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"Blessed poet, that could so happily unite love and virtue, and draw so beautiful a scene of real felicity, which till this day I always thought was merely romantic and visionary! Lucius has taught me to understand these lines, for he has felt them; and methinks, while I repeat them now, I feel a strange new sensation. I am convinced the blind poet saw deeper into nature and truth than I could have imagined. There is, there is such a thing as a union of virtuous souls, where happiness is only found. I find some glimmerings of sacred light rising upon me, some unknown pantings within after such a partner and such a life.

"Nor is the other lesson which I have learned at all inferior to this, but in truth it is of higher and more durable importance. I confess, since I was nineteen years old, I never thought virtue and religion had been good for any thing, but to tie up children from mischief, and frighten fools: but now I find, by the conduct of my friend Lucius, that as the sweetest and sincerest joys of life are derived from virtue, so the most distressing sorrows may find a just relief in religion and sincere piety. Hear me, thou almighty Maker of my frame, pity and assist a returning wanderer; and O may thy hand stamp these lessons upon my soul in everlasting characters!"

X. Thou hast received gifts for men, Psalm 1xviii. 18. JESUS

ESUS the Mediator emptied himself for our sakes, when he descended to earth in order to die for us, and by his death to subdue our enemies. Now the Father has filled him again, at his ascent into heaven, with every glory and every blessing, with all authority and power to bestow blessings, graces, and glories on the sons of men. "It pleased the Father that in him all fulness should dwell. All power in heaven and earth was given into his hands," Col. i. 19. Matth. xxviii. 18. And when he received the power he distributed the blessings, see Acts ii. 33. Being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of

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the Father the promise of the holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear. He hath shed abroad miracles and graces in abundance amongst the inhabitants of the lower world.

The triumphs of majesty must have some mercy in them, and ensigns of victory must be interwoven with signal displays of bounty and grace. When he led captivity captive, he received gifts for men. Our conquering Redeemer was not so elevated with the pomp of his triumphs over the angels his captive enemies, as to forget the captives that he released among the children of Adam. He received many donatives from his Father on high, to shower down among them upon his coronation-day, that illustrious day, when "He, that in righteousness had made war and conquered, received on his own head many crowns." Rev. xix. 11. 12.

He that could take so much pleasure on earth in his la- ' bours of love, takes more delight in heaven in the distributions of grace. This is the sweetest part of his triumph, and the most visible among men, even the gifts of the Spirit that he sent down after his ascension. It was necessary that his grace should have some share of the glory of that day.

What was said of the great day of deliverance, when the Jews obtained victory over their designed murderers, may be applied with honour to the day when our Lord ascended to heaven, and celebrated his triumph over the spirits of darkness. "This was a good day for Israel, for all the saints; a day when Jesus rested from his enemies, and a month which was turned unto him from sorrow to joy, and from mourning into a day of gladness. This was a day of receiving portions for his brethren, and of sending gifts to the poor." Esther ix. 22.

Jesus our King is the Prince of power, and the Prince of peace, he solemnized his victory with acts of mercy, and begun his reign with gifts of grace. He led Satan the arch-traitor bound at his chariot-wheels, and scattered dona

tives of pardon and life among the sons of Adam that had been seduced into the great rebellion.

It is another pleasant meditation on this text, "That God the father had not given away all his gifts to men, even when he gave them his only begotten Son;" for since that time he hath given his Son more gifts to be distributed among them. Learn hence the unwearied love of God, the inexhausted stores of divine mercy. John iv. 10. Christ is called the gift of God. And, 2 Cor. ix. 15. The unspeakable gift. He gave his own Son out of his bosom, and gave him up to death for us. His Son that was nearest his heart, his Son the delight of his soul, and darling of his eternal enjoyment; and yet he is not weary of giving. O the immeasurable treasures of grace! O the unlimitable bounties of our God! Stand amazed, O heavens, and let the earth lie low in thankfulness and wonder, and every holy soul adore this surprising love!

Our meditations may take another step, and see here the divine condescension to human weakness: how a giving God stoops to the capacity of receiving creatures, and bestows the richest blessings on us in a sweet and alluring manner of conveyance. When he gave his Son to us, he first arrayed him in flesh and blood, that the glories of the Deity might not affright us, nor his terror make us afraid. When he proceeds to confer on us further gifts, he puts them into the hands of his Son dwelling in our nature, that we might have easy access to him without fear, and receive gifts from him as a delightful medium, by whom a God of infinite purity hath a mind to confer favours upon sinful

man.

He has put all grace into those hands whence we ourselves would choose to fetch it. If a God of shining holiness and burning justice should appear like himself, and call to us, guilty wretches, and hold forth his hand, here are gifts, here are pardons, here are salvations for you, we should be ready to say with Job, xiii. 21. "Withdraw thine hand far from me, and let not thy dread make me

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afraid." But here we sinners come to a man, to one that has worn our flesh and blood, that is our brother, and of our own composition; we come with courage to him that looks like one of us to receive the gifts of a holy God, and the terrors of his holiness sink us not, nor doth the fire of his justice devour us. O my soul bow down and worship that God who stoops so low to thee, and has found such a mild and gentle method of conferring his heavenly favours on thee.

XI. The GIFT of the SPIRIT.

WH HAT is dearer to God the Father than his only Son? and what diviner blessing has he to bestow upon men than his holy Spirit? Yet has he given his Son for us, and by the hands of his Son he confers his blessed Spirit on us. "Jesus having received of the Father the promise of the Spirit, shed it forth on men," Acts ii. 33.

How the wondrous doctrine of the blessed Trinity shines through the whole of our religion, and sheds a glory tipon every part of it! Here is God the father, a King of infinite riches and glory, has constituted his beloved Son the High-treasurer of heaven, and the holy Spirit is the divine and inestimable treasure. What amazing doctrines of sacred love are written in our Bibles! What mysteries of mercy, what miracles of glory are these! Our boldest desires and most raised hopes, durst never aim at such blessings; there is nothing in all nature that can lead us to a thought of such grace.

The Spirit was given by the Father to the Son for men ; for rebellious and sinful men, to make favourites and saints of them: this was the noble gift the Son "received when he ascended on high," Psal. lxviii. 18. And he distributed it to grace his triumph.

Was it not a divine honour which Jesus our Lord displayed on that day, when the tongues of fire sat on his twelve apostles; when he sent his ambassadors to every na

tion to address them in their own language, to notify his accession to the throne of heaven, and to demand subjection to his government? When he conferred power upon his envoys to reverse the laws of nature, and imitate creation? To give eyes to the blind, and to raise the dead? All this. was done by the Spirit which he sent down upon them in the days of Pentecost.

But is this Spirit given to none but his apostles and the prime ministers in his kingdom? Was that rich treasure exhausted in the first ages of the gospel, and none left for us? God forbid! Every one of his subjects have the same favour bestowed upon them, though not in the same degree every humble and holy soul in our day, every true Christian is possessed of the Spirit, for " he that has not the Spirit of Christ is none of his," Rom. viii. 9. And whereever this Spirit is, it works miracles too; it changes the sinner to a saint, it opens his blind eyes; it new-creates his nature; it raises the dead to a divine life, and teaches Egypt, Assyria, and the British isles to speak the language of Canaan. It is this gift of the Spirit which the Son sends down to us continually from the Father, that is the original and spring of all these strange blessings.

The Father has a heart of large bounty to the poor ruined race of Adam: the Son has a hand fit to be Almoner to the King of glory, and the Spirit is the rich alms. This blessed donative has enriched ten thousand souls already, and there remains enough to enrich ten thousand worlds.

The Father, what a glorious giver ! the Son, what a glorious medium of communication! and the Spirit, what a glorious gift! We blush and adore while we partake of such immense favours, and gratitude is even overwhelmed with wonder.

O let our spirits rejoice in this blessed article of our relia gion! and may all the temptations that we meet with from men of reason never, never baffle so sweet a faith!

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