The blessings which we shall enjoy in yielding him the possession of our hearts.

Who is he that solicits admission into our souls, to sanctify, to rule, and to bless them?

A personage in himself the most exalted, and sustaining to us the most exalted relations-Jesus Christ the Son of God-he who was with the Father before the world was-he who, from all eternity, was the brightness of the Father's glory and the express image of his person-he, the Lord of all things, by whom all things were created, and by whom all things consist-Jesus Christ, who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords, the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, the first and the last, the Almighty. This is indeed a mystery which surpasses our conception, but which claims our profound adorationa mystery not greater indeed than that divine nature into which there is no searching-not greater than our own nature, which so often baffles our inquiries -not greater than innumerable truths of reason and religion, which command our assent-and a mystery which claims our most profound adoration -the second person in the eternal Trinity, he who, equal with God, was from all eternity partaker of the glory and felicity of the Godhead, sues for admission into our souls.

And in the most exalted and endearing characters does he solicit admission.

He claims the possession of our souls as our Creator, who formed us out of nothing, and breathed into us an immortal spirit-as our Preserver, who sustains us in life, and protects our frail being from VOL. III. 11

the innumerable dangers which surround us-as our Benefactor, who surrounds us with the countless blessings of his providence-and, a character still more endearing and interesting, he presents himself before us and sues for the possession of our hearts as our Redeemer, who, for our sakes, endured poverty, scorn, persecution, was buffeted and scourged, and poured forth his life as one forsaken by his God-He who, as our Redeemer, never withdrawing from us his compassion, is constantly interceding for us, sending forth his spirit to guide and sanctify us, and who is preparing for us a place in his own presence.

And what is the mode in which he presents his claim to our hearts, to our supreme homage and service?

Having violated, by repeated transgressions, the law of our nature, the dictates of reason and of conscience, the commands of God, as good as he is powerful, it is an act of mercy which spares us, thus sinful and guilty, which rescues us from that prison of darkness where the angels who have sinned are reserved in chains. We deserve only wrath-wrath from the Sovereign of the universe. But should our offended God entertain towards us any purposes of mercy, what would be the utmost of our hopes? We might reasonably indeed expect that pardon would not be extended to guilt so aggravated, but on conditions the most rigorous and severe, conditions enforced by the stern voice of violated authority. The utmost that we could hope would be, that these conditions of pardon would be rendered practicable by the divine aid of the Sovereign whom we had offended. But here

again is a mystery which claims our profound adoration. God did not appear to us in the darkness, the tempest, the terrors of Mount Sinai, an inflexible Sovereign and Judge. He unfolds himself to us, his rebellious creatures, in the light, the radiance, the compassion of our heavenly Father. He so loved us, as to send to us his only-begotten Son, not to announce, in the majesty of offended justice, the stern conditions of our pardon, but, in the lowliness of the Lamb of God, to make a propitiation for our sins, in the mild accents of the Prince of Peace, to propose the easy terms of acceptance, and with the tenderness and compassion of our dearest Friend, to invite us to come unto him and receive rest and salvation. And even when insensible to the calls of gratitude and duty, and regardless of our own present and eternal interest, we resolve to continue in our sins, and thus defy the justice of heaven, and trample under foot that mercy which is sealed by the blood of the Son of God; still this almighty Redeemer, who could summon legions of angels to vindicate his insulted glories, becomes the suppliant-and the suppliant to the guilty rebels who had rejected him; he stands at the door and knocks; he sues for admittance into our souls; he sues for admittance by those temporal blessings which he still bestows upon us, sinners, who are unworthy of them, and who, while they deserve the vengeance, are thus crowned with the goodness of their almighty Lord. Jesus Christ sues for admittance into our hearts by those chastisements and warnings, by the loss of health and of temporal comforts, by those escapes from impending danger and threatening death, which are calcufated to arouse us to a sense of the necessity of

securing our eternal peace by making our Saviour our friend.

Jesus Christ also sues for admittance into our souls by all the instructions, all the promises, all the threatenings, of his holy word.

By the instructions of his word he displays the excellence of that divine Being who claims our service-the reasonableness of this service, and of those laws by which God designs to promote the present and eternal happiness of his creatureswhich unfold the glory of him who came to save us, the nature of his gracious offices, and the way of salvation through his merits and grace, which, rendering plain to us every part of our duty, leaves us without excuse under the violation of it.

Not only by the instructions of his word does Jesus Christ sue for admittance into our souls, but by all its promises. These promises hold out pardon to the penitent, though their sins be as scarlet, and red like crimson-deliverance to the captives of sin, and rest to those who are burdened with sorrowpromises of succour to the tempted, of comfort to the afflicted, of peace to the conscience agitated by guilt, of purity to the sou! polluted by transgression, of mercy to cheer, and of grace to strengthen the dejected and feeble-promises of communion with God, the eternal source of goodness and of happiness, of confidence in his favour who is the Sovereign of the universe, of joy in Christ who is the all-sufficient and almighty Saviour, and of the assurance of his full and never-failing mercy-and when the soul has passed her earthly pilgrimage, promises of an eternal and blessed rest from all sin and from all sorrow, of a glorious entrance into the

church triumphant, into the presence of God the Judge of all, of Jesus Christ the Mediator of the new covenant, of angels and archangels, and of the spirits of the just-promises of a felicity increasing through eternal ages.

To render his applications for admittance still more powerful, Jesus Christ unites with his promises the threatenings of his word, declaring against those who reject his counsel and will none of his reproof, remorse of conscience, fearful apprehensions of future wrath, despair in death, torment in eternityunfolding the terrors of that day, when he, the Judge, the almighty Judge, comes to repay vengeance to his adversaries, recompense to his enemies -the day when the ungodly will call on the rocks and mountains to fall on them and to hide them from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb-the day which will reveal every evil thought, every deed of darkness, reveal them in the light of eternity, reveal them before an assembled universe-the day when the sentence shall proceed from the mouth of that Judge (whose solicitations sinners had so often disregarded,) Depart, ye cursed-depart from the holy presence of God, from the glory of his celestial courts, from the blissful society of saints and angels, and the spirits of the righteous-depart from the light, the peace, the never-ending felicity of heaven -depart into outer darkness, into wailing and into the society of the devil and his angels, where their worm dieth not, and their fire is not quenched -depart for ever!

wo,

Oh! who can dwell with the devouring fire, who can lie down in everlasting burnings!

These are the awful threatenings which Jesus