takes not a glorious soul. "I am crucified to the world, and the world to me.' Paul had nothing of the world, he cared for nothing. There was as little

of the world in his heart as in his hand; as little in his spirit as in his purse. Divine love is very estranging from worldly things; knows nothing, no, no person after the flesh. A brother is nothing; a sister, a mother, nothing; divine things are all; it was so with Christ, it is so with a christian. All Christ's children take after him.

Whether chosen of God, whether singled out by love, now speak. Whom love hath not singled out,

wrath now will. Justice hath no other butt to shoot at, but a rejected soul. Mercy sets her children under her wing. Justice kills her children with death. Ye rejected souls, what will ye do? The great Shepherd is separating between sheep and swine. Tares shall no longer stand amongst the wheat; plucking up by the roots is come.

I conclude this point with a word to God's chosen ones. Your duty, your safety lies in this point. Love singles out her beloved. "Who hath made us meet," &c. You are of this little number, admire love. This is the use made in the text. "Give thanks unto the Father, who hath made us meet," &c. What knotty pieces hath God hewed, and made fit for himself! That God's love should centre any where but in himself, all the creation should admire: that God will foul his hands, to mould and make up earth for heaven, for ever admire! Man's love is all from motive, God's love from none. God lays out cost on a dunghill, and makes it a stately throne. Things which so move that we can see no spring, their very form sets us into admiration. Divine love moves thus altogether; singles out,

kisses, embraces, and no spring nor principle, but itself; loves because it loves: can you reach this reason? No; why? Then admire and adore that love which has your souls in her arms, to carry them to heaven.

Your safety is in this point. Whom love hath singled out, wrath shall never wrong. The favour of God is a sufficient defence against the frowns of the greatest man. Love is as tender to keep, as choice to take into protection: she commands men, she commands angels, she commands the whole creation, to serve her beloved. A man has the munition of rocks-that is in the arms of Christ. A christian cannot object his sin, to turn off this consolation from him. Divine love began freely, it goes on so; it chose out the man freely, it chooses out mercies for the man freely. A man is universally made, that is chosen out by God to be happy; hereafter happy; here happy; in every condition here happy. Christ leaves none to the hazard of sins or times; he secures his choice, as his own eternal felicity; he binds them up as his jewels, sets the righteous apart as for himself.

Your safety, your all is in this point. It is your spring of supplies; it is a fountain open. Free love is a Canaan of blessings, milk and honey flowing. Free love is infinite mercy set to make you her heir, to bestow all she hath upon you and yours. Would you have yourselves blessed, the kingdom blessed? Free love hath in it to do all. Free love hath a long arm, and a full hand; mercy for thousands, and from generation to generation.

SERMON XVII.

COLOSSIANS I. 12.

GIVING THANKS UNTO THE FATHER, WHO HATH MADE US MEET TO BE PARTAKERS OF THE INHERITANCE OF THE SAINTS IN LIGHT.

LOVE works freely; Christ chooses what persons he pleases to advance; " Who hath made us," &c. Love works fully; what persons Christ chooses to work upon, he makes thorough work in. He renders them meet, fit, sufficient: the original word will bear all these; "To be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light."

Sin hath its sitting and finishing, and then it brings forth its end. "Sin finished, brings forth death." The devil is a thorough workman; where he lays a foundation, he raises up the building till all be fit for himself, and the man made meet and fit to be partaker of an inheritance with the wicked in darkness. Grace hath its finishing too; Christ is a thorough workman; he doth thoroughly purge his floor, and so takes wheat into his barn. He doth not take wheat off his floor any way, carelessly, but curiously, cleanly purged, thoroughly, till it be fit to make fine bread for his own table above. There is washing, and washing thoroughly; "Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity," saith David. Thorough washing only, makes white and fit for heaven. So there is making, and making fit; age, and full age, fit age for the inheritance; and then

the inheritance. Who hath made us fit for the inheritance of the saints in light.

Perfection gives up to perfection. Things have their time, their use, then the fruition of their end. Nature goes out her time, to make fit for us: grace goes out her time, to make us fit for God. Apples grow, and they grow so long, till so big, so yellow, so ruddy, and then we gather them. Grace grows, and grows so long, to such a height, depth, breadth, and then is a christian gathered as ripe fruit, fit for the Lord. A christian lives so many days, and waits the working of so many things, and then his change comes from the working of all things here, to the bosom of God, and there rests.

Like things bosom one in another; the more like, the nearer still they draw to one another: things which are quite like, as gold and gold, upon advantage of heat run quite one into another, incorporate, and become one body. The way and work of Christ is, to make full similitude between man and God, and when this is done, sets them in one another's bosom for ever. Truth rises; when the image of God is full drawn, then is the piece removed, and set in God's room. Christ sets no raw draughts in his upper room: he gives every piece its complement, that every piece may give its place its full ornament, wherein lies a great part of heaven. We are transformed, and by transformation we pass from glory to glory; from the glory of one measure, to the glory of a greater; from the glory of a greater, to the glory of the greatest measure, which is all glory-the inheritance here spoken of, which lies in light, in all glory. Our fitness to heaven is our similitude to Christ; our similitude to Christ is the success of supreme powers, long

and strong working; so much is sounded here in these words of the text: "Who hath made us ;" who, by much pains and long labour, hath made us like Christ, and so fit to live for ever with him.

Christ works here below, as well knowing what will suit and serve here, and what will suit and serve above. He knows the language they speak above, and their idiom in that language; the habit they wear above, and the fashion exactly. He was made for us the good spy of that Canaan to come, he knows all. He has a true light, and he is true to it; he knows the law of the land above, and works, and fits according to it; he suits inhabitants to that holy land. Christ's motion in man, is according to

the will of God; he works by rule. The law of the country is his rule, which is this, "Without holiness no man shall see the Lord," because without this, none are fit for God. Christ is true to this law, and true to his light; he will condemn any man, rather than he shall transgress this rule, and break into heaven, as unfit. Without this qualification no man shall see God; that is, without such holiness as renders fit for such a holy place, and such a holy God.

Christ draws out heaven in earth, and then is earth fit for heaven. He draws out first in dust, small lines of that purity which is above; and when face comes to answer to face, then are they brought to each other, to inherit each other; grace, heaven; and heaven, grace; made not to be distinguished, nor separated any more, because made so like one another, and so fit for one another. Things in nature have their resemblance in art. What grows naturally above, is first made to grow against nature here, by supreme power, and then transplanted. Christ is a very curious artist; he will draw out any