and SAVIOUR, JESUS CHRIST, and lais APOSTLES, &C. 267 deftroy the temple and build it in three days, as a kind of blafphemy, becaufe it required divine power to perform fuch a work. The moll implacable and diabolical malice irritated the priefts and Scribes againft him becaufe he had torn off their mafks of hypocrify, and fliewed them to the people in their true colours. It is, therefore, no wonder that they ridiculed his miracles, from whence he derived his reputation. In fhort, the thief alfa fancied that he would have delivered both himfelf and them, if he had been the Me(fiah ; but as no fuch deliverance appeared, he up- braided him for making pretenlions to the high charaéler he affumed. Now, my foul, take a viewof thy dying Saviour, breathing out his foul upon the crofs I Behold his unfpotted flefh lacerated with (tripes, by which thou art healed I See his hands extended and nailed to the crofs ; thofe beneficent hands, which were incef- fantly ftretched out to unloofe the heavy burdens, and to impart bleffings of every kind ! Behold his feet rivetted to the ac- curfed tree with nails : thofe feet which always went about doing good, and tra- velled far and near to fpread the glad- tidings of everlafting falvation! View his tender temples encircled with a wreath of thorns, which (hoot their keen affliétive points into his bleffed head ; that head which was ever meditating peace to poor loft and undone (inners, and fpent many a wakeful night in ardent prayers for their happinefs ! See him labouring in the ago- nies of death, breathing out his foul into the hands of his Almighty Father, and praying for his cruel enemies ! Was ever love like this was ever benevolence fo finely difpiayed? O, my foul ! put thou thy troll in that bleeding, that dying Saviour; then, though the peftilence 'walketh in darknefs, and the ficknefs deflroyeth at noon-day; . though thoufands fall befide thee, and ten thoufimd at thy right-hand, thou needeft not fear the approach of any evil! Either die deftroying angel fhall pats over thee, Or difpenfe the corrections ofa friend, not the fcourges of an enemy, which, inftead of hurting, will work for thy good: then though profanenefs and infidelity, far more malignant evils, breathe their contagion, and taint the morals of multitudes around thee, thou [halt be fafely hid in the hollow of his hand, and freed from every danger, in time, and for ever. Then, Omy foul, take fanauary under that tree of life, the ignominious crofs of thy bleeding Saviour ; let us fly for fafety to that city of refuge opened in his bleed- ing wounds : thefe will prove a facred hiding-place, not to be pierced by the flames of divine wrath, or the fiery darts' of temptation : his dying merits, his per= fe'. obedience, will be as rivers ofwater in a dry place, or as the fhadow of a great rock in a weary land. But particularly in that láfl tremendous day, when the heavens {hall be rent afunder, and wrapped up like a feral! ; when his Almighty arm [ha!! ar- ref' the fun in his career, and dafh the ftruhture of the univerfe to pieces ; when the dead, both fmall and great, [hall be gathered before the throne of his glory,' and the fates of all mankind hang on the very point of a final irreverfible deci fion: then, if thou haft faithfully fruited. in him, and made his precepts thy confiant direftors, thou [halt be owned and defend- ed by him. O reader! may both thou that perufeft, and he who bath written this for thy foul's advantage, be covered at that unutterably important jun&ure, by the wings ofhis redeeming love; then fhall we behold all the horrible convulfions of expiring nature with compofure, with com- fort! we [hall even welcome the confum- mation of all things, as the times of re- frefhing from the Arefence of the Lord, and be eternally happy with him. Behold the fun, confcious of the fuffer- ings of his Maker, and as it were to hide his face from this deteflable aelion of mor- tals, is wrapped in the pitchy mantle of chaotic darknefs ! This preternatural eclipfe of
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