trust in the goodness of God in our sharpest pangs, and to embrace him as our most loving Father and Redeemer, even when he seems to discover to us a countenance full of severity and wrath. For this eternal Son of God, in his most violent and cruel agonies, when his heavenly Father withdrew from him his aid, withheld the effects of his grace, the expressions of his love, and the comforts of his divine Spirit; yet looked upon him as his God, and prays to him with an holy assurance, repeating these pathetic words, My God! My God!

8. If we would die willingly, and leave these infirm bodies with an holy cheerfulness, when the time is come that we must go to the Father of spirits, we ought to remember our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, with what constancy he prepared himself for death, and with what willingness he commended his unspotted soul into the hands of God his Father, when he required it. No man taketh it from me, (says he,) but I lay it down of myself: I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father, John x. 18. This drew from his sacred lips these divine words, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God, Heb. x. 9; and for this reason, when he gave up the ghost he cried with a loud voice, Luke xxiii. 46; to shew that his precious soul was not taken from him by violence, but that he offered it up a willing sacrifice.

9. From this excellent portrait of Christ crucified, we also learn what should be the last words, or at least the last thoughts of a dying believer; for if God grants us the use of our tongues till the last moment, we cannot end our lives better than with this comfortable expression used by our Saviour upon the cross, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit, Luke xxiii: 46.

But if we cannot move our lips, nor pronounce these words, we ought to revolve them inwardly in our minds, and pronounce them in our hearts.

10. By looking, with attention upon the death and passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, we shall easily comprehend how strictly we are engaged to yield up our souls unto God, whenever he is pleased to call for them; for his blessed death is the price, the ransom that he hath paid for them. Now, if it be reasonable to render to every one that which belongs to him, especially that which he hath bought with a great price; and if it would be the most flagrant injustice to refuse to any man that which he hath purchased with the blood of his beloved, his only Son, with what face can we refuse our souls unto God, since they belong to him, not only as he is their Maker, who created them in his own image, but also as he is their Redeemer, who hath purchased them with the blood of his only Son, in whom, from all eternity, he is well pleased! We must not therefore wait, like bad paymasters, or the unjust possessors of other men's goods, till our souls are plucked from us by violence; but rather like the good and righteous debtor, we must return them willingly into his hands, who hath paid for them an infinite and inestimable ransom. This was the sentiment of the man, after God's own heart, when he cried, Into thine hand I commit my spirit; thou hast redeemed me O Lord God of truth, Psal. xxxi. 5.

11. From the death and passion of this glorious Redeemer, we not only learn our duty; it is likewise the source of all our hope, our joy; and if I may be allowed the expression, it is in the bowels of this dead lion, that we find our sweetest and most ravishing consolations. This high-priest, who bears us upon his breast in his

heavenly sanctuary, or rather in his heart, will not forsake us in the day of our distress, nor leave us a prey to the fears and pangs of death. For since he hath encountered with this cruel enemy, hath felt its sting, its horrors and pains, and hath in all points been tempted like as we are, yet without sin, Heb. iv. 15; he is merciful and faithful to have compassion on our infirmities, and no less able to succour us in our temptations, and to make us in all things more than conquerors.

12. Believing souls, consider with me this noble transport of St. Paul, Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort: who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, 2 Cor. i. 3, 4. These excellent words may very well be applied to our Lord Jesus Christ, whom the Holy Ghost calls the Apostle and High-priest of our profession, Heb. iii. 1. For the consolations which he received from God in the time of his greatest anguish, are a precious earnest, and infallible assurance, of God's future help in our need. When in his agony, his soul was exceeding sorrowful even unto death, there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him, Luke xxii. 43; so likewise, when we shall be engaged in the conflict of death, when it shall endeavour to fill our souls with fear and sadness, he shall send to us, to be our comforter, one of his good angels that stand at his right hand, I mean the faithful teachers of his holy word; or else he will send from heaven one of those blessed spirits that wait about his throne, and fly to the assistance of the faithful. The Holy Ghost himself, the comforter of afflicted souls, the true oil of gladness, will banish all sorrow from our hearts, and inspire us

with unspeakable joys. He will not forsake us, till he hath brought us to the blissful source of everlasting consolations.

13. The deliverance of our Lord and Saviour, is, in some respects, an image, an assured token of our own, which we are to expect from God's mercy and Almighty power. For whereas St. Paul' saith, that this Highpriest, in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications, with strong crying and tears, unto him that was able to save him from death, was heard in that he feared, Heb. v. 7; we are not to understand by these words, that God exempted him from death; but that he gave him the power to swallow, up death in victory, to triumph over the grave, and, by the bitter agonies of a shameful death, to enter into the glory and delights of paradise. Thus, when in our greatest distress, our dying agonies, we call upon God with an holy earnestness, and pour into his bosom the tears of a sincere repentance; he hears us from his sanctuary, and delivers us from death; not by exempting us from dying, but by making us pass through death to life, through misery to bliss.

14. In order to be fully persuaded, that God will not refuse us the joys and consolations of his Spirit, that he will make us more than conquerors over death, and will raise us to the height and glory, and eternal happiness, we need only cast our eyes upon this great God and Saviour for since he that gives much will not refuse little, God that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all; how shall be not with him also freely give us all things? Rom. viii. 32. St. Paul-teaches us to make use of this argument, which is as clear as the sun at noon-day.

15. At the death of our Lord Jesus Christ, the vail of the temple was rent in twain, from the top to the bottom; heaven was opened, and paradise given to a penitent thief. This is to show us, that we have the liberty to enter into the holiest, by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the vail, that is to say, his flesh, Heb. x. 19, 20; and to assure us, that this merciful Saviour hath his arms always open to receive us to mercy, and that he refuseth not the glory of heaven, and delights of paradise, to the greatest sinners, who repent, and fly to his eternal mercies, and infinite merit.

16. The death of this great God and Saviour is the -payment of all our debts, and the blotting out of all our offences; the cure of all our complaints, and our deliverance from all our miseries. It hath vanquished Satan, triumphed over hell, and swallowed up death eternal. This precious death hath purchased for us heaven, with all its treasures, and hath merited for us paradise, with all its pleasures and delights. Nay, even before we are received into paradise, it plants paradise in our hearts, and fills them with a divine peace, and a joy unspeakable, and full of glory.

17. The cross of the Lord of Glory, is like the wood which Moses cast into the waters of Marah, Exod. xv. 25; for it takes away from the corporeal death of God's children all its bitterness, and makes us taste therein an inexpressible sweetness, which rejoices our souls. It is like the salt which the prophet Elisha cast into the waters of Jericho to beal them, that they might render the land fruitful, 2 Kings ii; for it causeth death to become wholesome to us, and to produce in us an abundant crop of divine comforts. I may also compare