Luke 22:71

REFLECTIONS

Reader! let us ponder well the precious contents of this most precious Chapter. Behold! how Jesus delighted in his last Passover, and first Supper! With desire (said that dear Lord), I have desired to eat it with you before I suffer. And doth he not still desire sweet communion with his people now, as he did then? Doth not Jesus say the same concerning his Word, his Ordinances, his Table, his Supper? And doth not the Lord, from the first moment of beholding his Church, long for the season of the conversion of each, and the comfort of all, until the whole redeemed are brought home to glory? Oh! then how sweet to follow up the Lord's desires with our own; and while Jesus is coming forth to bless, You and I may, through his grace, be going forth to meet him.

Reader! pause over the awful character of Judas! Behold the different features of Peter! Contemplate from everlasting the cause in the sovereignty of grace, and if so be we can find in our own souls, tokens of rich, free, unmerited love, causing us to differ from the traitor, in being children of promise; oh! for grace to ascribe all the glory to Him, to whom alone all is due. Lord! how is it, we may well say, that thou hast manifested thyself unto us, and not unto the world!

Praised be thy dear name, in that Jesus the Son of God took upon him to answer for his people, by which the Holy One of Israel was reckoned among the transgressors. And shall not thy redeemed be accounted righteous in thee, before God? My soul! all the ransomed in Zion are authorized to this conclusion. Bless thy God and Savior for this unspeakable mercy. It is Jehovah that hath so concluded, and therefore make it thy conclusion also; for so the charter of grace runs to the Church's joy. For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him,