on earth as our Substitute-yes, 'great is the mystery of godliness.' He who made the worlds, the Substitute of his revolted subjects, offered that atonement without which there could be no possibility of safety to the sinner, and by the shedding of his precious peace-speaking blood, commanded the 'everlasting gates to be lifted up, that the King of glory,' with his ransomed millions, might enter in.' For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.' Do we then entertain just ideas respecting him as the Author of eternal salvation to his elect? Are we convinced of his omnipotence as the Lord our righteousness? Do we really feel that without his atoning sacrifice of himself, we can have no hopes of pardon, acceptance, and never-ending glory? And are we resolved, in the strength of the Spirit, that his religion shall have a commanding influence over our affections, life, and conversation? Are these indeed our views, convictions, feelings, and determinations? They should be so, if the truth has been made known to us in its power by the Sanctifier, and we have been led by him to embrace, and to act upon it. Thon, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive, and plenteous in mercy to all them that call upon thee.' But if it be otherwise with us, and we have yet to learn wisdom, the highest kind of wisdom, Why will we forsake our own mercies? Jesus, in all his fulness, is freely offered to us who have so long and obstinately rejected him. In him we have every thing which, as sinners, we require, and which, if we receive not, we must die the death; a purifying fountain to wash away our guilt; healing medicine to cure our festering deadly wounds; 'beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, and the garments of praise for a spirit of heaviness, that we may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified.' Why will we refuse, when he opens his heart, his large, tender, compassionate heart, to admit us to the participation and enjoy