prince who ruleth in the world by usurpation till the time appointed. Grievous are the tasks, and sad are the wages, of this tyrant of souls. Jesus went down and came up again for a sign. As the Head of his people he did this, preaching their redemption from bondage in himself. In their order and times, they come up out of Egypt too, by the strong hand of this Captain of salvation. He is great in might, and therefore not one of them faileth. The prince of the air loseth his dominion over them; and though he follow them like Pharaoh, and chase them all the way, he cannot hinder their course of faith, nor rob them of their Canaan in glory.

O marvellous love of my Saviour! Was it not enough for thee to take up my nature in its best estate, without submitting to a manger, to contempt, to persecution, to banishment, and all the wrongs of men? O how low must I be fallen, that it should be needful for thee (for, if it had not been needful, this act had been spared) to endure poverty, wretchedness, and shame, that I might be delivered from all! I was in Egypt, and thou camest to me. Thy grace preached liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that were bound. Thy power performed what thy love proclaimed; and thou broughtest the prisoners from the prison, and those that sate in darkness out of the prisonhouse. I, O wonderful to tell! I, among thy ransomed, have followed thee in the re

generation out of this dismal Egypt, and have tasted a little of the glorious liberty of thy children. Not unto me, my dear Saviour, not unto me, but unto thy name be all the praise. I was wallowing in the mire of Egypt, and in the mud of the Nile; I was entirely given up to the filth and pollutions of this evil world, and should have remained therein till I had been sunk for ever in its woe, unless thy mighty arm had wrought out my deliverance, and set me free., Nor am I worthy, at any time, to receive from thee a crumb of bread, or a drop of water; and yet thou hast privileged me to aspire to a crown, and a crown too of the highest glory, with a divine assurance of obtaining it. Glory to thee, Jehovah-Jesus, thou Saviour all-divine, for mercy unmeasurable like this, for grace and glory yet before me, to which there is no end! O how shall I show forth thy praise for all which thou hast done for my soul !

CHAP. VIII.

ON THE MIRACLES OF CHRIST.

WE see but little into the true worth and importance of the miracles of Jesus, if we look no farther than the historic facts. These indeed do speak aloud the glory of the Divine Person to the carnal sense of man, and did so even to those who hated and

blasphemed him; but the grandeur of these works consisted in this, that they were only outward testimonies of the far more noble operations of his grace within the soul, which were not to endure for a time only, like their outward signs, but to flourish throughout eternity.

He gave sight to the blind, that he might testify unto men his sovereign power in giving light and understanding to the mind. He opened the deaf ear, that men might know, by whom alone they can hear aright the good news of salvation, and live for ever. The lame he caused in a moment to walk, that his people might learn, that they can only move, as well as live, by him, and that without him they can do nothing. He cured the foul leprosy of the body in order to show, that only by him can be healed the far more deplorable leprosy of sin, which covers and defiles the mind. All sicknesses vanished at his command, that we might have hope in him, as the sure Restorer of our souls. The poor, or meek among men, were made rich for eternity. He cast out unclean spirits, and suffered them to possess the swine, who were thereby lost, that he might teach his redeemed that he only delivered and can deliver them from the powers of darkness, which, being let loose upon the world, drive them violently and swiftly down the steep course of time, into a gulph of inextricable woe. The hungry multitudes were fed by

his miraculous power, to explain this great truth, that he is not only the Giver of spiritual life, but the constant Sustainer and Nourisher of it from day to day: And he did this by small means, that the excellency of the power might be known to be his, and not in the creatures, however sanctified, blessed, and used. The winds and waves were instantly obedient to his word, that his beloved might rejoice in him, as the Stiller of all spiritual waves, the tumultuous madness of this world, the ragings of Satan, and the confusion of all things. These can roar and foam no longer than it pleaseth him; and when they foam and roar at all, it shall turn out in the end for the good of his people. The dead were raised to proclaim his rising power, and to declare that the issues also of spiritual life and of endless death are altogether in his hands. Whatever he did, was an act of mercy, under which he revealed, as in a parable, the most important lessons of grace and love. The divinity of his works proclaimed him to be both the Creator of all, (and what is more comforting to his chosen) the Redeemer and Restorer of millions that were lost.

Learn from these things, O believer, what thy Lord and God hath done for thy soul. He quickened thee from the death of trespasses and sins; he giveth light and peace to thy mind; he feedeth thee with the bread of life; he cureth all thy spiritual diseases;

he quelleth thy manifold enemies and temptations; he strengtheneth thee with strength in thy soul; he doeth all that is done in thee by grace; and he will never cease working in thee both to will and to do, no, not even when he hath brought thee to his kingdom in heaven.

O pray fervently, my soul, rightly to apprehend these precious things. If thou teach me, blessed Lord, then shall I know them, in some measure at least, according to my capacity, as they ought to be known. Such knowledge, indeed, is too excellent for my clouded faculties of nature; these cannot, if left to themselves, attain unto it. 1, therefore, would not seek to acquire the apprehension of these truths, as fallen man can teach or attain them, but as thou dost teach and enforce them. In thy teaching, though the substance of the truths be the same, there is a wide difference from all the teaching of men. Man, by his own study, gropeth in the dark, and wearieth himself in vain to reach up to the perception of thine excellent wisdom; but thou art light in thyself, and sendest down both illumination and influence at once to such as are taught by thee, by which they not only know thy truth as a truth demonstrable in itself, but feel the bles ings of it, as a truth applied and made their own. They find strength and nourishment in what thou givest for food, and not airy words, or unprofitable speculations, which,