will fatisfy it. The hungry are the most earnest and importunate beggars at the throne of grace; and fuch he hath promifed to hear, Luke ii. 9. The hungry will wait at God's door for an alms, and he promises that thofe who wait for him fhall not be afhamed, Ifa. xlix. 23. The proud, the rich, the full, and felf-righteous will go away, if the door be not presently opened, but the hungry will afk, feek, knock, and knock again, and wait till God think fit to open and grant an alms, These God is bound by his word to fatisfy. He is their Father, and hath the bowels of a father to pity his children. He hears the ravens and young lions when they cry, and feeds them, and will he not hear his own children, and fill their hungry fouls? Yea, he hath promifed it.

But what is that fill he promises to the hungry 2 Anf. He fills them with divine difcoveries, as with the knowledge of God's greatnefs and majefty, fo as to make them fenfible of their own nothingness! and with the knowledge of God's goodness and free love to finners in Chrift, fo as to make them fall into raptures of admiration, and cry, Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity? Micah vii. 18. He fills them with a difcovery of the excellency of the gospel remedy for perishing fouls, fo as to make them fay it is a device every way worthy of God. Chrift's Mediatory offices, his covenant, his righteoufnefs, his blood, his purchase, and fulnefs, do nobly answer all our fouls' wants and neceffities: they deliver us from fin and mifery, and they bring us grace and glory. He fills his hungry people with gospel promifes, by letting them fee their name in them, and giving them faith to take hold of them and apply them. Many a fweet fill do they get from fuch promises as thefe, Jer. xxxii. 40. Ezek. xxxvi. 26, 28. Jer. iii. 22. 1 John ii. 1. Rom. xvi. 20. Heb. xiii. 5. He fills them with the intimations of the pardon of their fins, and with peace and joy in believing, Rom. xv. 10. fo as to banish their doubts and fears. What a fweet fill doth Chrift's voice give them, fuch

as that in Matth; ix. 2. Luke xxiv. 36, 38. John xiv. 27. Rom. viii. 1. He fills them with refolution and ftrength to conquer fin, perform duties, refift temptations, and bear afflictions: when he speaks to them as to Paul, 2 Cor. xii. 9. or as in Ifa. xli. 10. and xlii. 2. He fills them by giving them fweet returns of prayer, affurance of his love, and of his gracious prefence with them. He fills them by making over Chrift's fulriefs and purchase to them, and by giving them Pifgah views of the promised land, and will at last fill them with glory.

It is only the hungry that shall be filled, the needy, the humble, and felf-denied, for the rich are fent empty away, Luke i. 53. the rich, that is those who are filled with a conceit of their own ftrength and fufficiency, their gifts and performances, and go about to establish a righteoufnefs of their own, and fee not their need of Christ. These fhall go empty away, for they do not prize Christ, nor are willing to come up to his terms. They go away empty of Chrift and his riches; but alas, they go away filled with pride and self-conceit, filled with love to fin, love to the world, and love to their own righteoufnefs. Oh this is a miferable fill!

O hungry fouls, blefs God that gives you this appetite when others are rich and full in their own conceit, labour to preserve this appetite, and wait about God's houfe and table, where foul food is to be had; and bless him even for the fmalleft crumbs, as when he gives you a greater hatred of fin, a higher efteem of Chrift, a great defire after heart holiness, a reftlefnefs without Chrift, a willingness to part with all for Chrift, or stronger refolutions to cleave to Chrift and duty. These crumbs are worthy of thanks, though you be not filled with joy and peace in believing. Wait on the Lord, and wait for him in every ordinance and duty of his appointment, believing him to be faithful who hath faid, They fhall not be ashamed who wait for me.

Object. Some may fay, We have waited long, and have not got a crumb. Anf. Some eminent faints have

been put to cry, How long wilt thou forget me, Lord, hali it be for ever. Pfal. xiii. But they must wait in the ufe of means until God's time come, and adore the fovereignty of God in his dealings with them. His people have refigned themselves to the care and wisdom of God, who knows what is beft for them; believing there is a time coming when God will make up for all their loffes. O believers, there is a fill remaining for you above, that will foon make you forget all your days of fcarcity here below.

ADVICE XXIII.

From PSALM cvii. 2. Let the redeemed of the Lord fay fo.

WHAT is it fuch perfons fhould fay? Let them bot fay and fing of God's goodnefs and mercy to them; for (of all men) the redeemed of the Lord have moft reafon to be thankful for Chrift's diftinguifhing mercy in freeing them from the law's curfes and Satan's power, from the guilt, dominion, and punishment of fin; from the fting of death and the wrath to come. Believers are redeemed both from fin and hell.

Q. How may I know if I be among thefe happy ones, the redeemed of the Lord? A. Take thefe marks. Did you ever fee your flavery and bondage by nature, fo that no less than an infinite price and power could ransom and liberate you? Was you fo convinced and humbled. with the fight of your misery, as to be content of freedom from it on any terms? Have you ventured your foul on Chrift's merit and mercy, conform to gospel offers, being well pleafed with the frame of the new covenant, and the felf denying way of faving fouls by Chrift's imputed righteousness? Are you content with Chrift to be your King and Ruler, as well as your Priest and Saviour? Have you given up yourfelf to the Lord to live for him, defirous that his love may always conftrain you to do his will? O then, you may conclude,

you are among the redeemed of the Lord, and that his bleffed body was broken, and his blood fhed to ranfom you.

Peculiar reafons have you to extol his goodness and mercy above others. Why? he hath opened your eyes to fee the beauty of your Redeemer, and the ways of holiness, when others remain in blindness! He hath opened your ears to hear the joyful found, and fall in with it when others are deaf to it! He hath loofed your tongues to pray and praife, when others are dumb and tongue-tied! He hath opened your heart to entertain Christ crucified, when others fhut him out! He hath brought you to a feeling of the evil and burden of fin, when others are without feeling! He hath given you appetites for fpiritual food, when others relifh nothing but things earthly: He hath given you the promise and hopes of complete redemption from fin and mifery above, when others live without Chrift and without hope! Let the redeemed of the Lord then fing and praise him above all others.

O believing communicants, redeemed of the Lord, give him thanks, and exprefs your thankfulness by your thoughts and actions, as well as your words; namely, by your high efteem of your Redeemer, and of his blood and righteoufnefs that purchafed all for you. By avoiding every thing that dishonours him, and flying from the fins that are common and fashionable where you live. By commending your Redeemer to those who know him not. By ftanding up as witneffes for him, and for his truths and ways, in the midst of a Chrift defpifing generation. By ftrictly obferving the Lord's day, as being a weekly memorial of redeeming love. By longing for the enlarging of Chrift's kingdom, and rejoicing at the news of it, and by putting honour on all the friends and lovers of the Redeemer.

Laftly, Shew your thankfulness by finging pfalmis, hymns, and fpiritual fongs, in praise of redeeming love, and of the Redeemer's perfon, offices, and fufferings, a fubject that can never be exhaufted. Sing praises to U

the great God, that humbled himself to leave his higla throne, that came down to dwell in flesh, and die for us; and to rife again, and to ascend to heaven, to take poffeffion of the inheritance, and make accommodation for us there. On this account the Spirit calls us four times to fing praises in one breath, Pfal. xlvii. 6. God is gone up with a shout; fing praises to God, fing praises; fing praifes unto our King, fing praises. This finging is most acceptable to God, and profitable to ourselves. As God makes it the eternal work of heaven, fo he would have us frequently employed in it on earth. But Oh ! how do we fail here? Reformed churches abroad do far exceed us in the frequency of this duty, as they do in the variety and sweetness of their tunes.

What is finging, but a kind of reading with meditation and deliberation, in order to give the more free vent to the thoughts and affections to breathe and afcend heavenwards. The wife God inftitutes finging in his praife, because the melody of the voice helps to affect the heart, and raise the thoughts, "for he knoweth our frame.” And indeed, it is only when the heart correfponds with the voice, that the mufic is pleasant to God: To this purpofe cne faith well:

Sweet melody the hymn affords,

When with the lines the heart accords.

O let the redeemed fing praife, and give thanks to God for his unspeakable gift, both now and for evermore, Amen.

I fhall add no more Sacramental Advices in the preceding method, but fhall fhut up all with a cluster of fhort fcripture directions, proper not only for communicants, but for all Chriftians travelling heavenward.