E1t11'fÓN XXXVÍ. 6lú suppress all repining thoughts; I am humble, I am thankful; and though thou visitest me with chastisements, to reduce me from my follies, thou hast not laid on me the burden of my sins, nor called me to the hard and dreadful work of answering the severe demands of thy broken law. This burden thy own Son has borne ; this work he has performed. The cup of com- molt sorrows which my heavenly Father puts intomy handyshall 1 not drink it! It is not a cup of such anguish and terror as the Son of God drank up for my sake. Why shoulda creature saved from hell, be impatient and uneasy atany of the little sufferings which he sustains here on earth ! " This is not only a powerful argument to compose my soul to resignation under troubles, but even to raise me to 'holy joy. Surely he that has loved me, and has given his own Son up to death for me, does not afflict me willingly, nor grieve my spirit beyond what he sees necessary, He transacts all his affairs with me according to that covenant of love whereby he ordained his Son to die for me ; and he will bestow upon me every good thing in its proper season : He that spared not his own Sou, but gave him up to die fir us, shall he not with him free4y give us all things; Rom. viii. 32.. " Bless the name of thy God, Omy soul, let my heart be filled with thankfulness, and my lips with praise : He has distin- guished thee, my soul, by peculiar blessings. He has made no suchpreparation of an atonement for angels, those heavenly crea- tures, when they sinned against him, but they are castdown into chains of darkness, and why am not I cast into chains of dark- ness too ? He has not revealed this grace toseveral large heathen nations : They know nothing of a Redeemer : But he has revealed his Son to me, in the glory and grace of his atonement He has raised me to the hope of eternal life, by the death and the resurrection of Jesus his Son. Let all my murmurings and impatience be silent for ever. The worst of mypresent suffer- ings are not worthy to be comparedwith the glory that shall be revealed, the glory purchased by the sufferings of Christ'; Rom, viii. 18. IX. The doctrine of the atonement of Christ gives us a blessed invitation to the Lord's-supper, where Christ crucified is set forth before us in the memorials of his propitiation. The propitiation of Christ is of so constant and universal use in the whole of our religion, that our blessed 'Lord would not suffer us to live without some sensible tokens and signs of it, and these are to be frequently repeated to the end of the world ; and therefore he has given a mostexpress andpositive command ; ul:e xxii. 19. This do in remembrance of me. And the r.12
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