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all the affections of the mind with it, towards that consummate Beauty which it renders visible.

When a philosopher was asked, Why that which is fair attracts our love, he answered, "It is the question of a blind man,” rúqhov épúrnua. Well then might the Psalmist, when he had been contemplating the Divine goodness, represent himself as quite transported with its charms: q. d. It is nothing earthly, nothing mortal, that is the object of my wish; my soul hangs on the Lord alone. It thirsts for Thee, and till it arrives at the enjoyment of Thee, it will still be waiting, Hasten, Lord, to support and comfort me, for I am sick with love; nor is there any thing in heaven or earth, beside Thee, O Lord, which can satiate or delight this soul of mine, pierced through, as it were, with this sacred passion. And though I am, and feel myself to be, most unworthy of loving Thee, or of hoping ever to enjoy Thee, yet, my meanness and vileness, even when compared with Thine immense majesty and sublimity, do not so much deter me, as Thy boundless clemency and goodness, added to Thy truth; while I have Thy word of promise before mine eyes for my support, sustain me and animate my courage. Therefore, while my love and desires are most ardent, I will nevertheless expect and wait with inward patience and perseverance; and though a heart which loves like mine must find a delay grievous, yet unshaken hope shall alleviate that sickness of the soul, Just as they that watch for the morning, however they may be afflicted with the darkness and coldness of the night, are constantly supported with the assured hope that the dawn will come, and the day arise in all its glory.

Nor does the Psalmist envy others their share in those felicities which arise from love and hope; on the contrary, with a cheerful and liberal mind, he invites all to this immense ocean of riches, which is not shut up, but free to all. Let Israel hope in the Lord. And lest the confluence of such vast numbers should suggest any fears of straitness and want, he confidently declares that there is wealth enough, and more than

enough to supply all their necessities: For with the Lord, says he, there is mercy, and with Him is plenteous redemption; grace, rich and copious enough to support all sinners, and to forgive all sins; and all that apply to it shall infallibly. find, that He redeems Israel from all his iniquities. The eye of faith is by no means evil, but bright and sparkling with unbounded charity: it wishes all good to all, and, above all, wishes them a beatific union with the Supreme and infinite Good. As in that kingdom of glory there is no malignity, no envy because there can be no straitness, but according to that emphatical saying of our blessed Saviour, There are many mansions, there is boundless space, and the seats of pious souls are not marked out in any narrow boundaries, but in an ample court; so even in the previous kingdom and banquet of grace, our heavenly Father's house is magnificent, both on account of its amplitude, and the rich provision which it contains.

Let me beseech you, therefore, strictly to examine your own souls. Inquire what it is that they chiefly wish, hope, and desire; whether they give chase as it were to every painted fly; whether, forsaking the Fountain of living waters, they are digging for themselves cisterns of clay, and those leaky too, with great and unprofitable labour. O! wretched deceitfulness of every earthly hope, which mocks and deludes us so much the more in proportion to the extravagance of its promises! Blessed are they, and only they, who fix their eyes and their souls above, and say with the Psalmist, Lord, I wait on Thee, my 'soul does wait, and in thy word do I trust; and as elsewhere, And now Lord what wait I for? My hope is in Thee. Happy they who have quitted all those low desires and pursuits which are unworthy of a generous and immortal spirit, and have fixed their love on one; whose heart and hopes are set upon that One, in whom all things excellent meet and centre. A cheerful joy always shines on their face; nor do their cheeks glow with the shame of repulse and disappointment. While we are wandering hither and thither, in the

vicious and perplexed pursuit of flattering objects, what fre quent lamentations, what fond complaints of delusive fortune, and that tragical outcry, ip iù requirav zaduvan, of grievous τραυμάτων ἐπωδύνων, and painful wounds! What crowds of fears and cares divide the mind and hurry it, now one way and now another! But when we fix our hope and our heart on the only support, on the only true and all-sufficient Good, all is safe, and the soul treads firm/while the whole Iglobe)trembles! Led external things be borne this way or that, there is peace within; nor, when all methods have been examined, can any other be found for the establishment of the mind, than that it should lay all its stress upon the one immovable and immutable Rock, -109 would or eu toi u91sqmos bus libson et didw TAHT 120m to bite ;lasor of boenoly mod died 9H,bo i

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toiiftae lle bus st y'no 90 THE EIGHTH PSALM. absou 700; aidte# 9269q torofft Jadt to you it ouod of guid Jedi equidi Danot ad radio yas ar „bɔniezo n99d 9ved -bortora lle odw >tills yal bluoda ti teds and ban odt to tagad-ilderes oda nåt of oldetomu bas oldevom 90 sd noqь 297THAT which is needful and competent for us to know concerning God, He hath been pleased to reveal;, and our most excellent and happy employment in this world, is, to learn it.

The third verse of this Psalm affords us clearly the doctrine of the creation. That part in the Psalmist's eye, the heavens, being the highest and largest of the visible world, surrounding and containing all the rest, is mentioned. The work of Thy fingers, importing the curious embellishments of them. The moon and stars which Thou hast ordained,-placed them in their orbits, and set them a going, and appointed them the periods and revolutions which they observe. So the same Hand hath fetched all other things out of the same nothing, as we have it in the beginning of this Book, In the beginning God created, &c. And it is therefore to be believed, because we find it there.

Can the Worker and His operation be discovered by strength of reason? Certainly they who have been of most confessed and famous ability in that way, have been partly of another mind; and we see it reduced to its truest principle, Heb. xi. 4: By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. Yet this we may boldly affirm, that there is not only nothing in sound reason crossing it, but that all the cavils alleged against it are most

weak of themselves; and there be many things in nature that plead strongly for it, which we may, yea, ought to take notice of.

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The continual turnings and changes of things, the passing of one thing to another, the destruction of some things, and the production of others, and the general decaying of all, the very heavens waxing old as a garment, declare that the whole frame is mutable and corruptible, and therefore not from eternity, but terminable in its beginning.

There is in this a very strong appearance of the beginning of the world and of time being according to the sacred history we have of it, and which faith receives; that there are not any records nor any memoirs or history of time, or things, produceable in the world that go higher up, no, nor any human histories that go near so high. Now, if there were thousands of ages before, whence is so deep a silence of what passed in them?

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They who can conceive it, may take this reason into con sideration, that if the world had been from eternity, then, cer, tainly, the number of revolutions would be infinite; now, to that which is so, nothing can be added; so that it were impossible there could be any new days or years, &c. But, above all dispute, we believe it upon HIS word, who by His word gave all things a being. The whole Trinity, as, in all works without, They are together equally concerned, so in that first and great work of making all things.

As by the Father, so by the Word were all things made, and the Spirit moved upon the face of the deep: BARAH ELOHIM-Trinity in unity, created.

It is most vain to enquire why the world was not created sooner, in tempore; yea, it is nonsense, for the same question might equally be moved whensoever the world had been made, though it had lasted now millions of years; still there would have been an eternity preceding, wherein it was not; and Time itself was concreated. Nor was there any pre-existent unformed matter. It is a poor, shallow conceit, that any such

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