God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ....1 Thess. v. 9.

HERE IS a precious negative, a glorious positive, and happy souls: Lord help us to meditate upon them to our profit. 1st. The negative: "God hath not appointed us to wrath." St. Paul has in his eye what our proud nature cannot bear to hear of, the sovereignty of God: it is as though he had said we are all by nature children of wrath: we have all by practice deserved wrath. Here is myself: the other day I did not know the Son of God, but persecuted him. and his servants. If God had dealt with us according to our just deserts, we should suffer his eternal wrath in hell. Is your conscience convinced of this? Do your eyes see it? Does your tongue confess this? Does your heart fear this? Rejoice with wonder: that just God, who had a sovereign right, yet will not appoint you to wrath for your sins: if you have trembled under a sense of wrath, now rejoice at the sound of everlasting love! For, 2d. Here is a glorious positive: "God hath appointed us to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ." Ye poor, short-sighted beings, who talk of a possible salvation, of being brought into a salvable state, of a conditional salvation cast upon certain terms we are to perform, and of one knows not what unscriptural jargon; behold and stand. reproved, for ye weaken faith, deject hope, and damp love in an absolute, sure and certain salvation, appointed by God for those who deserved wrath; even the salvation, the finished salvation of our Lord Christ: this, this is the blessed foundation for faith, the spring of hope, the source of love. But, 3d. Who are appointed to obtain it? I hope we will allow the Lord of all, the liberty which we mortals take of appointing whom he pleases to live with him. Us: 1st. Whom God hath pleased to appoint. 2d. Us, for whom Christ died. 3d. Us, who are not in darkness. 4th. Us, who are the children of light, and of the day. These characters stand in the context: are they yours? Has God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, shined in your heart to give you the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ? Have you seen such glory in the face, the offices, the work of Christ, that you choose him for your Saviour, and trust him for your salvation? O fall down and adore sovereign love and free grace! God has as surely appointed you to salvation as he did Paul or any of the apostles. Who shall disappoint God?" If God be for us, who can be against us?"....Rom. viii. 31.

We all deserve eternal wrath,

As the just wages due to зin,
But God appoints to all who've faith
In Christ; salvation to obtain.

Then what shall disappoint our God?
Or ever frustrate his intent?
O magnify his name abroad,

And love and praise him ev'ry sainta

One mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus....1 Tim. ii. 5.

O, MY fellow-sinners, I heartily congratulate your soul and my own for this blessed truth! Lord, help us to live upon it in our consciences from day to day: for it is not a speculative, but an experimental truth it enters into the very essence of our faith, is the very life of our hope, lies at the foundation of our peace, and is the very source of every blessing and comfort. If we are not continually looking to this ONE mediator, JESUS, we lose the peace of faith, the comfort of hope, the fellowship of love, and get into perplexity of mind: then, we do not draw nigh to God with confidence, stand before him with boldness, nor cheerfully walk with him in love and holiness. Consider, 1st. A mediator stands as a middle person, interposing between two parties at variance, to make peace and re conciliation: this Christ hath perfectly done: he hath for ever made peace by the blood of his cross....Col. i. 20. Sin was the cause of variance between God and us: but Christ hath put away sin by the sacrifice of himself........Heb. ix. 26. Thus the work of reconciliation is finished respecting God. But, 2d. Jesus hath a work to do with us; for we are naturally alienated from God and enemies to him in our minds: this is manifest by our wicked ways: but, says the apostle, -66 you hath he now reconciled."....Col. i. 21. Is it so with you? Has Christ by the persuasive eloquence of his tongue, the affecting oratory of his love, and the sweet power of his Spirit conquered the rebellion of your will, subdued the stubborn pride of your heart, and gained your affections for God? Yes, say you: but I am such a miserable sinner, I fear God will not receive me; I have so much sin in me, I think he cannot be reconciled to me and at peace with me. Nay, but if Jesus had not been a mediator for miserable sinners full of sin, Paul had been damned, all the apostles in hell, and every saint now in glory would have been in endless torment: all the comfort of Christ's mediation is enjoyed by faith. 3d. Christ lives to keep up perfect reconciliation between God and us. O that is a most precious word: "For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life."....Rom. v. 10. Look back to the atonement of Christ on the cross; look up to the intercession of Christ at the right hand of a reconciled God; look forward and see heaven open to receive you, and the arms of a loving Father to embrace you.

When sin and satan me assault,
And strive to break my peace:
I dare not say, I have no fault,
But Christ shall me release.

VOL. II.

Christ ever stands before the throne,

His precious work to plead: [gone: Hence guilt and wrath from me are

A a

Christ brings the peace I need. M.

Fear ye not. Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. Exod. xiv. 13.

Now were the people of God in a great strait, even at their wits' end: perish they must, to all human appearance. A wide ocean is before them. Inaccessible mountains surround them. An enraged monarch pursues them: death in various shapes presents itself to them: yet, for all this, says Moses, "fear not." Peevish unbelief and carnal reason might suggest, what! not be afraid, when inevitable destruction must be our doom? Why will Moses talk to us after this mad, enthusiastic rate? But, in the view of apparent destruction, Moses tells them of certain salvation, and commands them to stand still and behold it: we do not hear one word from Moses to soothe their fears or comfort their minds, from any considerations of what they were in themselves, what good works they had done, what terms and conditions they had performed to entitle them to the Lord's favor, &c. No; but they were at this very moment indulging carnal reason and the murmurs of unbelief: "Why hast thou brought us forth? Better to serve the Egyptians, than to perish here," &c. Hence observe, 1st. In times of difficulty, in seasons of distress, when sin rages, conscience accuses, the law condemns, carnal reason suggests, unbelief prevails, and we poor sinners are at our wits' end; seeing justice pursuing, all hope and help failing, and despair at the door, then the salvation of Jesus is to be looked unto: in such seasons how doth this quell our fears, compose and comfort our minds! But, 2d. What is it to STAND STILL and see the salvation of the Lord? Is it to cease from prayer and all other means of grace, and, as some say, be still; stir not hand or foot in the way of duty? No; for, contrary to this, the Lord ordered the people to "go forward." What is it then, but in the midst of fears, in the sight of dangers, and in the dread of destruction, to cease from all self-confidence, to attend to the voice of the Lord, to rely upon his gracious promises, and quietly to hope for his great deliverance; for, O precious word! says Moses, "The Lord shall fight for you :" and what then? "Ye shall hold your peace." How soon, how effectually did the Lord do this? He both destroyed their enemies, saved them, silenced all their unbelieving fears and unreasonable murmurings: they saw their enemies no more for ever. Stand still, O soul, admire, adore, love, and confide in a gracious, wonder-working, sinner-saving Lord: look on thine enemies as the foes of thy Lord: he has promised their destruction and thy salvation. Rejoice to think of that day when thou shalt see thy Lord in glory, and thine enemies no more for ever.

Stand still my soul, salvation view,
As finish'd by thy Lord,

Reject thy fears, believe anew
Thy Lord's supporting word.

I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God, for he hath clothed me with the garmenis of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness....Isa. lxi. 10.

cease;

It would be surprising to see a malefactor going to execution, singing and rejoicing all the way. But, if when he came to the fatal place, he should produce the king's free pardon, with royal promises of being admitted to his presence, and appearing at court in the richest robes of the king's providing, our wonder would we should own that he really had abundant cause for joy. Come, my fellow-condemned malefactors, though sin has stripped you of your innocent dress of righteous clothing; though you are under the sentence of death; yet behold, here is a pardon for you, the best robe to put upon you, and a sure promise of admission into the king's presence in it. Read it and rejoice. GRACE REIGNS THROUGH RIGHTEOUSNESS UNTO ETERNAL LIFE....Rom. v. 21. The God of righteousness clothes us` naked sinners with the garments of salvation, and adorns us with the robe of righteousness, which our heavenly bridegroom wrought out for us: this is the blessing of being married to Christ by faith; this is the joy of faith; this causes joy of soul, and great rejoicing in THE LORD`Our RIGHTEOUSNESS. When all sense of comfort and feelings of joy in nature are dead; yet, in Jesus our covenant head, we have a neverfailing source of comfort, and an inexhaustible spring of joy: faith leaves nature behind, with all its sins and miseries; it looks neither to works nor worthiness in self, but considers what Christ is to the soul, and what the soul is in him, righteous, perfectly and everlastingly righteous. O then joy, great joy springs up; see the claim of faith,, MY God. Though faith doth not cause the Lord to become our God, nor adopt us into his family; yet it claims that peculiar and precious interest in him, which the word of his grace reveals. The Father draws us by his Spirit to his Son for righteousness; the Spirit bears witness that we are righteous in his Son: then faith makes the claim, boasts of it, and glories in it: then Jesus has our hearts and our hopes; our affections are placed on him ; our hopes center in him. Then we find our God in Christ; we call him My God; Abba, Father: we are at peace with, and joyful in him; we proclaim our joy in our God. What! clothed with the garments of salvation, which we wrought not; covered with the robe of righteousness, which we spun not, and not be joyful?. Q believers be ashamed of your unbelief, it damps your joy: it withholds the glory of your heart.

Rejoice, my soul, thy Jesus praise,
And walk before him all thy days;

When naked, poor, and destitute,
He fed and cloth'd thee with rich suit

Every one that useth milk, is unskilful in the word of righ teousness, for he is a babe....Heb. v. 13.

THIS is a sharp reproof: as then, so now there are many who need it. The word rendered UNSKILFUI., in the margin of our bibles is, hath NO EXPERIENCE. Christian experience is much talked of, too little understood: many furnish out a long detail of experience which they have had of one thing and another, but you can find nothing of the word of righteousness in it. It all begins in self, ends in self, and tends to exalt self. O, there is a great deal of self-seeking, self-soothing and self-complacency in what is called christian experience: but real christian experience is that inward proof or trial which our minds have of THE WORD OF RIGHTEOUSNESS; how the belief of it has brought relief to our guilty consciences, ease to our troubled souls, and rest to our weary minds. From hence, Christ the sum and substance of the word of righte ousness becomes precious, sin hateful, ourselves vile, our righteousness filthy rags, the world contemptible, the path of duty pleasant, the way of holiness delightful, and fellowship with God most highly estimable to our souls: this is christian experience indeed; but all experience which is talked of, that does not arise from the word, is not agreeable to the word, and is not supported by the word of righteousness, is fancy, whim and delusion. Many use milk and are babes; they are unskilful, have no experience of the word of righteousness, God's everlasting, electing love and covenant grace to sinners in Christ, his full and free justification of them without their works by the righteousness of Christ, yet saving them to all good works by the grace of Christ; the sovereign efficacy of the Spirit in bringing them to Christ, and their certain perseverance and sure salvation, being kept by the power of God through faith in Christ. Though the word of righteousness holds forth these glorious truths as plainly as though wrote with a sun-beam, yet such babes cannot bear them; their stomachs heave against them; their spirit rises with indignation at them; they can only feed upon milk and pap like babes; they wrangle and cry and puke like babes if you put strong meat into their mouths: therefore, they cannot, they do not grow strong in the Lord Jesus Christ; they are content with the first principles of christianity; they are not going on to perfection, and growing up into Christ Jesus in ALL THINGS. O, get beyond such babish experience; prize highly the word of righteousness; bring all your experience to it: draw all your comfort from it; judge of your state by it; be clothed with humility; fight not against God's sovereign purposes, council and covenant; put on that Spirit, and pray to the Lord, "That which I see not, teach thou me."....Job xxxiv. 32.