journeying to our everlasting home, often bowed down with infirmity, and in bitterness of soul through the secret abominations of the old nature, when the fountains of the great deep of inward depravity are broken up, the floods lift up their voice, and the waves of temptation and conflict pass to and fro; oh! how sweet is it to look up to thee, the Holy One of Israel, who art all-glorious within, and whose transcendent purity saw no corruption, either physical or moral; and to feel assured that thou art our representative, and that the Father beholds us only in the face of his anointed. Thou art the divine man, whose unblemished holiness shall be a "hiding-place from the wind, and a refuge from the tempest, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall:" -refreshing to our poor barren souls as the first ripe figs and grapes to the weary traveller in the wilderAnd we have not a High-Priest who cannot be touched with a feeling of our infirmities, for thou hadst, as the man of sorrows, an experimental knowledge of all human woe, the plague of inherent sin only excepted; and the tenderness and compassion of a threefold Jehovah flow upon the church through thy sympathizing human bosom. "In thy love and pity thou hast redeemed us, and in all our affliction thou art afflicted."+ 66 Thy delights were with the sons of men when the foundations of the earth were + Isaiah, lxiii. 9.

ness.

* Isaiah, xxv. 4; xxxii. 2.

appointed,

and thy everlasting love for Zion was of such infinite strength, that it could not be quenched by the many water-spouts of affliction, which were poured upon thy innocent person, nor drowned by the floods of the Father's wrath due to sin, which inundated thy holy soul in that doleful garden of Gethsemane, when, as our substantial scape-goat, he "laid upon thee the iniquity of us all." Oh! draw us with the cords of love, by the gracious influences of thy Holy Spirit, to Mount Calvary, and give us such a spiritual view of thy spotless humanity, offered upon the cross for a sweet-smelling sacrifice to the Father, that we may depart from every unclean thing, singing praises to the beauties of holiness in our glorious ransom. Wash away our sins in thy precious, divine blood, and purge our consciences from dead works, that we may worship and serve thee, the living God, in spirit and in truth. "Other lords beside thee have had dominion over us: " but henceforth may we "make mention of thy name," even of thine only. +

Holy Father! who hast elected Zion from everlasting, and secured her in an unchangeable covenant, "ordered in all things and sure;" and who dost condescend, as the great husbandman of thy beloved Son's vineyard, to prepare, and perfect redeemed souls for the heavenly paradise; "take * Prov. viii. 29-31. + Isa. liii. 6. Isa. xxvi. 13.

away the foxes that spoil the vines," root out every poisonous weed of the enemy's planting, and cause the south wind to blow upon our glorious Immanuel's garden, that "the fig-tree may put forth her green figs, and the vines give a good smell, the tender grapes appear, and the pomegranates bud forth, and the spices flow out," that he may "come down to see the fruits of the valley, and to gather lilies."+

Holy, glorious, triune Jehovah! vouchsafe to shed the heavenly dew of thy grace upon the testimony of a sinful worm, that like the replenished fleece of Gideon, it may yield a bowl-full of precious unction for thy remnant, as an antidote to Satan's poison. Deliver her from every earthly motive that would insinuate itself into the deep and intricate recesses of the human heart, and fleshly mind, under which she groans in common with all her fellow-travellers to Jehovah-Shammah; and which we must continue to deplore, until our emancipated spirits shall wing their flight into the regions of purity and bliss; where, arrayed in white robes with palms in our hands, we shall ascribe blessing and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might, unto our everlasting Father, our divine elder Brother, and the holy Comforter, for ever and ever,

Amen.
Hallelujah!

* Songs, ii. 15. + Songs, ii. 13; iv. 16; vi. 2, 11.

A LETTER

ON THE

PURITY OF THE GLORIOUS IMMANUEL'S

HUMAN NATURE.

"Be not carried about with divers, and strange doctrines; for it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace.” Heb. xiii. 9.

"One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to enquire in his temple."-Psalm xxvii. 4.