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any. Let others take up with what they will, the Lord is my portion, faith my foul; and O let me never have any other. My heart is no longer what it was: it ftands pointed to thee, followeth hard after thee, and is refolved to take up with nothing lower; but muft remain restless and unfatisfied for ever, if thou be not its reft and joy.

2. To every foul where grace is found, Christ is precious; by whom grace is purchased, and through whom it is bestowed.

How is it with you?

any

Is Chrift dear to you, and prized by you ? Are you daily studying of him, and labouring above all things in the world to make sure of, and clear up your intereft in him, as that which is infinitely more neceffary and valuable than thing else in the world? Are you filled with admiring thoughts of his perfon and excellencies; Are you affected with his condefcenfion and grace in his laying down his life to fave finners? Do you live under the powerful conviction, that without him you are loft, but in him you are happy for ever? Do you think no pains too great to reach this? Nothing too dear to deny yourself in, or to be parted with that would keep you from him, or deprive you of your intereft in him? Is no condition more dreadful to you than a chriftless one? And fo Chrift be yours, would it in your account, make amends for all that you can want, or fuffer?

3. A foul principled with grace hates fin? and from that hatred, prays and watches, and

ftrives

ftrives against it, and will never be at reft till perfectly free, that is, till removed from earth to heaven, where nothing that defileth can ever

enter.

4. Gracious fouls have their hearts and hopes drawn off from this world, as their portion, and refolve never to feek their reft or take up their happiness in it. They look to heaven as their home, and the enjoyment of God there as their chief felicity. Their hearts are in heaven where their Lord is: Their faces ftand Zion-ward. Heaven is the center of their hopes, the object of their pursuits, and the thoughts, the views, and difcourfes of heaven are their frequent refreshment upon their way through this world; and the poffeffion of it, is that which they expect to be their perfect everlasting happiness; and in this hope, they are purifying themselves, even as Chrift their head and example is pure.

APPLICATION.

1. Is grace fo valuable? How blind are they that fee not its worth? What enemies to their fouls are they who labour not after it?

2. How much hath God done for them on whom he has beftowed his grace, fo excellent in itself, and leading to glory?

3. How greatly are the Partakers of grace obliged to Chrift, by whofe blood it is purchased, and for whose fake it is bestowed?

4. How glad fhould they be of all the opportunities to meet him, by his prefence and influence, to have grace drawn into act?

5. How thankful fhould they be, who can fay with the church, While the King fat at his table, my pikenard fent forth the smell thereof?

Lastly, How willing fhould they be whose grace hath been drawn forth by the presence of Chrift here, to behold him in his glory, and dwell with him for ever. Though death ftand in the way, fay with good old Simon, Now let thy fervant depart in peace. To have had communion with Chrift here, has been heaven begun: But, Angels, do your office, in bearing my departing foul to be with Chrift there, as that which is far better.

SER

SERMON IX.

CANT. II. 16.

My Beloved is mine, and I am his.

TH

HIS book is a fong of love, and these are some of the sweetest expreffions in it. They are the revived and cheared church's triumph in Chrift by an appropriating faith, under the fenfe fhe had of the happiness of having a special intereft in him, after the remembrance of the deep diftrefs fhe had been in for want of it, at firft in her natural unconverted ftate, and after it when she had fallen into a deferted one for a time.

The spouse, here representing the church, and every true believer in it, recounts the alluring manner in which Chrift prevalently drew her to him. Ver. 10. My beloved fpake, and said unto me, Rife up my love, my fair one, and come away.

My Beloved fpake: How affecting is it to remember the merciful voice, that called me from darkness to light, from defpair to hope, from wrath to falvation? My beloved spake when none could freak peace, or give ease and reft, but he and how endearing was the fenfe of his VOL II.

N

love

love thus feasonably discovered, and what an excitement was it of love to him?

He fpake and called, even unto me, how mean and vile, finful and unworthy foever, and as low as I was funk in my own account, or as to any other help, faying, Rife up my love, my fair one, and come away.

This is the gracious invitation Christ is represented as making, and which he goes on to back with the most powerful arguments. Ver. II. For lo, the winter is paft, the rain is over, and gone, i. e. The face of heaven is cleared up, and the storm of wrath that was ready to be poured down from thence, diverted: I have fatisfied justice, made peace by the blood of the cross, and am fent to speak it to them that are afar off, and to them that are nigh: The black clouds charged with vengeance, are rolled away. And now, behold The flowers appear on the earth, the time of the finging of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land, ver. 12, The fig-tree putteth forth her green figs, &c. (ver. 13.) i. e. All the figns of a grateful feafon appear, and the good will of heaven is proclaimed towards men: Truth fprings out of the earth, and righteousness looks down with a pleafing afpect from above: The joyful found is heard, that God is in Chrift reconciling the world to himself, who as moft willing to fave, repeats his affectionate call to finners to come unto him for that end, Arife my love, my fair one, and come away, ver. 13.

How hard is it to bring over a foul to Christ! How aftonishing his kindness and

grace

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