your carnal wills? Is the will of the flesh broken and brought into subjection, yielding itself up to the Lord? O for an emptying of wills into the will of God! What wilt thou do; what wilt thou have? Canst thou reply, "Nothing but what God will: what the Lord will have me do, or avoid, or suffer, I can no longer say him nay. Is this the will of God, my sanctification? so it is mine. Is this the will of God, my humiliation? so it is mine. Is this the will of God, my tribulation? so it is mine. Is God for holiness? through grace, so am I. Is God for his own will? so am I. This is all the will I have, that the Lord may have his will of me-may be all to me, have all from me, rule all in me, and dispose of all that concerns me.”

How is it with your carnal affections, and fleshly lusts; are these slain? Are your covetousness, your sensuality, your pride and envy, your carnal joys and fears and worldly sorrows, destroyed; those wildfires of passion and fury and rage, are these quenched? Come, put the knife to the throat of all these, and then there is a sacrifice for God. Go and offer it up, and let it be a freewill-offering, and a thankoffering.

A freewill-offering. Offer yourselves willingly to the Lord. "Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power." Psa. 110: 3. O may that glorious day dawn upon us! God loves a cheerful giver; offer up your hearts with all your heart; grudge not what the law requires, but bless God that he will accept of an offering: this has a comfortable signification-If the Lord had meant to destroy us, he

would not have accepted an offering at our hands. Judges 13:23.

A thank-offering. Offer unto God thanksgiving, and pay thy vows unto the Most High. Offer up yourselves in token of your thankfulness to the Lord. Be ye both the priests, and the lambs for the sacrifice. Present yourselves to the Lord as the accomplishment of his covenant, as the fruits of the death of your Redeemer, as the trophies of his victory, as the spoils which he hath recovered from death and hell, making a show of them openly, that it may be seen that the promise of God is not of none effect, and that Christ did not die in vain. Let your Lord Jesus, when he comes down into his garden, where he left his blood, reap his pleasant fruits, and carry up your purified souls as the signals of his glorious achievement. Offer up your sins to the Lord; these unclean beasts will be an acceptable sacrifice. There is more real honor growing up to the Lord from one mortified saint, than from ten thousand anthems from the most seraphic tongues. Offer up your duties to the Lord; your obedience for a sacrifice. To obey is better than sacrifice, than thousands of rams, and ten thousands of rivers of oil. Let your whole life be this sacrifice. Let every day be a sabbath, every duty an eucharist, every member a cymbal, sounding out the praises of God. Offer up the calves of your lips unto the Lord. O let your souls be filled with wonder, and your mouths with praise.

"Whence is this to me," said Elizabeth, "that the mother of my Lord should come to me?" Luke

1:43. O whence is this to us, that the Lord our Father should come, and come so near to us? O whence is it that the mighty God should indenture, and come into bonds with sinful man? That he who was free from all men should make himself debtor to any? That the high and lofty One, who inhabits eternity, should dwell in houses of clay, and pitch his tabernacle in the dust? That he who humbleth himself to behold the heavens, should come down into the earth; and after what is he come down, but after so degraded a creature as man? That he should make a league with stones of the ground, with beasts of the field, and creeping things; should espouse dust and ashes, and gather up vile worms into his bosom; should set his heart upon shadows, and adopt the refuse of the earth for sons and daughters to himself; should raise the poor out of the dust, and the beggar from the dunghill; should do such great things, and should choose the foolish and the weak and the base and the contemptible, and bestow on them among all the world these high honors; should make them the head and the honorable, whom the world has made the off-scouring of all things; should give himself to be the portion, his Son to be the ransom, his kingdom to be the heritage of bankrupts, prisoners, and captives? Lord, what is man, that thou art thus mindful of him? Soul, what is God, that thou shouldst be yet unmindful of him? How is it that the tongue of the dumb is not yet loosened, that the feet of the lame do not leap as a hart?

O what is that love whence this strange thing has

broken forth? This is the womb that bare thee; hence has thy righteousness sprung forth; hence have thy dignities, thy astonishing hope and joys arisen to thee; this is it that yearned upon thee in thy misery, that reprieved thee from death, redeemed thee from darkness, rescued thee as a brand out of the burning; that pitied thee in thy blood, washed thee from thy blood, spared thee, pardoned thee, reconciled thee, and brought thee, an enemy, a rebel, a traitor, into a covenant of peace with the God of glory. Ah, contemptible dust; that ever there should be such compassionate contrivances, and such astonishing condescensions of the eternal Deity, towards so vile a thing! O love the Lord, all ye his saints. O bless the Lord, ye beloved, ye people near unto the Lord. Alas, that our hearts should be so narrow, that the waters should be so shallow with us. Where are our eyes, if we be not yet filled with wonders? What hearts have we, if we have not yet filled our lips with praise? Open all thy springs, O my soul; let them flow forth in streams of love and joy; let every faculty be tuned and strained to the height; let heart and hands and tongue and eyes lift up their voice: be astonished, O heavens; be moved, ye strong foundations of the earth; fall down, ye elders; strike up, ye heavenly choir; lend, poor mortals, your notes, to sing forth the high praises of God, who rideth on the heavens, and has caused us to ride on the high places of the earth, and made us sit together in heavenly places, showing forth the exceeding riches of his grace, in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.

Awake up, my glory, awake, psaltery and harp; I myself will awake right early: my soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour; for he that is mighty hath done for me great things, and holy is his name. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who hath visited and redeemed his people, who hath raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David, who hath laid help on one who is mighty, and exalted one chosen among the people, and hath given him for a covenant to them. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me bless his holy name, who hath redeemed thy life from destruction, and crowned thee with loving-kindness and tender mercies. Salvation to our God that sitteth on the throne, and to the Lamb. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so. the Lamb that was slain, to receive

Worthy is power and riches and wisdom and strength and glory and honor and blessing; for thou livest, and wast dead, and art alive for evermore. Thou hast redeemed us to God by thy blood, out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation; and hast made us kings and priests unto our God for ever. Hallelujah, hallelujah!