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and we might love and adore Thee for e Where now is our Soul, that we run not hastily 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 so dear a rate; (to fhew 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, shed 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 L a Creature to have leave to love its Creator and Redeemer? That ever it fhould be ' permitted to fuch as we are, to love Thee! And yet it is; fo condefcendingly gracious L art Thou. But Ah! miferable State of infirm Nature, that we fhould 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 Neceffaries of Life, and all that is dear to us in this World, rather than be without thy Love! But thy Love consists not, in fond Expressions 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 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 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 also, 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 Language of thy paffionate Soul; I implore that may be permitted to Love Thee, better

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

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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 C Jefus Chrift, fhou'd in the Fleth, 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 him fo long! Did not Thy Bowels yearn (for thou alloweft us to conceive of Thee,as of a moft tender Parent) to think of those 'Pains of Body, that Anguish of Mind, thofe Terrors of Soul, which he shou'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

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are thy Creatures, and made more peculiarly after thy Image; yet they deserve not 'fuch Pains, fuch Condefcenfion and Suffer. ings from Thee. On the contrary, Ọ our moft 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 6 to Man. When Thou, 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 because 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, tor those 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 boundlefs Ocean of overflowing Love! Let the fense of it ever fill our Souls, that we may adore it, according to its unmeasurable Greatness. C May all the humble Praise that Creatures ⚫ can pay, be the constant 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 fense 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

In another place, is the enfuing Meditation upon those words of the Apostle, 1 Fet. 1. 8. Whom having not seen ye love.

Bleffed Lord, can I hear of any thing generously or bravely done, by fuch whom 'thou haft endu'd with Celeftial or Humane Virtues, and not be mov'd to love the Perfon who acted them, especially if fuch a one be the Deliverer of his Country, and by whom, I my felf, or others at this Day reap fignal benefits. Who can read of David's act against Goliah, and not have their Souls knit to him as well as Jonathan who did fee him. And if he were any where still a

live and might be feen, who wou'd not be 'defirous to pay him Honour, Refpect and 'Love? —Lord Thou liveft,who haft done fo

great Things for us; who can but love what Thou haft done? Who can but love the Meekness and Goodness wherewith Thou haft done them? Who can but Love, Honour, and Esteem Thee who haft done them? When we behold Thee in the Agony of Love and Fear; Fear deterring Thee, ' and Love engaging Thee to fuffer, when we behold Thee fpeaking fuch words of • Love and Tenderness as never Man spoke, to his Dearest Friend: Are we Marble C Lord, are we harder than Flint? Do we change our nature and become otherwise to Thee than we are to all the World befides? . O let us at least equal Thee with thy Creatures, and having not feen let us Love Thee. But let us Love Thee as becomes the noble

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