vens; taking possession of those sublime abodes in our name, and as our forerunner. Ye cattle, that rest in your inclosed pastures; ye beasts, that range the unlimited forests: ye fish, that rove through trackless paths of the sea; sheep, clad in garments, which when left by you, are wore by kings; kine, who feed on verdure, which transmuted in your bodies, and strained from your udders, furnishes a repast for queens; lions roaring after your prey; leviathan taking your pastime in the great deep; with all that wing the firmament, or tread the soil, or swim the wave:He, who spreads his ever-hospitable board; who admits you all to be his continual guests: and suffers you to want no manner of thing that is good-HE, was destitute, afflicted, tormented; He endured all that was miserable and reproachful, in order to exalt a degenerate race, who had debased themselves to a level with the beasts that perish, unto seats of distinguished and immortal honor; in order to introduce the slaves of sin, and heirs of hell, into mansions of consummate and everlasting bliss. Surely, the contemplation of such a subject, and the distant anticipation of such a hope, may almost turn earth into heaven, and make even inanimate nature vocal with praise. Let it then break forth from every creature. Let the meanest feel the inspiring impulse; let the greatest acknowledge themselves unable, worthily to express the stupendous goodness. Praise HIM ye insects that crawl on the ground; who, though high above all height, humbled himself to dwell in dust. Birds of the air, waft on your wings and warble in your notes, HIS praise; who, though LORD of the celestial abodes, while sojourning on earth, wanted a shelter, commodious as your nests. -Ve rougher world of brutes, join with the gentle songsters of the shade, and howl to HIM your hoarse applause; who breaks the jaw-bones of the infernal lion; who softens into mildness the savage disposition and bids the wolf lie down, in amicable agreement, with the lamb. Bleat out, ye hills; let broader lows be responsive from the vales; ye forests catch, and ye rocks retain, the inarticulate hyma; because MESSIAN the Prince feeds his flock like a shepherd. He gathers the lambs with his arm the carries them in his bosom, and gently leads those that are * with young. Wave, ye stately cedars, in sign of worship, wave your branching heads to HIM, who meekly bowed his own on the accursed tree.-Pleasing prospects, scenes of beauty, where nicest art conspires with lavish nature, to form a paradise below; lay forth all your charms, and in all your charms confess yourselves a mere blank compared with his amiableness, who is the "fairest among ten thousand and altogether lovely."-Drop down, ye showers; and testify, as you fall; testify of HIS grace, which descends more copiously than the rain, distils more sweetly than the dew.-Let sighing gales breathe, and murmuring rivulets flow; breathe and flow, in harmonious consonance to HIM; whose spirit is far more reviving, than the cooling breeze; who is himself the fountain of living waters. Ye lightnings, blaze to HIS honor, ye thunders sound his praise; while reverberating clouds return the roar, and bellowing oceans propagate the tremendous anthem.Mutest of creatures, add your silent oratory, and display the triumphs of Hrs meekness; who, though he maketh the clouds his chariot, and treadeth upon the waves of the sea; though the thunder is his voice, and the lightning his sword of justice; yet, amidst the most abusive and cruel injuries, was submissive and lifted not his hand, was "dumb and opened not his mouth.”. Great source of day, address thy radiant homage to a far sublimer sun; write, in all thy ample round, with every lucid beam, O! write, a testimony to HIM; who is the brightness of his Father's glory, who is the Sun of Righteousness to a sinful world: and is risen, never to go down is risen, to be our everlasting light.Shine clear, ye skies: look gay, thou earth: let the floods clap their hands, and let every creature wear a smile: for he -cometh, the CREATOR himself cometh to be manifested in the flesh and with him comes pardon, peace, and joy; every virtue and all felicity comes in his train.-Angels and archangels, let your songs be of Jesus, and teach the very heavens to eche with his adored and majestic name. Ye beheld him, with greater transports of admiration, when you attended his agony in the garden, and saw him prostrate on the ground, than when. beheld universal nature rising at you Isa. xL 11. his call, and saw the wonders of his creating might. Tune to loftiest notes your golden harps, and waken raptures unknown before even in heavenly breasts; while all that has breath, swells the concert of harmony; and all that has being, unites in the tribute of praise. Chiefly, let man exalt his voice; let man, with distinguished hosannas, hail the REDEEMER. For man, he was stretched on the racking cross; for man, he was consigned to the gloomy sepulchre; for man, he procured grace unmeasurable, and bliss inconceivable. However different, therefore, in your age, or more different in your circumstances, be unanimous, O man, in magnifying a Saviour, who is no respector of persons; who gave himself a ransom for all.-Bend, ye kings, from your thrones of ivory and gold; in your robes of imperial purple, fall prostrate at HIS feet; who forsook a nobler throne, and laid aside more illus trious ensigns of Majesty, that you might reign with God for ever and ever.- Children of poverty, meanest of mortals, (if any can be called poor who are thus enriched; if any can be accounted mean who are thus ennobled,) rejoice, greatly rejoice in GoD your SAVIOUR; who chose to be indigent, was willing to be contemned; that you might be entitled to the treasures, and be numbered with the princes of heaven.— Sons of afflictions, though harrassed with pain, and inured to anguish, O! change your groans into songs of gratitude; let no complaining voice, no jarring string be heard in the universal symphony; but glorify the LAMB even in the fires ;* who himself bore greater torment than you feel; and has promised you a share in the joy which he inherits; who has made your sufferings short, and will make your rest eternal. -Men of hoary locks, bending beneath a weight of years, and tottering on the brink of the grave; let CHRIST be your support, under all infirmities; lean upon CHRIST, as the rock of your salvation; let his name, his precious name, form the last accents, which quiver on your pale expiring lips; and let this be the first that lisps on your tongues, ye tender infants. Remember your REDEEMER in your earliest moments; devote the choice of your hours to the learning of His will, and the chief of your strength to the glorify Isa. xxiv. 15. ing of His name; who, in the perfection of health, and the very prime of manhood, was content to become a motionless and ghastly corpse; that you might be girt with the vigor, and clothed with the bloom of eternal youth. Ye spirits of just men made perfect, who are released from the burden of the flesh; and freed from all the vexatious solicitations of corruption in yourselves; delivered from all the injurious effects of iniquity in others: who sojourn no longer in the tents of strife, or the territories of disorder; but are received into that pure, harmonious, holy society, where every one acts up to his amiable and exalted character; where GoD himself is pleased graciously and immediately to preside.You find, not without pleasing astonishment, your hopes im proved into actual enjoyment, and your faith superseded by the beatific vision; you feel all your former shyness of beha viour, happily lost in the overflowings of unbounded love; and all your little differences of opinion entirely bore down by tides of invariable truth. Bless therefore, with all enlarged powers, bless his infinitely larger goodness; who, when he had overcome the sharpness of death, opened the gates of paradise, opened the kingdom of heaven to all generations, and to every denomination of the faithful. your your think sins in Ye men of holy conversation, and humble tempers, of HIM who loved you, and washed you from his own blood; think of him on your silent couch; talk of him in every social interview: glory in his excellencies : make your boast of his obedience; and add, still continue to add, the incense of a dutiful life, to all the oblations of a grateful tongue.--Weakest of believers, who go mourning under a sense of guilt, and conflicting with the ceaseless assaults of temptation; put off your sackcloth, and be girded with gladness. Because JESUS is as merciful to hear, as he is mighty to help. Because he is touched with the tenderest sympathizing concern, for all your distresses; and he lives, ever lives, to be your Advocate with the FATHER.-Why then should uneasy doubts sadden your countenances? Why should desponding fears oppress your soul? Turn, turn, these disconsolate sighs into cheerful hymns; since have you his powerful intercession, and his inestimable merits, to be your anchor in all tribulatious, to be your passport into eter nal blessedness. Most of all, ye ministers of the sanctuary, heralds com missioned from above; lift, every one, his voice like a trumpet, and loudly proclaim the REDEEMER. Get ye up, ye ambassadors of peace, get ye up into the high mountains; and spread far and wide the honors of the LAMB "that was slain, but is alive for evermore." Teach every sacred roof to resound with his fame: and every human heart to glow with his love. Declare, as far as the force of words will go, declare the inexhaustible fulness of that great atonement, whose merits are commensurate with the glories of the DIVINITY.* Tell the sinful wretch, that pity yearns in IMMANUEL'S bowels; what blood he has spilt, what agonies he has endured, what wonders he has wrought, for the salvation of his enemies. Invite the indigent to become rich; entreat the guilty to accept of pardon: because with the crucified JESUS is plenteous redemption, and all sufficiency to save.- -While you, placed in conspicuous stations, pour the joyful sound, may I, as I steal through the vale of humble life, catch the pleasing accents! For me, the Author of all blessings became a curse; for me, his bones were dislocated, and his flesh was torn; he hung, with streaming veins, and agonizing soul, on the cross, for me, O! may I, in my little sphere, and amidst the scanty circle of my acquaintance, at * If in this place, and others, I have spoken magnificently of the blood of CHRIST, and its insuperable efficacy to expiate guilt; I think, it is no more than is expressed in a very celebrated Hymn; written by one of the greatest wits, who had also been one of the greatest libertines, and afterwards commenced one of the most remarkable penitents in France: A Hymn which even Mr. Bayle confesses to be a very fine one which another critic calls an admirable one, and which a genius superior to them both, recommends as a noble one. (See Spect. Vol. VII. No. 513) The author having acknowledged his crimes to be beyond measure heinous, and almost beyond forgiveness provoking; so provoking, as to render tears from such eyes offensive, and prayers from such lips abominable; composes himself to submit, even with praise and adoration, to the most dreadful doom. Accordingly, he stands in resigned expectation of being instantly struck by the bolts of vengeance: but-with a turn of thought equally surprising and sprightly; with a faith properly founded, and happily firm, he adds, Yet where ! O where! can e'en thy thunders fall? CHRIST'S blood o'erspreads and shields me from them all. |