any man.' Here his stand was evidently taken; and the shaking of his self-righteousness with regard to his duty to God served but to make him cling more closely to this his only remaining broken reed. Having endeavoured in few but strong terms to shew him the rottenness of this prop too, and to point him to the sinner's only hope, I knelt down and commended him to a Saviour's all-sufficient grace; and then promising to come again soon, took my leave. And this, thought I, in my walk homewards, is the moral man. This is his dependance before a holy and heart-searching and sin-hating God-that he has done no harm. And is this man more than a picture of thousands and ten thousands of his kind, who hide themselves in the same refuge of lies'—who wrap themselves in the same filthy rags of their own righteousness,' and, fully satisfied with these for a wedding garment, present themselves boldly before the door, and demand admittance to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb! This is all the acknowledgment of the wisdom, and power, and mercy of God, in his great and finished work of man's redemption-all the return for a Saviour's love, in giving himself to be a sacrifice for our sins all the profiting by a Spirit's grace, offered to sinners to save them from the wrath to come, by leading them to a reconciled God in Christ Jesus! Thus will "man be just with God!" Thus will the pride and enmity of the carnal mind make him refuse even salvation itself, except he may be his own Saviour! How many are there who with far greater advantages than this poor creature are still to be found, even upon a death-bed, like him ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own - righteousness'—'daubing their wall with their own untempered mortar' frustrating the grace of God'and, as far as in them lies, making that Christ is dead in vain !' "Oh, that men were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!" Surely it would be impossible that they could so lightly turn away from the Rock of God's own laying, thus to build upon their own wretched foundations of sand! Surely they would see the danger as well as the folly, when they come to "walk through the valley of the shadow of death," of casting away the rod and staff of the Lord's providing, thus to trust in the staff of a broken reed, which will go into their hand and pierce it! But to return to my patient: My first object before visiting him again naturally was to ascertain what his former habits and mode of life had been, that I might be the better able to meet him on his own strong ground. The result of my enquiries was, that he had once occupied a small farm in a parish on the south coast, and had the character while there of being A GREAT SMUGGLER; not as a sea-going man, but helping to receive the smuggled goods on shore, and to dispose of them through the neighbourhood. This was all my informant knew ; but it was enough for me. (To be continued.) GOOD FRIDAY. 'O DEAR Christians, how should these earthen and rocky hearts of ours shake, and rend in pieces, at this meditation! How should our faces be covered with darkness, and our joy be turned into heaviness! All these voices, and tears, and sweats, and pangs, are for us; yea, from us. Shall the Son of God thus smart for our sins, yea with our sins, and shall we not grieve for our own? Shall he weep to us in the market-place, and shall we not mourn? Nay, shall he sweat and bleed for us, and shall we not weep for ourselves? Shall he thus lamentably shriek out, under his Father's wrath, and shall not we tremble? Shall the heavens and earth suffer with him, and we suffer nothing? I call you not to a weak and idle pity of our glorious Saviour: to what purpose? His injury was our glory. No, no; "Ye daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves:" for our sins, that have done this; not for his sorrow, that suffered it: not for his pangs, that were; but for our own, that should have been, and, if we repent not, shall be. Oh, how grievous, how deadly are our sins, that cost the Son of God, besides blood, so much torment! How far are our souls gone, that could not be ransomed with an easier price! That, that took so much of this infinite Redeemer of men, God and Man, how can it choose but swallow up and confound thy soul, which is but finite and sinful! If thy soul had been in his soul's stead, what had become of it? it shall be, if his were not in stead of thine. This weight, that lies thus heavy on the Son of God, and wrung from him these tears, sweat, blood, and these unconceivable groans of his afflicted spirit, how should it choose but press down thy soul to the bottom of hell! and so it will do: if he have not suffered it for thee, thou must and shalt suffer it for thyself. Go now, thou lewd man, and make thyself merry with thy sins. Laugh at the uncleanness or bloodiness of thy youth. Thou little knowest the price of a sin thy soul shall do; thy Saviour did, when he cried out, to the amazement of angels and horror of men, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" 66 But now no more of this; "It is finished:" the greater conflict, the more happy victory. Well doth he find and feel of his Father, what his type said before, "He will not chide alway, nor keep his anger for ever." It is fearful; but in him, short: eternal to sinners; short to his Son, in whom the Godhead dwelt bodily. Behold, this storm, wherewith all the powers of the world were shaken, is now over. The Elders, Pharisees, Judas, the soldiers, priests, witnesses, judges, thieves, executioners, devils, have all tired themselves in vain, with their own malice; and he triumphs over them all, upon the throne of his Cross: his enemies are vanquished, his Father satisfied, his soul with this word at rest and glory; "It is finished." Now there is no more betraying, agonies, arraignments, scourging, scoffing, crucifying, conflicts, terrors, all is finished. Alas, beloved, and will we not let the Son of God be at rest? Do we now again go about to fetch him out of his glory, to scorn and crucify him? I fear to say it: God's Spirit dare and doth; "They crucify again to themselves the Son of God, and make a mock of him" to themselves, not in himself: that, they cannot: it is no thank to them; they would do it. See and consider; the notoriously sinful conversations of those that should be Christians offer violence unto our glorified Saviour: they stretch their hand to hea |