Twenty-ninth Day. On the love God hath for us

I. ' 1 have loved you with an eternal love.'' Jer, xxxi. 3. Before all ages, and even before we had being, God thought of ns, and thought of us only to do us good. His meditations were in eternity; his performances in time. His bountiful hand has bestowed on us every kind of blessing. Our infidelities and ingratitudes, numerous as they are, have not dried up the fountain of his gifts, nor stopped the course of his mercies. O love without beginning, which has loved us during infinite ages, even when we were neither sensible of it, nor could acknowledge it! O love without measure, which has made us what we are, and which promises us infinitely more! O love without interruption and without incou-

88 Seflection, stancy, which all the bitter waters of our iniquities could never extinguish! O ray God, is there a heai't that is not pierced witli gratitude, love and tenderness? II. But what do we behold? a God, who, after having given all, gave up himself! A God, who conies to seek after us even when we are lost! He who condescended to take the form of a slave, to deliver us from tiie slavery of our enemies! He who made himself poor to enrich us. He who calls us and pursues us, wherever we fly. He who expired in torments to save us from the arms of death, and gave us instead a happy life! yet how often do we refuse both him and the life he offers. What should we take a man to be, who should love, another as God loves us; and what afflictions do not those deserve, who, after this great sacrifice, will not lave the Lord Jesus Christ?