Jennings shall go on in Cæsar's Commentaries; and I will endeavour to clear as far as I can all arrears in his Latin, and some of his short-hand, which are yet behind.

In my private studies, I propose to read over the remainder of Ward's Conic Sections, and Mr. Eames and Mr. H. to study and contract the rest of the logical references. To read Oldfield's Essay on Human Reason, and Hallet of the Study of the Scriptures, and to finish the Hebrew Vocabulary, and the solution of those sentences which are at the end of Robertson.

For devotion, I will read Baxter on Repentance, Howe's Reformation Sermon, Bates's Funeral Sermon for Mr. Manton, the three volumes of Dr. Clarke's Sermons, and the rest of Owen to the end of the third book, i. e. p. 320.

I have a great many letters to write, which I will dispatch as soon as I conveniently can.

I intend a general visit round all the congregation, and I will take occasion by the way to inquire into the characters of the servants and children wherever I come; and will, beforehand, make particular memorandums of the business intended with each.

I am very well aware that I have cut out a good month's work for three weeks; I would, therefore, resolve upon the following particulars: 1. I will never be in bed, if I can well help it, after five o'clock, except on Lord's day mornings, nor up after eleven at night. 2. I will keep up self-examination at the four seasons of the day. 3. I will exactly set down how I spend my time. 4. I will not make myself a slave to any of my friends, so as to throw away my time out of mere ceremony, especially not to those who are most intimately and frequently with me. 5. I will not, without necessity, do any thing different from what I have here proposed to do. 6. I will keep up a lively intercourse with God by prayer, and humbly seek his assistance to carry me pleasantly through this business.

Saturday, Nov. 21, 1730.

MEDITATIONS ON THE TWELFTH SACRAMENT DAY.

I INTRODUCED the discourse with these words-Take heed, lest there be in you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. Is the caution unnecessary? Do we not find in us the remainder of this evil heart? Do not we depart from God, in our thoughts, affections, and actions? Have ye not since the last sacrament day? Well, here is comfort. Though we come to God in our sins, yet the blood of Christ his Son cleanseth from all sin. It is a credible, and it is a comfortable promise. It is a credible promise, for it is blood of infinite value. Think but whose blood it is, and you will see that; and see reason to hope every thing from it. It has atoned to the justice of God. Do not entertain the least thought that your sins therefore are too great to be atoned by it. He has purchased the Spirit to sanctify you; and is not that Spirit almighty? What can oppose his sacred influences? And is not this a comfortable truth? How cheerfully then may we draw near to God, though our sins be great. Do not we desire to be pardoned? If we do not, it alters the case. Let that soul dread the sacrament that can say I love sin, and I would keep it; but every soul that can say, Lord, I desire to be washed from it in thy blood, if he says it sincerely, is welcome to approach. If he wash us not, we have no part in him; but if we desire he should thus wash us, we shall be entirely clean. Let us then apply to this blood; let us humbly plead it with God.

In breaking the bread I observed, Lord, who knows the power of thine anger? and who knows the power of thy love, which supported thee under all those calamities? We are bold to enter into the holiest, by the blood of Jesus. We are now in a sense, though, blessed be God, I hope not in every sense, outward court-worshippers; but there is a most holy place. We have a confident hope of enter

ing thither; of seeing the mercy-seat, the cherubim, the shachinah. And how? By the blood of Jesus. This has introduced thousands, who were once below in such circumstances as we are. This will introduce us. Let us trust in it. And now approach the holy place by faith, as those that hope shortly to make a more intimate, more sensible, and more delightful approach.

When God confirmed his covenant with Abraham, Abraham added, Oh that Ishmael might live before thee! So will we, and while we rejoice in the privilege granted to ourselves and Christian friends, we would bear our unconverted relatives on our hearts before God in prayer.

Sunday, March 6, 1731.

MEDITATIONS ON THE THIRTEENTH SACRAMENT DAY, APRIL 18, 1731.

I BEGAN with introductory remarks on these words of the apostle: Heb. x. 4, &c. It is impossible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sin. As it is written, burnt offerings and sin offerings thou didst not require. Then he said, Lo, I come!-The words lead us into some affecting views of God and ourselves and of the blessed Redeemer. We see ourselves as condemned creatures, in the presence of a holy God; and we see the divine justice rigorous in its demands. It must have blood. Helpless in ourselves, we had no atoning blood to offer. In this sense, Lebanon would not have been sufficient to burn, nor all the beasts thereof for a burnt offering. And how dreadful must our case have been, had it rested there, and had we continued in the circumstances of those for whom there is no sacrifice for sin? But God has provided a lamb. Then he said, Lo, I come !—It is affecting to think to what purpose and with what temper he came. With what purpose did he come? He might have uttered these

words in another view. Had God declared from his awful throne, Man, ungrateful Man is risen up in rebellion against me, and I will make him the monument of my wrath, even as the fallen angels are, and who of all the inhabitants of this blessed world will rise up for me against these workers of iniquity?—into whose hand shall I put the flaming sword, which is to be bathed in their blood, and the poison of which is to drink up their spirits. In this sense might our Lord have answered, Lo, I come!-Father, I undertake the work. But it was not so. He sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. A design directly contrary to that which our guilt might have taught us to fear. He came to deliver us, and that at a very expensive rate, even at the price of his own life. Amazing goodness! more than can be uttered! more than can be conceived! And how did he come? With cheerfulness, and even with eagerness. Then said he, Lo, I come. I delight to do thy will, O God, and thy law is within my heart. It was wonderful that he should ever say, Father, I consent to do it. "Yet if it must be so, if the demands of thy justice be so inflexible, and so that it seems good in thy sight, then I submit." Had he said, as afterwards in the days of feeble flesh, and under the struggles of human nature, " O, my Father, if it be possible let this cup pass from me:"-But, behold, he came with pleasure, "leaping on the mountains, and skipping on the hills." He triumphed in a view that seemed so full of horror, and doubled that favour by the cheerful air with which he bestowed it. Lo, I come!-Be the work ever so painful, the consequence is so glorious! the scheme is so full of compassion, so merciful to Man, so honourable to Thee, that I long to accomplish it; as afterwards he said, I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how am I straitened till it be accomplished? With such a strong desire I have desired to eat this passover. Many a passover had he

eaten before, in the thirty years of his abode upon the earth. Some had he before eaten with his disciples; but none on which his heart was so set as on this, because this was that at which he was to enter upon his sufferings, and to fulfill the great, the glorious design for the redemption of fallen man! It is delightful in this view to look on this delight of Christ in such an undertaking; and it is delightful to see the consequences. "By which will," says the apostle, “ye are sanctified." He might have said, by which will ye are saved: by which will ye are justified. But he says, by which ye are sanctified; and let us not imagine this to be less comfortable, for by a most inseparable consequence it implies the rest, and so intimates them in a more affecting manner than if they had been further expressed. Such is the connexion between holiness and glory; between sanctification in this world and complete salvation in the next, that when I have observed that the offer of Christ is sufficient to accomplish the one, I need not add that it will infallibly fulfill the other. How joyful a reflection is this to those that find by divine grace that they are already sanctified through this offering up the body of Christ once for all. A glorious work, without which it would never have been accomplished. The design was so great, so wonderful, it may well be introduced with that mark of attention, Lo, I come!-Let us behold it, and let us behold it with wonder. And do thou behold it, O my heavenly Father. Nor did the all-comprehending eye of God ever see a sight more worthy its regard. Lo, I come!-Ought it not, my friends, to excite some correspondent emotions in our hearts; and should not our souls echo back this gracious language? Methinks we should be putting ourselves in a waiting posture; looking to God, and to our blessed Redeemer for every intimation of his pleasure with regard to what he would have us to do or to bear; and that when he is as it were beckoning with his

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