he is the bread of life, the living bread. Lord, give us evermore this bread.'

Bread is called the ftaff and ftay of man's life; fo Christ is the staff and stay of our spiritual life, he upholds our fouls in life. He is the ftaff that faint and weary fouls muft lean to, in going up through this wildernefs: Yea, Chrift our living bread is a ftaff to defend us, and to beat off our enemies, and to put all the hellish hoft to flight. That was a strange dream of one of the Midianites, Judg. vii. 13. Behold a cake of barley bread came tumbling into the hoft of Midian, and fmote a tent. Strange! a piece of bread to overturn a tent! Behold this dream made good in the facrament. bread there which reprefents Christ, when recieved with faith upon him, will tumble into the host of Satan and his lufts, thefe Midianites who vex us with their wiles, ftrike down their tents, and put them all to flight.

The

Christ is the bread that came down from heaven, of which the Ifraelites' manna, that God fent miraculously from heaven, was an eminent type. That manna was God's free gift to the murmuring and rebellious Ifraelites, to preferve them from ftarving in the defarts, where bread could not be had: This manna was a curious grain, that made fine bread, with which God furnifhed them plentifully every morning from the clouds, fufficient to fatisfy 600,000 men. But Chrift, our fpiritual manna, doth far excel theirs, though he was refembled by theirs in fome things. Manna was first grinded and beaten, and baken in ovens, before it was made bread to them; and fo the grain which nakes our ordinary bread must be threshed and grinded betwixt two milftones, and baked by the force of fire, before we eat it: So Chrift, the antitype, was thefhed and bruifed, and grinded betwixt the milftones of divine juftice and our fins, and alfo roafted by the fire of wrath, that he might be fit bread for faving the lives of our fouls, and all this we fhould call to mind, when we fee and make use of the bread in the holy fupper.

The Ifrelites' manna, came down to them with the dew; fo Chrift, with the benefits of his purchafe, comes

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to us by the dews and influences of the Holy Spirit. -Their manna fell round about their tents, and every man was free to it; fo every man is at freedom to gather our heavenly manna.-The Ifraelites behoved to go out of their tents to gather theirs; fo God will have us to go forth, and be at pains to get our fpiritual food. God, who rained manna about their tents, could have rained it into their mouths; but he loves not to encourage floth in his people, but would have them at all pains to make fure of Chrift for their portiton. As the Ifraelites, gathered daily, fo we must be daily going to Christ, and making ufe of him. As they gathered early in the morning, fo God would have us feeking after Chrift in the morning of our lives.

O how far doth our heavenly manna excel that of the Ifraelites! Theirs but fed the body, and could not preferve them from death at laft; but our manna feeds the foul, and nourishes to eternal life; and prefe: res all that eat of it from eternal death.-Theirs fell not on the fabbath-day; nor durft they go to feek it on that day; but ours falls every day, and double on the fabbath; and therefore God calls us to double our diligence, in gathering it on the fabbath.-Their manna continued only in the wildernefs, and ceafed when they came to Canaan; but ours continueth for ever, and our fullest enjoyment of it is in the heavenly Canaan; and therefore all true Ifraelites long to be there.

O how lamentable is their folly, who spend all their time and thoughts in feeking bread to their bodies, and are careless and indifferent about the bread of life to their fouls! All their care is to fupport the clay, houfe, but let the foul ftrave that inhabits it. Oh, it is but fhort time they can enjoy the bread they are fo concerned for, the bodies they mind fo much muft foon be meat for worms, and the fouls they neglect a prey for devils!

But, whatever others do, may i be wife to provide the living bread for my foul, and learn to eat it, and make use of it by faith, and especially when I go to the Lord's table; for without faith we can get no nourishment, no life, nor ftrength from this heavenly bread: Faith is L

the mouth that eats the bread of life, and fucks honey cut of the rock. Now, the fpirit of God calls faith or believing, an eating, becaufe by it we tafte the fweernefs and excellency of Chrift, and have great fatisfaction in partaking of Chrift and his benefits. As by eating, our bodies increase in ftrength and ftature; fo by believing our fouls grow in grace and fpiritual ftrength, to run in God's ways. As by eating, the bread incorporates and becomes one with us; fo by our receiving and applying Chrift's broken body by faith, he is made one with us, and we one with him. As by eating bread, men live upon it, and get fupport and ftrength for working or journeying; fo believers by looking to, and trufting wholly in the righteoufnefs of Chrift, and the merit of his blood, they feed and receive fpiritual nourishment, and ftrength for their work and warfare, and fo make progrefs in their journey to Canaan,

O that I had a fpiritual hunger and sharp appetite for this bread of life, and were defiring and longing for it, for the fupport and nourishment of my foul, more than a hungry man does for bread to his body. A hungry man perifhing for want of bread, would prefer a piece of bread before many bags of gold, if both were fet before him, and he allowed to make his choice; so the awakened foul that fees his need of Chrift, prefers him to a whole world; give him never fo much of the world's comforts, he is ftill diffatisfied without Christ, and fays, What will all thefe things avail me, if my ftarving foul perifh without.Chrift the bread of life?

I have many arguments to plead with God for this bread; Lord, do not thy free calls and promifes bind thee to give me it? Thou haft faid, The needy fhall not be forgotten-Is not Chrift, the bread from heaven, the gift of God to perifhing fouls? And doft thou not invite thofe to conie and cat of it that have no money or price to give for it?-Lord, thou hadft compaflion upon the bocies of men when they had no bread to eat, and didit provide bread for 5000 of them by a miracle, and hall thou not as much compallion to itarving foul; that are far more precicus?- Lord, thou givet natural

affections to earthly parents, and makeft them pitiful to their childern, when they cry for bread, fo that they cannot fhut up their bowels against them when hungry, nor will they give them aftone inftead of bread: And will my heavenly Father, who is infinitely more compaffionate than the most tender parents, refuse the bread of life to ftarving fouls who cry earnestly for it? Lord, I truft in thy mercy, and depend on thy promife, I believe thou wilt not let a poor hungry beggar ftarve and fall down at thy door, when there is bread enough in thy houfe, and to fpare. O caufe me to fing with the Psalmist, Pfal xiii. 5. But I have trufted in thy mercy, my heart hall rejoice in thy falvation.

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ADVICE S

A

FROM VARIOU

SCRIPTURE TE-X TS.

ADVICE I.

From Gen. vii. 1.

Come thou and all thy houfe into the Ark.

S God in his mercy called Noah to come into the ark prepared for him and his household, to fave him from drowning in the great deluge, fo God, by the gofpel, calls you, O man, to come into the ark, Chrift crucified,' which he hath provided for perishing finners, to fave them from the deluge of wrath that is coming. God hath long forewarned you of it; nay, the flood is beginning to rife, it is time for thee to flee to this ark; believe it, there is no other way for thy fafety: The ark of thy prayers, or of thy tears. convictions, or reformations, will not fave thee from it; nothing will do it but the ark Chrift.

As all who were out of Noah's ark perished in the flood, fo will all perifh who are out of Chrift.-Thofe of the old world, who only came near to the ark, or touched the out fide of it, they perished if they did not enter into it; fo in like manner will thofe perish, who only come near Chrift by an outward profeffion, and are not found in him by a true faith.

As the ark gave a good account of all that entered into it, not one of them was loft in the flood; fo will Chrift give a good account at the last day of all that fly to him by faith: None fhall pluck them out of his hand, not one of them fhall perish in the deluge of wrath; Chrift will prefent them all fafe to his Father, Behold, here am I, and the children thou haft given me.

As Noah's ark was acceffible, and had a door in it for people to enter, fo in a crucified Jefus there is a door of accefs opened, even a door of faith, whereby