left the bofom of the Father, came to earth, obeyed the law, fuffered the wrath and curfe of God, died on the cross, arofe again, and afcended up into heaven.

What a glorious object is the fun, and how immenfely great! a body of fire suppofed to be no less than eight hundred thousand times larger than the earth, muft need furpass the proud monarch of Babylon's fiery furnace, inconceivably more than the tranfiant fpark, fmitten from the flint by the steel. How infinitely great must that power be who made and fuftains that globe in ether! Nor is his wisdom and goodness lefs confpicuous in poising it at such a convenient distance from the earth, fo that inftead of men and things being burnt up by it, they are only warmed and cherished thereby. But how infinitely more doth the goodness of God appear to man, in that when he had finned and rendered himself obnoxious to divine juftice, God fent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be faved, John iii. 17.

The fun is the most useful, and most delightful of all inanimate creatures, the best emblem (as one obferves) of his Creator which we here behold. No wonder if the poor blind heathen miftook him for his Maker, and paid that worship to this luminary which was due to him alone.

But what is it for which we love the fun moft? Is it because of that refplendency that he is poffeffed of? or is it not rather on account of the benefits we derive from his cheering rays and fructifying beams? But far otherwife is it with refpect to the Sun of righteousness; his people love him more on account of what he is in, and of himself, and what he hath done for them, than for all the good things he hath purchased for them, nay, than for heaven itfelf. I will not indeed fay, that this is always the cafe upon a perfon's immediately clofing with Chrift; for like as one who finds himself inevitably perishing in a mighty flood, ready every moment to be overwhelmed in the impetuous furge will cry vehemently out for help, and when a rope is thrown in for his delivery, felf-prefervation makes him eagerly grafp the fame;

but no fooner does he find himself escaped the danger than he contemplates with love the benevolent hand that preserved his life. So the Shipwrecked finner in Adam, when he fees himself perishing in a fea of wrath, ready to be swallowed up in the inexorable billows of divine juftice, will be apt, like a woman in pangs, to cry out with the jailor of Phillippi, "What must I do to be "faved?" And when by the hand of power a cord of mercy is let down for his delivery, with a "Believe on the Lord Je

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fus Chrift, and thou fhalt be faved;" will he not eagerly take hold of it, and hold for life? But no fooner doth he fee his intereft in Chrift, than he loves him mainly because of his own excellency, and what he hath done for him, even far more than on account of the good things he hath purchafed for him. Indeed if our love to Chrift rife no higher than for the benefits he hath procured for us, it is only fpecious self-love fpringing from a falfe faith, and that which will ftand the foul in no more ftead than thofe fine words and fair pretenfions did to them who thought to impose upon our Saviour by faying, "Rabbi, when camest thou hither?" to whom our Lord replied,

"Verily, verily, I fay unto you, ye seek "me not because ye faw the miracles, but "because ye did eat of the loaves and were "filled," John vi. 25, 26.

As the natural fun has opposite effects upon different bodies, by softening fome, fuch as the wax, and hardening others, as that of the clay (yet is this hardening effect not to be attributed to the fun, but to the nature of the clay upon which it fhines: So the Sun of righteousness proves the favour of life unto life to fome, but that of death unto death to others. Some finners are melted under the preaching of the gofpel, while others become more hardened thereby; nor is this hardening owing to any fault in this Sun,' who from unrighteousness is altogether free, Pfal. xcii. 15. but totally to their own depravity and unbelief.

Where the fun beams directly fhine, the eye beholds it full of motes, though before there appeared none. In like manner, when the Sun of righteousness shineth into the heart of a finner, the man fees what he never thought of before, even his whole in

ward part, as well as the outward, to be full of fin and filthiness.

In the rays of the fun the rainbow is seen, that token of the covenant which God made of not destroying the earth any more by a flood of water: So in the rays of the Sun of righteousness, the believer beholds a token of that covenant of grace which God made with his Son Chrift, in the elect's name, that he would not deftroy them with his flood of wrath for his fake.

The fun in the firmament is unchangeable and constant; every morning he arifeth and performeth his courfe from east to weft, fhining forth for the benefit of all the terrestrial creation, though his benign beams, are often obfcured from the earth, by reason of intervening clouds. With respect to immutability, the Sun of righteousness incomparably excels, for he is eternally unchangeable; he still shineth forth in the firmament of his grace, for the good of all his elected ones, although his cheering beams may often be obscured from the