receive him with all his saving and sanctifying blessings? Come then boldly to a throne of grace, that you may "obtain mercy, and find grace to help in every time of need." Is it not a comfort to your dejected spirits to reflect that your gracious High Priest was tempted like as you are, and is touched with the feeling of your infirmities. He will not break the bruised reed. Oh! if a poor bruised wounded soul had but heard these words from his Saviour's mouth: "The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted: to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised; to preach the acceptable year of the Lord,"-what heart meltings would it have caused! what love would it have raised you would surely then have believed that the Lord is indeed gracious! Let the soul who is doubting of God's love, read the character of his heavenly Father in the story of the returning prodigal, and let him feel what that poor penitent felt, when he found himself in the arms of his compassionate Father. The soul that felt this, would never sure have such hard and doubtful thoughts of God! Read the words of him who is high and holy; who inhabiteth

eternity and who dwells in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. Away then with every suspi cious thought of God's love! Let his praise dwell upon your lips; the actings of love, and thanks, and joy, will help you to comfort, in a nearer way than arguments and self-examination, even in a way of feeling! even as the fire maketh you warm, the exercising these sweeter graces will habituate your souls to it, and in time wear out the sad and gloomy impression you now feel; and in the mul titude of such thoughts you may hope, that the comforts of God will delight your soul.

Marks of a confirmed Christian.

1. A christian indeed, is one whose repentance has been deep, and serious, and universal; it has gone to the very root of sin; and has not left behind any reigning unmortified corruption, nor any prevailing love to sensual pleasure. He does not only condemn sin in words, and use confessions, to excuse him from mortification, and from giving the mortal blow to his corruptions, nor does he only repent of his open sins; but he especially perceives the dangerous poison of

pride, and unbelief, and worldliness, and the want of love to God, and his neighbour; and all his outward and smaller sins shew him the malignity of these heart sins; and these are the matter of his greatest lamentation. He takes not up a profession of religion, with strong corruptions secretly covered in his heart, but his religion consists in the death of his corruptions, and the purifying of his heart. He does not secretly cherish any sin as too sweet, or too profitable to be utterly forsaken, or overlook it as a small inconsiderable matter; but he feels sin to be his enemy and his disease; and desires not one sin to be spared in his soul: but says with David, "Teach me, O God, to know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts; and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting !" "He is blameless, and harmless, as a Son of God, without. rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom he shines as a light in the world." The fear, and love, and obe→ dience of God, is the work and tenor of his life.

2. A christian indeed, is one, that is so sensible of his lost condition, unworthiness, and utter insufficiency for himself, and so highly prizes the offices, perfection, and sufficiency of Christ, that he has absolutely put

his soul and all his hopes into the hands of this Almighty Saviour, and now lives in him, as having no life but what he has from Christ, nor any other way of access to God, or acceptance with him in him he beholds and delightfully admires the love and goodness of his Father; and through him has access with boldness to a reconciled God. Christ now dwells in his heart by faith, and being rooted and grounded in love, he "apprehendeth, with all saints, what is the breadth and depth and height of the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge!" He feels that he is beholden to Christ for all his hopes of salvation : he perceives that he is dead to himself, and that his life is hid with Christ in God; and therefore he is as it were buried, and risen again with Christ; even dead to sin, but alive to God through Jesus Christ; and the life that he now lives, is by the faith of the Son of God who loved him, and gave himself for him.

3. A christian indeed, is one that makes God and heaven, the end, the reward, and the motive of his life. The interests of God, and his soul, are the ruling interests with him as a traveller goes on his way, and bears all the difficulty of it, for the sake of the place he is going to; however he may talk of many other matters by the way, his

business is to lay up a good foundation against the time to come, and to lay hold on eternal life, and therefore his very heart is there; and he is employed in seeking and setting his affections on things above. He looks not at the things which are seen, which are temporal, but at the things which are unseen, and are eternal. Having taken heaven for his felicity, he accounts no cost too great for the obtaining it; though difficulties may hinder him, and his attainments fall short of his desires, yet he is resolved, through grace, never to part with Christ and heaven. He knows that it is impossible to be a loser by God, or to purchase heaven at too dear a rate; he knows that whatsoever it cost him, heaven will fully pay for all :-he knows that even our duty is not our smallest privilege and mercy; but that the more we do for God, the more we receive, and the greater is our gain and honour. He is not one that desires the end without the means: he complains of his backwardness to obey, but never complains of the strictness of the command. He loves the holiness, justice, and goodness of the law, whiles he bewails the unholiness and badness of his heart. He does not desire God to command him less, but desires grace and ability to do more.

4. A christian indeed, is one that daily de