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end nor change; it shall heighten and brighten in the altitude of glory, when the drop is lost in the ocean, when the soul arrives at its centre, and rests, with ineffable complacency, and unknown delight in God,

Again, O how free is this love of God! nothing moving him to love. When we love, it is for something we think excellent and agreeable to us; but he loves the naked child when weltering in its blood, and, as a proof of non-such love, dresses, salts, swaddles, clothes it, and makes it comely through his comliness being put upon it.

Again, his love is a full love. The oceans ebb and flow; if at one time they cover the shores, at another time they leave their beds bare and dry; but his love is perfect in its plenitude, notwithstanding these boundless oceans that have watered the whole universe; that have run in mighty torrents among the angelic and seraphic hosts above, and in amazing inundations among fallen men below.-Though there be repeated manifestations of love to his hidden ones, and thousands of his favourites feast on this heavenly food, while travelling through the howling wilderness; yea, though the egress of love, through the unnumbered ages of eternity, shall be continued to the glorified throng, still its ardour and exuberance will be evermore the same. The ocean will not be one drop less for all the waterings of the fields of bliss. After the Sun of Righteousness, through a duration in eternity beyond conception, and above the reach of thought, has illuminated the spacious continent of glory with his beams, not one ray, not one irradiation, shall be in the least diminished.

Again, his love is efficient, active, and an operative love. I may love a fellow-creature, or an absent

friend, and yet avail them nothing, nor they so much as know it; but the love of God, like the light, reveals itself wherever it is. Love draws, and we run; his love constrains, compels our love; for a pardoned sinner cannot choose but love. Wherever the heavenly spark falls, it sets the soul in a flame.

Again, the love of God is a fixed and unchangeable love; and the more the soul is in sorrow or distress, the more free and full are the communications of divine love. In the time of need, the world's love will give us the slip; but in the most calamitous circumstances, sacred love peforms the part of two loves, and sticketh closer than a brother. Mortals' love (alas! how many can attest the truth of this!) may to-day appear ardent, steadfast, and sincere, but to-morrow be entirely cooled; yea, converted into slander, hatred, and revenge. But let all the sons of God know, that divine love shall be to them what the holy waters were to the prophet, ever on the increase, till it be an ocean to swim in for ever. Against fears on every side this is comfort, that God will rest in his love.

Divine love is also a benificent love. Jonathan loved David exceedingly, but could not do much for him, nor save him from being expelled his native country; but the love of God is fruitful of every blessing; is the tree that bears all kinds of fruits that nourish the soul, and feast every power. The love of poor men can bring no advantage to the persons loved ; but when God sets his love upon a sinner, all at once, he who had nothing of late, has all things, life, liberty, friends, riches, glory, a kingdom; sufficiency here, and all-sufficiency hereafter; in a word, all that can be named, sought after, wished for, or thought upon.

Then, ye sons of earth! hug yourselves in the embrace of wealth, and bless your own condition, but presume not that you are the favourites of Heaven because his common providence pours upon you. As for me, may I be the object of this love, and, in spite of poverty, I am rich; in spite of sin, I am secure, and walk on triumphing to the better country.

But again, the love of God is an intimate love. O how the high and lofty One reveals the secrets of his covenant, and the sweets of his love to the soul, where he condescends to come and dwell! When by the Holy Ghost the love of God is shed abroad in the soul, what heavenly joy refreshes the whole inner man!" I know thee by name," says Job; "I beseech thee show me thy glory," says Moses. The intimacy begun in time, is the bliss of eternity, and in greater or lesser degree is the privilege of every believer. The more our fellowship is with the Father, and his Son Jesus Christ, the more of his divine likeness we shall put on; and in the other world, in the different degrees of assimilation to God, consist the different degrees of glory.

Again, the love of God is infinite; and what that is, none but an infinite Being knows. Ours is a spark, his the sun; ours a drop, his the ocean.

Again, his love is uninterrupted. Not sin within us, hell without us, nor satan accusing us at the throne, can interrupt his love; this is encouragement to serve him in spite of sin, and in the face of enemies.

Lastly, his love is eternal. pass away, but love will not.

Heaven and earth shall

Time must end, but

love attends the saints beyond the grave. Death cools the love of the nearest relations, but cannot

separate from the love of God. Love is the quintessence of bliss, the heart of heaven, the joy of angels, the song of the redeemed, and the character of God. O happy day! when I shall rise to enjoy love that transcends the glory of the redeemed, and all the anthems of angelic choirs!

MEDITATION XXIX.

DISSOLUTION.

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IF there is a time to rejoice, there is also a time, yea, many a time to mourn; and God has set the one over against the other, that men may not forget themselves. This day I have attended the funeral of a friend, who is carried away from his weeping widow, and fatherless children, who all bewail him yea, sighs may be heard, and sorrow seen in the countenances of his acquaintance. With all the pomp of wo we attend him to the tomb; friends gaze wistfully as the envious mould conceals him from their sight. The ceremonies are concluded, and all retire as concerned with him no more.Though sea and land cannot separate between living friends, yet three feet deep of earth separates be twixt the dead and the living, unties bonds, dissolves relations, and perpetuates the disjunction.

Poor woman! why dost thou weep? Thy husband is not dead, but sleepeth. His weary dust is not carried to gloomy confinement, but laid to rest on a bed of undisturbed repose. He is delivered from toil, from trouble, and from sin. The sword of the foe

cannot affright him; the tongue of the slanderer cannot disturb him; the envy of hell cannot distress him. Fire may calcine his lifeless ashes, but cannot consume his hope. Earthquakes may cast his body out of the grave, but cannot awake him out of his sleep. While thus his body rests, his soul triumphant reigns; and having dropt his frail mortality, he is now as an angel of God. Reserve thy tears for more mournful times, nor grieve for him who is happier than thou canst conceive. Enviest thou for his sake? Wouldst thou have him less happy, that thou mayest be less miserable? Though thou shouldst be drowned in sorrow, he is all song; and not the deepest anguish of his dearest friends, though placed in his eye, could give him one moment's pain, interrupt the anthem, or mar the heavenly melody. Why should all thy mental powers suffer in the tempest of thy soul, because the gracious Pilot of souls from storms and tempests, darkness and distress, raging seas and roaring winds, has landed thy friend safe on life's pacific shore? A little, and a friendly gale shall blow thee after him: then spend not the short (who can tell how short!) interval in repining at his passage, but in preparing for thine own. Indeed, a word sad enough, thou art a widow. Well, God is the widow's judge out of his holy habitation, and can be better to thee than ten husbands. If faith be strong, thy refuge is not weak. dren? leave them to God, he will preserve them alive; and happy the orphans whose God is the Lord!

Hast thou fatherless chil

But what instructions should arise from the whole to me? Why, I should live above this present state, because I am shortly to pass from it. Neither should I envy the worldling's heaps, or the increase of his