O thou curfed breed-bate, fin! that fottifh creatures fhould lay thee in their bofoms; nor only be mild to thee, as a harmlefs diverfion, but fond of thee, as all the joy of their lives! O what work haft thou made in the world; not only to throw up a partition-wall between God and man, but to turn him against them, them against him!

O! my foul, do prefumptuous finners ever confider, whom they encounter! does the pitiful ftubble know, what a confuming fire it engages againft? will the great and glorious God ftill fo take it from them? will not the most juft and holy One be avenged of them, and give them their own? and will not the ALMIGHTY prevail, and prove quite too hard for them? my foul, the word is gone out, and down they muft; and O how fhort is their triumph! what a flafh the prefent jollity! their flourishing like grafs, what is it but the prelude to their everlafting woe? O then never envy them, nor fear to oppofe them, nor be difcouraged to espouse the holy cause against them. For, alas, they are but a company of condemned malefactors, and God has them in chains invifible, faft enough, and like grease, they will foon confume in the fire, into fmoke, confume away, and tho'in the mean time, they are as fmoke in our eyes; and no wonder if they hate the frail children of our Father in heaven, who have firft hated him, that is beyond all exception; yet, as long as their enemies are also his, they may hope to fee them quelled and mastered in due time, and to be rid of them, as never to fee them any more for ever. Be they never fo many or mighty: greater is he that is in his people, than he that is in the world and if God be for them, no matter what thoufands or millions are against them. How foon can he make all enemies his footftool, and put them paft plaguing the world any more! But, O

Father

Father of mercies! forgive them, for they know not what they do; and fhew the wonders of thy power and grace, to flay the enmity, and ftrike it dead; and yet turn and reconcile them to thyself, in the beloved of thy foul,

A

THE PRAYER.

SI was by nature the child of wrath, fo I have been an enemy in my mind, through “evil works, and as an enemy have I carried to "thee, O Lord, and exercised acts of hoftility a"gainst heaven, and for my fins thou art angry "with me, and all thy dreadful judgments hang

❝ over me.

And woe to me if I be not reconciled, "if this faddeft of all breaches be not healed, but "eafy is the mind, and happy is the cafe, to have pardon and peace with God ratified, and fealed "to my foul, and all my hope, and comfortable repofe in the name of the LORD that made heaven and earth. O that I may, above all things "to be defired in the world, feek this bleffed at"tainment, and that God would help me to find "it, and guide my feet into the way of peace, that "what coft my Lord Redeemer fo dear, to pur"chafe for me, may be made fure unto me, and being juftified by faith, I may have peace with "God, through our Lord Jefus Chrift. Amen."

MEDITATION XXII.

Of reconciliation to God.

FTEN have I wondered at it as a ftrange expreffion, that finners fhould be prayed to be reconciled unto God, 2 Cor. v. 10. For God to be reconciled unto finners, that founds much to the purpose, and nothing is more to our comfort, but for the malefactor to be reconciled to the offended power; for the guilty creature to be reconciled to his glorious Maker, it may be thought a mistaken notion, and improper expreffion, yet indeed, my foul, there is no flip or impertinence at all in the cafe. For, alas! poor finners are not only much eftranged from God, but filled with rooted prejudices against him. And O how hardly can they bring themselves to any fweet thought or good opinion of him! when they look upon him, as contrary to them in his nature, and hard upon them in his Word, and all against them in his dealings. They will have it, that he has no kindness for them, though he has otherwise affured them, and themselves have otherwife found it, yet the offence they will take, where none is given, and ftill they keep it up, they know not why, but because they will be crofs and perverfe. And O how wonderful then is the patience of Heaven, so to bear with them? Yea, and fend his meffengers to them, to parley with them; yea, to intreat and befeech them, to lay down their enmity, and be at peace with the majefty offended by them, that fo

foon

foon could put them off his hands, and throw them down to hell, without any more ado. Yet in aftonishing mercy, he has provided a mighty Mediator, for adjufting matters, to mutual content, not only, that God might be fatisfied, and the wrong done to his juftice and holiness be repaired: but that finners alfo might be fatisfied, and the poor fouls, difmayed and caft down, might be relieved and fet at eafe, and put in good heart, when they see a full atonement and propitiation made, and fuch a worthy fufficient oblation on their behalf, wherein God has declared himself to be well-pleafed. That the God of heaven fhould fo look after them, and fhew his care of them, his concern for them, and kind. nefs to them; in fending the most excellent perfon, fo near allied to himself, and even all one with himfelf, clothed in their own nature, not only to declare his merciful inclinations to them, but to lay down his own life for them. This makes them that -were pulled down with doubts and dread, and feek. ing retreats where to hide from the God whom they durft not appear before, to revive and chear up, and draw nigh with full affurance of faith; even through faith in the blood of Chrift, which he fhed, to make a compleat fatisfaction to the juftice of Heaven, for the fins of the world; this helps to pluck up the bitter root, and to remove the old grudge, to fhew us God in another light, and to beget a better opinion of him in our minds; as one willing and forward, to come to terms of accommodation with us, feeing he would be pleased to find a ranfom himself, and provide the price to be paid out of his own exchequer; the blood fhedding of our bleffed Saviour for us, begets (as we fay) better blood in us, and makes us entertain worthier thoughts of him, that deals fo well by us, and furprizes us, with fuch wonders of mercy fhewed upon us; for an offended punishing God, we do

not

not like, we cannot love, but when we come to understand his kind defigns upon us, and believe the love that he has for us, this allures us to approach to him, and to love him, because of his first loving us, and fo our hearts are won, and joined, and fe cured to the God of love.

My faith in Chrift, then, O my foul, is of as much neceffity, as my peace with Heaven, and all my reconciliation to God hangs upon it, for never at the bottom, can I ftand well affected to him, till I come to look upon him, as an appeased God, in the Son of his love, till his faith enters to fweeten matters in my foul, there is that lies corroding and fretting within, which will spoil all the chearfulness and acceptablenefs of my fervices, till I am fatisfied of God's fatherly kindness, in my great furety, who has turned his face with favour, to look upon me, I cannot ferve him as a child, but a flave. Thus then all my love fprings from my faith: and all my dearnefs with God, depends upon my believing in his Son, dying for my fins, it is in Chrift crucified, that I fee God pacified, and all the breaches between him and my foul healed, and that lifts up my head, and brightens my face, and puts a new life into my hopes, and all amiable apprehenfions of God into my heart, when I fee nothing in him against me, but all on my fide.

Thus, my foul, does the bleffed Jefus reconcile me to God, and to complete the work, he also turns and renews me, and makes that holy and happy change upon me, whereby his word and law (at which I was offended) becomes most sweet and dear, and all harmonious to me, and inftead of fnagling and ftumbling at it, I grow in love with it, and take great delight in it, and plainly fee, that there is no living fo fatisfied, easy, and happy, as within such compafs, and by fuch rules, yea, though he did not impofe it, yet would I chufe it, and to be and do as

he