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our God, partake of the effects of his won'derful Clemency and Love; fince it has pleas'd him fo to proceed, fo to condefcend, we envy you not this extraordinary effect of his Grace, this miraculous Mystery of his < Goodness and unfearchable Wisdom, which < we our felves defire to look into and adore, not yet being able to comprehend it, till the confummation of all things, But know withal, that ye can never do it enough. O then awaken your Souls, and think that time fadly loft (to ingenuous and grateful Spirits) in which you have not a continu'd · fenfe of this before you; That God, wher < with one word he might have created Beings દ more numerous and glorious than you shall ever be, yet hath chofen thus to deal with you, & with fuch wonderful condefcention, and miraculous methods of Love and Mercy.

Yes, my Father! O my God, I will continually contemplate and adore thy 6 boundless Love: And tho' we cannot faC thom the reason of this thy Choice, yet we cannot but fee, that thou didst design here. by, to make us Creatures of Love. For even in this dark Vail, where our Capacities are fo narrow, and our Conceptions fo imperfet and weak; we cannot but fee, that . this wonderful Method that thou hast taken, C constrains us to love Thee. For this thou haft defired to have us, (and defired it fo earnestly, as not to think much, to pay thy precious Blood to thy Fathers Juftice, for our Ranfom,) that thou mighteft love us, and

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and we might love and adore Thee for e Where now is our Soul, that we run not haftily to meet this thy Love; and proftrate our felves humbly before it! Shall the Son of God defire us for his Love, and that at fo dear a rate; (to shew us the earneftness of his defiring it) and shall we our • felves be fo Backward, to be at pains to be made worthy of it! So heavy, as not to conceive more highly of it! So dull, as not to defire it more, and delight in the thoughts of it. Ah! moft gracious Saviour, hed abroad thy Love in our Hearts; and if we cannot love Thee as we ought, let us, at least, delight in the Thoughts of thy Love to us, and thy fo earnestly defiring to have us for thy Love. Amen.

The following Meditation, compos'd at another time, will properly fucceed the former,' as breathing the fame Spirit.

Ah Lord Jefu! tho' thy Servants who enjoy thy Love, rejoice in it, and praise thee for it; yet furely, even they who want ' it, know how to prize it. Happy Souls that • breath thy Love, aud live in the free Air of it! Is it nothing, for poor Man to have ⚫ leave to love the Son of God! Nothing for a Creature to have leave to love its Creator and Redeemer? That ever it should be ' permitted to fuch as we are, to love Thee! And yet it is; fo condefcendingly gracious art Thou. But Ah! miferable State of infirm Nature, that we should know what it is thus to love Thee, and yet fometimes be ⚫ without

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" without this Love! Ah, that we might be contented to be without our Food, our Cloaths, our Health, and even the Neceffa6 ries of Life, and all that is dear to us in this 'World, rather than be without thy Love! But thy Love confifts not, in fond Expreffions and Endearments of Words, but in a Heart truly devoted to thy Service, and to the love of thy Will, and of thy Servants. "I believe it Lord; yet why fhou'd not all that is tender in our Souls, be facred to Thee alfo? Why haft thou given us fuch ' tender Paffions, if Thou fhou'dft not be the prime Object of them? O my God, Since my Soul will be acting, vouchsafe to be the * Center of it. What comfort is it to me in С Life, to have a Soul, to have Paffions, to have any thing that is good, or fit for an Offering to Thee; and yet any of them be diverted from Thee! Lord, Thou haft ⚫ made me capable of loving Thee; and I value neither my Being, nor my Faculties, nor any Thing I have, but that I might attain to the Happiness of loving Thee. Thou 6 art ever mindful of me, and continually interceding for me: I am afham'd to live ' without loving Thee: I beg that I may be faithful to thy Service; but I beg alfo, that I may be grateful to thy Goodness, and love Thee with all my Powers. By all that is dear, by all that is tender, by all that is fet out to us in thy whole Scripture, as the Lan& guage of thy paffionate Soul; I implore that I may be permitted to Love Thee, better

⚫ than

e than at any time hitherto I have done; ' that I may live in thy Love, and breath it while I breath in Life. I am afham'd, O

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my God, to beg this Privilege, yet asham'd 'to be without it. Let thy Goodness pre6 vent my Defires, and fill my Soul with what it humbly pants after.

The following Meditation is upon the fame Subject.

"O Almighty Father,How coud'ft Thou be willing, that the Son of thy love, the Lord Jefus Chrift, fhou'd in the Flefh, which he took upon him of the Blessed Virgin, bear part with us in thofe Miferies, which Sin ' had brought upon us! He,who was fo perfectly Innocent, that the Angels were not fo free from Sin as he! How cou'dft thou be willing to be eftrang'd, as it were, from E him fo long! Did not Thy Bowels yearn ' (for thou alloweft us to conceive of Thee,as of a most tender Parent) to think of those 'Pains of Body, that Anguish of Mind, those Terrors of Soul, which he fhou'd undergo for our fakes! How cou'dft Thou not but check his too tender Compaffion, when he offer'd himself to do all this for us! How 'cou'dft Thou not but fay, O Son, thou art 'too fond of thy Creatures! 'Tis true, they C are thy Creatures, and made more peculiar ly after thy Image; yet they deserve not fuch Pains, fuch Condefcenfion and Suffer ings from Thee. On the contrary, Ọ our most gracious God, thou haft fo loved us, as

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to give thy Son for us; fo loved us, as to love him for his excefs of Love, and Pity, and Goodness towards us. All that is God, confpir'd in this adorable Mystery of Love to Man. When Thoa, O Father! cou'dft patiently fee the innocent Jefus tormented for our fakes. When Thou, O Lord of Glory, in thy Humane nature, cou'dft bear a part with us in the faddeft Effects of Sin, and all becaufe Thou didst love us, and to bring us to love Thee; that thereby Thou mighteft raife us to the highest degree of Glory, which infinite Love cou'd contrive, for thofe whom it intended to Honour: When Thou haft thus Loved us, Suffer'd and Dy'd for us; What fhall we Say, What fhall we Think, of this thy Love? What fhall we think of our Selves, for whom all this is done? What of thy Wrath, which we hereby avoid; O boundless Ocean of overflowing Love! Let the fense of it ever fill our Souls, that we may adore it, according to its unmeafurable Greatnefs. May all the humble Praise that Creatures can pay, be the conftant tribute of our Souls, to this thy Love. May all that is our Soul, and all that is our Body, even to every Atom, be full with Zeal to Praise thy Goodnefs. And when we find our felves too weak, to exprefs our full fenfe of thy Love; May we call upon, and join with Angels, and Arch-angels, and all the Company of Heaven, to laud and magnifie thy glorious « Name. Amen.

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