A

SERMON

ON THE

FINAL JUDGMENT,

PREACHED BEFORE THE HOUSE OF PEERS

IN THE

ABBEY-CHURCH AT WESTMINSTER,
OCTOBER 1O, 1666,

On the Day appointed for Humiliation after the Great Fire of London.

BY SETH WARD, D.D.,

THEN BISHOP OF EXETER.

SERMON

ON TIE

FINAL JUDGMENT.

Ecl. 11:9.

But know You, that for all these things GOD will bring
thee to judgment.

            THE great and general design of the ministry and preaching of the gospel, is to bring men to Christianity; not merely in the outward profession, but in the true spirit and power thereof; to the end that they may be justified, and sanctified, and finally saved through CHRIST' for ever.  The particular design of this day's observation is to " humble ourselves under the mighty hand of GOD," in consideration of his judgments, especially that late one, which consumed with fire the ancient and noble metro­polis of this nation; and to endeavor to appease the wrath of GOD, gone out against us.

            To compass both these designs, 1 know no better ex­pedient, than to reason a while upon the important argu­ment suggested in the text. Who can think upon the conflagration of our late glorious city, and not call to mind the great and terrible day of judgment? Who can think seriously of judgment, and not be com­pelled to come in, (driven to Christianity,) that he may be " saved from the wrath to come? "

            The great instructer and example of Christian Preachers (he who says of himself, that CHRIST sent him "to preach, and not to baptize,") found no means so powerful to persuade men to Christianity as to reason upon this argument; as first to lay before them the terror of judg­ment, and then (whilst that was warm upon their hearts) to make them a tender of the Gospel. This is the great advantage and use which the Apostle makes of the doc­trine of the text. "We must all appear," says he, "before the judgment-seat of CHRIST:—Knowing therefore the terror of the LORD, we persuade men."

            Upon these considerations I shall, in a practical and familiar way of reasoning, endeavor to imitate our Apostle in this particular.  If, in the mean time, it should be unpleasant to hear of the judgment to come, we shall do well to consider what it will be to undergo it. We shall do well to reflect upon our souls, and search out the ground of this unpleasant­ness. Is it because we do not believe a judgment to come, or because we ourselves shall be brought to judg­ment? Is it because we never consider who it is before whom we must appear, or what things will be charged to our account? Is it because we are so far gone in our arrears, that it is to no purpose to call these things into our remembrance?—Whatever it may be, we may per­haps hear of that, which may meet with and remove the prejudice and imposture that are upon us. It is neither our negligence nor infidelity that will " make void the truth of GOD." Whether we will hear, or whether we will forbear, the words which I have read remain firm and unalterable, and they clearly contain these propositions

I. There is a Judgment to come.

II. You shall be brought to Judgment.

III. GOD will bring thee to Judgment.

IV. GOD will bring thee to Judgment for these things, —the ways of thy heart.

V. GOD will bring thee to Judgment for all these things.

VI. All this is certain and evident; for it is not said Think," or " Believe," but " Know—that for all these things GOD will bring thee to Judgment."

1. First then, There is a JUDGMENT TO COME. This is no politic invention found out to fright you from your pleasures; this is no engine of state devised to keep you. in a subordination to your brethren; this is no vain thunder, or foolish fire, to terrify you into a blind obedience; but it is the tenor of the Scripture, the voice of GOD. " King AGRIPPA, believest you the Prophets? I know that you believest," says ST. PAUL. Brethren, do we believe the Scriptures? I hope we do believe them; this we do all profess to believe, so often as we repeat our creed; and I hope the dissoluteness of our times has not yet shattered that foundation of our faith, the ground-work of our'hopes respecting the salvation of our souls. Surely there are rewards for men; " doubt-less there is a GOD which judges the earth." What though the foundations of the world be out of course,—the pillar of faith remains unshaken; "the rod of the ungodly shall not for ever rest upon the righteous." I desire to make a little use of your faith for that which soon will be obtained from your reason. There is a judgment to come; it is as sure as death, nay, far surer; they shall be judged who shall not die, they have been judged who could not die; the one at the end, the other at the begin­ning of the world.

            Before death, SOLOMON tells us, that " the sun, and the moon, and the light, and the stars shall be darkened." Before Judgment, a greater than SOLOMON tells us, that " the sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, and the stars shall fall from heaven." Before the one, " the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the strong men bow themselves:" before the other, " the mountains shall quake, and the powers of heaven shall be shaken." Before the one, " we shall rise at the voice of the bird:" before the other, " at the sound of the trumpet." Before the one, the silver cord shall be loosed, and the golden bowl broken, and the pitcher broken at the fountain, and the wheel broken at the cistern:" before the other, the silver zone of the ecliptic, the golden globe of the sun, and all the heavenly orbs, (the wheel within a wheel,) shall be confounded; the " heavens shall be rolled as a scroll " of parchment, and the earth and " the elements shall melt with fervent heat." In the one, the dust shall return to the earth as it was, and the spirit to GOD that gave it: at the other, the dust shall return from the earth to be as it was, and the spirit from GOD that gave it.

            Come now, and let us reason together. Are all these the forerunners and symptoms of ap proaching judgment? Then why art you so drowsy, O my careless soul, and why art you so secure within me? What strange lethargy has seized on thee? " Awake, you that sleep, and CHRIST shall give thee light." The time of thy dissolution is coming, and after death the judgment. Retire therefore a while into thyself, and commune with thy heart: enter you into thy closet, and shut thy door. Let us examine ourselves before we come to that strict examiner: let us make a judgment in our expectations before we come to judgment. Do we believe that a judgment will come? Then how are we provided against that day? Are our accounts ready? Art you able to stand in judgment? Shall you be clear when you art judged?

            When PAUL " reasoned " before FELIX concerning the " judgment to come, FELIX trembled; " and because it was an unpleasant argument, he put it off to another time. There is no doubt but our treacherous hearts would gladly put off these considerations, and-defer them to a more convenient season. But there is no time so conve­vient as the present, when we are wrought into some apprehension of judgment. If we stay till our present thoughts are over, we shall again be brought to lose the apprehension, and to forget the importance of the judgment; we shall come again to hear the name thereof, and to neglect it as an idle noise, and an empty sound.

            Let us therefore not. neglect this opportunity; let ussearch ourselves to the bottom; let us make a discovery of our final resolution, and secret reserves, in reference to Judgment. We profess openly to believe that CHRIST will conic with glary, to judge. both the quick and dead; what are our inward thoughts in that particular, and how are we provided against the day of judgment?

            There is a Judgment to come; that judgment will be ter­rible, the examination strict, the condemnation insupport­able, and most of us are utterly unprovided. Is it possible, then, that it may be avoided? All these things are true in judgments here below, and we see the proof of them at every assize; yet all offenders are not brought to judg went, but many thieves and murderers escape it: may, it be thus in the judgment to come?—Is it possible that it may be avoidable?

            II. A miserable hope, if this be all: for " You shall be brought to Judgment." That is the second proposition.

And it contains both the universality and the particu­larity of the judgment:—" You," and every man; all sorts of men, and every man of every sort, from him that sitteth on the throne, to her that grindeth in the will: for " we must all appear before the judgment-seat of CHRIST. It is appointed for all men once to die, and after death the judgment." Death shall deliver up our souls and bodies to judgment. The grave shall deliver up her spoils; and the bodies of all nien, devoured of beasts, consumed of fire, swallowed by the sea, or scattered to the four winds, shall, " in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye," be brought to judgment.

And shall I here bewail the infirmity, or inveigh against. the negligence of us men, who suffer ourselves to be hurried headlong by the power of our imaginations, against the strivings of our consciences; who suffer our senses to carry away the crown from our understanding, and give up ourselves to the impetuous stream of our passions; who, when we have a full information, a complete judgment, a clear dictate of onscience, yet will suffer all these to he overborne by our passions and imaginations; who having clear and evident principles, can yet doubt of their immediate consequences; or whilst we profess an universal truth, never descend to particulars.

            We know there is a vast difference between the things present, and those to come; and yet we form our thoughts of the latter according to the analogy of the former, deluding ourselves with idle and childish imaginations. GOD keeps silence; and we think He is such an one as we. Vengeance is not presently executed; and we set our hearts to do wickedly. We profess that all men must die, and come to judgment; yet we do not really believe that we ourselves shall die, and come to judgment. This is the fountain of our misery, and the original of our spiritual miscarriages. The discovery of the causes and the remedy of this evil, lies in the philosophy concerning human nature; but the thing itself is of every day's observation. We may recount it in these authentic examples.

DAVID knew full well what belonged to murder and adultery, and what himself had done in the matter of URIAH; yet he cried not out that he had sinned, till NATHAN had charged him, " You art the man."

            AHAB undoubtedly had read the law of MOSES, and knew the guilt of murder and oppression; yet he goes on triumphantly, he kills and takes possession: but when ELIJAH charges him home, " In the field of Jezreel shall dogs lick thy blood, even thine;" then he cries out, " Hash you found me, O mine enemy? " And having applied things particularly to himself, he "rent his clothes, and put on sackcloth;" he " fasted, and lay in sackcloth, and went softly."

Once more: It is likely, that BELSHAllAR knew that it was unlawful to spoil the house of GOD, to plunder those things which were dedicated to the LORD, and to employ in, his debauch the bowls of the temple; and pro­bably he had seen the hand-writing of the book of GOD to that purpose;—yet all this did not restrain him. But when the fingers wrote upon the wall, then " his coun­tenance was changed, and his thoughts troubled him, the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against another."

            This then is the office of the second proposition; it charges us home; it lays down the universal, and it brings it down unto the particular. " You shall be brought to Judgment." Thy judgment is unavoidable. And thus thy evasion is crossed, O stupid soul! You art spoiled of thy frivolous ground of hope: you shall surely be cited, and you must appear; if you refuse to come, you shall be brought to judgment. Return then again into thyself, and take a review of thy condition. What will the issue be of that judgment to which you must be brought? What hopes are now remaining that you shall not be condemned; or that, when the officers have haled thee before the Judge, you shall not be delivered to the executioners? If you art called to examination, can you elude thy Judge by thy wily answers, or can you baffle or suborn the witnesses? Can you persuade bhy jury not to find the verdict, or bribe the Judge to favor thee in thy doom? Can you withdraw him from the rigour of justice by the mediation of thy friends; or melt him into compassion by the loudness of thy cries, and the sadness of thy lamentation? Can you procure a reversion or reprieve of thy sentence, or appeal from thy Judge unto another? Can you make an escape from thine executioner? Or, lastly, can you stoutly endure the sentence of condemnation? These are the hopes of men who are brought to judgment on earth; and why may not some of them be thine? No,—you knows all these to be fond impossibilities, dreams, and sugges­tions of a childish fancy. If once this day be over, and that time come, thy hopes are barely these,—that Omni-science, and Wisdom itself, may be deluded by stupidity; that Omnipotence, and Power itself, may be evaded by poor contemptible infirmity; that Severity, and Justice       itself, may be perverted by iniquity! All this is evident by that which follows:

            III. " GOD will bring thee to Judgment."—And here we are concerned to raise our thoughts, and employ our utmost attention, lest by the prejudice which our idleness has brought upon us, we "treasure up to ourselves wrath against the day of " judgment. It is true we daily hear of GOD, and receive the names of his attributes into our ears; but we pass over them as if he were like to us, and seldom bestow so much labor as to attain to a just notion of those names. O that the GOD of heaven would afford us here some glimpse of himself; that he would illustrate us with some beam of his majesty; that he would be pleased to visit every unprovided soul, and insinuate into it a full and clear apprehension of this proposition, GOD will bring thee to Judgment.

            But how shall we endure to see his face? " No man can see my face and live." (Exod. xxxiii.) If the Israelites durst not hear him proclaim the law, how shall we endure to hear him pronounce the judgment? If the angels veil their faces, not able to behold his excel­lency, how shall we be affected with his terrors? If the cherubim are oppressed with the sight of his glory, what shall we be with the sense of his fury? If we find our-selves confounded and swallowed up in inextricable labyrinths, When we set ourselves to consider his attri­butes, his eternal duration, his unbounded essence, his unconfined presence; with what disposition can we enter­tain the terror of his judgment, the search of his omni­science, the stroke of his omnipotence? If the best and choicest of the saints of GOD have been afraid, and trem­bled, at the thoughts of judgment, if they have been sur­prised with horror and confusion at the mere imagination of that dreadful voice, "Arise, and come to judgment," what shall the worst and most obdurate sinners feel, when they shall be stripped of this cloud of flesh and error, and cited before the great tribunal, to render an account of their creation, preservation, and redemption?

            What fear, what horror, what agony, will possess thee, O sinful soul, when you shall be brought into a perfect apprehension of thy Judge, and of thyself, and he shall begin to order out, before thee, the things which he has done; when the whole TRINITY shall begin to unfold its common ivork, and that sacred Person, blessed for ever, upon whose shoulder the judgment is laid, shall unfold his peculiar favors to thee, and you must render a severe account of thy returns!

When the mystery of thy creation shall be unveiled to thee; when you shall apprehend thoroughly, what it is to have been fetched out of the dark and barren shade of an eternal privation, and to be put in a capacity of glory: when he shall recount to thee the proceedings of his handy-work, the method of thy making, the several articles and gradations of his providence in the formation of thee; how, at first, he " poured thee out like milk, and curdled thee like cheese;" how he spun out thine arteries and veins, and " whilst you Wert yet in thy blood, said unto thee, Live;" how he guarded thee with muscles, strengthened thee with sinews, propped thee with bones, covered thee with skin, furnished thee with organs, endued thee with senses, invested thee with reason, crowned thee with freedom,-- enlightened thee with principles of science and conscience, bounded thee by his precepts, encouraged thee by his promises, re-strained thee by his threatenings; when he shall run over the benefits of thy daily preservation, and rigorously examine what you have done for him!

            When GOD THE SON shall display to thee what He has clone and suffered for thee, and shall set before thine eyes the great mystery of thy redemption; when he shall bring thee to apprehend the price which he has paid, and that ransom which you have not regarded; when it will not he in thy power to pass over these considerations as now you dost, but they shall be forced into the centre of thy soul; when you shall have a clear sight of the abasement of a GOD incarnate; when you shall know how to be moved at the sight of a despised and an abused GODHEAD!

            When he shall charge thee with the blueness of those stripes, and the ghastliness of those wounds, which you have made; when he shall rehearse to thee the miseries of his death; when he shall recount to thee the wound­ings of the taunts and reproaches, the smart of the whips, the terror of the agony which made him sweat great drops of blood, the pricks of the thorns, the piercing of the nails, the lancing of the spear, and the ineffable horror of the dereliction under which he cried out, in the bitterness of his soul, "My GOD, my GOD, why has you forsaken me! "—And when he shall call upon thee to answer for the wounds that you have made, to render him his blood that you have spilt, to account to him for that life of which you have bereft him, to show him the fruit of all his pains and sufferings, and to present him thy returns for all these benefits and favors,-then tell me what you wilt answer, O stupid soul? How art you prepared to reply?

            Wilt you deny that he has done these things for thee? Or, caust you show as much for him? Have you re-turned him that being which he has given thee, though that would come infinitely short of thy obligation? Hasa you sacrificed thyself for his benefit, or abased thyself for his commodity? What wilt you plead when you art called? The time is coming, thy judgment is hastening, thine account is unavoidable, thy Judge inexorable!

            But it may be replied, " Alas! what could I have done for him? What profit could I have brought him, if I should have pined away in the exercise of devotion, and been eaten up with zeal? If I should have’spent my substance in burnt-offerings, or calves of a year old?' If I should have presented him’ with thousands of rams, or ten thousand rivers of oil?’ To what purpose then should I endeavor that which I could not have performed? Why should I trouble myself with vain attempts, and spend my strength about that which I never could accomplish?

            Neither, if 1 be righteous, is He the better; nor, if I be wicked, is He the worse.’ Our goodness extends not to Him. If you sinnest, what dost you against Him? If you be righteous, what receiveth he at thine hand?’ "—Is this then the excuse? I need not stand to unfold the disingenuousness and the madness of this evasion. How-ever, though these things shall be urged upon us, they are not all; these offer themselves in the consideration of the person of the Judge, but are not all the matter of thy judgment. For,

            IV. You shall be brought to Judgment for these things:—there is the matter of thy judgment.

            V. For All these things:—there is the extent of it. Because I desire not to be tedious, we will put these two together.

            And now we are descended from these less familiar considerations, to which we were forced to strain our understandings in the contemplation of our Judge, into the compass of our own sphere, and to the survey of our own operations; we are come from the incomprehensible ways of GOD, to the ways of our own hearts. " Walk in the ways of thy heart. But know, that for all these things GOD will bring thee to judgment." In the judg­ment of this life, men are tried for the works of their hands, or the words of their mouths; for theft or murder, for slander or treason, men may be brought to judgment; but thought is free. He is dealt with, as if he had lived well, who has kept his crimes close; the crafty politician and the concealed hypocrite escape. Hereafter the case will be quite contrary; the judgment takes in primarily the ways of the heart, and the words and actions only as they proceed from them. Wherefore let us withdraw for a time into ourselves, and endeavor to mete out the extent of this proposition: For all the ways of the hearts of men, GOD will bring them to Judgment."

            How would it trouble us to recount and bring to memory every thought of but one day, and how many disorders and irregularities should we find in such a

reflection How do our thoughts float upon out Inains, and we know neither whence they come, nor what becomes of them! When they break in upon our minds, we cannot hold them; and when they are gone from us, (as it was with NEBUCHADNEZZAR'S dream,) it is not in our power. to recover them. How many roving fancies present themselves unto us in a moment; and how many sudden and imperfect complacencies and distastes arc raised by them! Leave but thyself unbound, unfixed (by hearing, or reading, or business) for an hour; and then tell inc what suppositions, and consequences, and resolutions you have made, and how you have felt thyself to stray upon the borders of lust or envy, of pride or anger, of discontent or melancholy! O that you would but reflect a little upon your souls, and consider how many wandering thoughts have broken in upon your minds, since I began to speak of this important subject. You might thus save me the labor of further speaking, and raise yourselves to that which I endeavor. I fear you might find, among your sacred thoughts, a mixture of others very unsuitable; of envious, of ambitious, of covet­ous, of idle thoughts. All these are the matter of our future judgment: however they slightly pass us here, they are noted in the book of GOD; and when that book shall be opened, they will be charged to our account.

            You tellest my wanderings," (says the Psalmist;) " Are not these things noted in thy book? " I have already said enough to take up the consideration of the remainder of our time: but our hearts being too heavy, and our cars too dull of hearing, to be moved with generals, I must crave leave to run over the heads of some particulars.  You must give an account of all things committed to thee, inward or outward, natural or spiritual, thy senses and thy understanding, thine outward and thine inward faculties: —Whether you have kept a constant covenant with thine eyes, and has never suffered them to rove in disorder: whether you have bowed thine ears to discipline, and never let them be open to vain entertainments: whether thy taste has been moderated by the necessities of nature, and the laws of temperance, and never let loose according to the lust of not: whether thy hands have been wholly employed in the works of GOD, and never been instru­ments to the machinations of the Devil: whether thy speech has never uttered any idle words, but ever " administered grace to the hearers:" whether thy feet have only traced the ways of GOD, and never " stood in the way of sinners:"

            What has been the exercise of thine inward faculties, thine apprehensions, and thy desires: whether thy fancy has always been employed in. administering help to thine understanding, and never afforded incentives to t by vile affections: whether thy memory has been taken rip with the things which GOD has done, and CHRIST has suffered for thee, and has afforded no place to vanity: what have been the object, measure, end, and circum­stances, of thy love, hatred, desire, aversion, delight, sadness, hope, despair, fear, boldness, anger, jealousy, and compassion:

            How you have managed thine understanding, and im­tu owed thy contemplative and active principles: whether you have advanced in the discovery of eternal truths, or herded with the beasts that perish: whether you have cherished the principles, the dictates, and reflections of thy conscience, and never rebelled against them: how you have determined the freedom of thy will, in thine election and consent, thy fruition and use, when good and evil, life and death, have been set before thee.

            How you have behaved thyself in spirituals, in gifts and graces: whether you have accepted that which has been offered, and improved what you have accepted, or hid it in a napkin:—1n outward things, how you have acquired, and how you have managed thine estate: how you have behaved thyself in thy relations, public and private, in thy charge, and in thy duty.—But the time would fail me to reckon up a considerable part of the exercises and objects of the " ways of the hearts " of men: and yet all these, and many more, are but the simple elements, and common heads, of our account.

            Consider then, O negligent soul! if you couldest reckon up the ways of thy heart, in any one of these kinds; if you couldest call to mind but every idle word whereof you must give an account, or thy motions upon every thing you have heard, and remember, in any one of these elements, what you have done, or else omitted; then tell me how wouldest you find thyself possessed, and how wouldest you be disposed to judgment? Wouldest you deem it needless or idle to call it be-times to thy remembrance? Wouldest you drive off thy thoughts of it to the time of sickness, or to the hour of death, and rudely throw thyself upon it?—But then, try and examine all these together; contemplate a little the mixtures and combinations of them; these will afford us many millions of millions of "ways," (far exceeding the varieties of the corporeal nature, which proceed from the mixture of fewer elements,) so many as it will utterly confound our thoughts to number. Who can reckon up the " ways of the hearts" of the children of men? " Who can understand his errors? "

            And now, that He who has the world to uphold, the planets and stars to guide, and the course of nature to maintain, should keep a register of our impertinencies, and bring to judgment all the ways of men; (the traces of a ship in the sea, or of a serpent upon a rock;)—who has believed our report? We are apt to believe it cannot be, and to say, " Surely he sees not these things: tush, he cares not for them." This is indeed the last resort of the treacherous hearts of men, the grand imposture, which may be resolved into a species of atheism and infidelity. O! if I should use the language of the Scriptures, I must call thee fool and beast, to doubt of that which is plain and evident., and to disbelieve that which may be known. —This article concerning the judgment to come, is not a problem of philosophy, to be disputed this way and that

way, with equal probability. ST. PAUL speaks of the terror of judgment under terms which imply certainty; and a kind of demonstrative evidence; " KNOWING the terror of the Lotto." And here in the text it is not said, Think, or Believe; but " Know that for all these things GOD will bring thee to Judgment."

VI. He is a fool that has said in his heart there is no Goo; and he that thinks he has no understanding may well be compared to the beasts that perish. And so surely as there is a GOD, and as man has an understanding soul, so surely it may be known, " That for all these things GOD will bring thee to Judgment." For if there be a GOD, he must be infinitely just; and if so, he must render to every one according to his actions, if not here, then hereafter; and if so, he must bring them to judgment. But he does it not here: the ways of Providence seem to be promiscuous. " There is a wicked man to whom it happens according to the way of the righteous, and a righteous man to whom it happens according to the way of the wicked." DIVES receives pleasure, LAZARUS pain; therefore so surely as there is a GOD, there will be a judgment.

            Again, If man have an understanding soul, he must have freedom in his actions; and if so, he deserves either good or evil; and if there be desert, there must be retribution; and if there be retribution, there must be a judgment. So then, so surely as you art an understanding creature, so surely there is a judgment to come.

Once more, retribution is answerable to desert; and desert is only in what is free; and what is free in man is " the ways of his heart." Wherefore, they are to be brought to judgment: and if any, then all; for no reason can be fancied, why some should be brought to judgment, and others not. Wherefore, if it be sure that GOD is in heaven, and that man has an understanding soul, then it is also sure that for all these things GOD will bring thee to judgment, and that GOD shall bring to judgment every secret thing.

            And now how sure and evident are these things!—more sure and more plain, if we will attend to them, than any other truths in the world; for there is not any known truth which does not evince the truth of these things. We know a truth, because we plainly and evidently under-stand the notions in a proposition, or the deduction of a proposition from some others; therefore, if we know any truth, we pre-suppose that we have souls which under-stand the notions of things; and if we have souls which understand these notions, then surely they are not bodies; (no combination of fire, and air, and earth, and water, no disposition of insensible atoms, can cause the subject to apprehend and judge, to reason and discourse;) and if they be no bodies, then they are not subject to corruption. It is evident therefore that our souls are intelligent, and immortal, deserving and capable of future judgment.

            And as evident it is, also, that there is a a sovereign power, a GOD that governs and will judge the earth.—This is not a rhetorical undertaking, but a just and measured truth: there is not any thing in the world from whence these two may not be plainly evinced, viz. a GOD-head from the creature, and thine own immortality from a Godhead. The world, which you see'st, had it a begin­ning, or had it not? If it had a beginning, He is thy GOD that made it; if it had no beginning, then there are as many myriads of years as minutes of time, which is infi­nitely more absurd to grant, than to say, you have as many hands as fingers, as many wholes as parts.

            If then at any time we find ourselves to doubt of these things, it is not because we are the beaux esprits, or forts esprits; our doubting proceeds from dullness, and the want of that reason to which we pretend. The things are certain in themselves, and evident. " He is not far from any one of us, in whom we live, and move, and have our being;" and our immortality was discovered not only to Philosophers, but even to the heathen poets,—to him that sung, " We are also his offspring."—So that now thy pretences are all taken off, and every imposture of the heart discovered'—Return then once again into thy bosom, and take account of thy apprehensions. The day of the Lord is coming and stealing upon thee as a thief in the night;—the day of judgment, the great and terrible day; a day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of whirlwind and tempest, a day of anguish and tribulation. Where wilt you hide thyself? O that is impossible! " Whither shall we go from his presence?" Shall we " call to the mountains to fall upon us?" How wilt you appear? O that is intolerable, for our GOD is a consuming fire: What wilt you do when the day of judgment comes?—and this may be the hour! This minute you may be smitten, and hurried hence to judgment! Thousands have fallen beside us, and ten thousands at our right hand; and why may not we be the next? The time of our death cannot be far away; and why may we not reasonably apprehend the approach of the general judgment, either of this world, or at least of this sinful nation? Our LoRD indeed tells us, that "of the day and hour" of the final judgment, " knows no man." Yet he has given us the signs of his coming. The Apostles have left us characters of the last days; and the Prophets have declared the manner and apparatus of the coming of the LORD to judgment.

            We read that when the Disciples admired the stones and the buildings of HEROD'S temple at Jerusalem, CHRIST told them, that the day was coming when there should not be left one stone upon another: upon this the Disciples ask him (privately) three questions: 1. " When shall these things be?" 2. " What shall be the sign of thy" second " coming? And," 3. "Of the end of the world?"

            As for the precise moment of these things, he refuses to tell it them; nay, he professes, that as the Son of Man he did not know it. But on the other two points, he condescends to their curiosity; he tells them the signs of his coming, and of the end of the world, and that they shall besuch as these:--"You shall hear," says he, (Matt. 24:,) " of wars and rumors of wars; for nation -shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom." There shall be traitors and " false prophets," saying, " Lo! here is CHRIST; behold he (a new MESSIAH) is in the wil­derness: Lo! there is CHRIST; behold, he is in the secret chambers."—He tells us, that " iniquity shall abound, and the love of many shall wax cold;" that " he shall hardly find faith on the earth; and that as it was in the days of NOAH, when they were eating and drinking, till the flood came and swept them all away, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be.—He tells us, (Luke 21:,) that " there shall be earthquakes, famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights, great signs from heaven; on the earth distress of nations, with perplexities; the sea and the waves roaring; men's hearts failing them for fear, looking after those things that are coming upon the earth."

            Concerning the last days, ST. PAUL also tells us, that there shall be " perilous times;" that on one hand there shall be a sort of men, that shall be " lovers of themselves, covetous, boasters, proud, and blasphemers;" and that on the other hand there shall be a race of men " heady, high-minded, traitors, having a form of Godli­ness, creeping into houses, leading captive silly women." They shall " despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities. These," says S'r. JUDE, " are they that separate them-selves, sensual, not having the SPIRIT."—ST. PETER tells us, likewise, that in the last times there should be a loose, profane, bold, atheistical, gigantic race of "scoffers, walking after their own lusts," saying, " Where is this GOD of judgment? let him make speed, and hasten his work, that we may see it." " Where is the promise of his coming? Since the fathers fell asleep, all things con­tinue as they were before."

            And as to the manner and apparatus of his coming, " Our GOD shall come," says the Psalmist, " and shall not keep silence; there shall go before him a devouring fire, and a mighty tempest shall be stirred up round about him."—" Behold! the LORD will come with fire," says the Prophet, "and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire. The streams of Zion shall be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone; the land thereof shall be burning pitch; the smoke thereof shall ascend day and night, and shall not be quenched."—The kings of the earth shall tremble, the captains and the mighty shall be horribly afraid, the great men and the rich men shall hide themselves, all the bond-men and all the free-men shall flee to the rocks of the mountains. And soon after all this, " the heavens shall be shrivelled as a scroll;" the earth and the elements shall melt away; for GOD shall arise to judge terribly the earth.

            Have not all these things come upon us, the men of this generation? Is it weakness, is it a vain and super­stitious scrupulosity, to call these things to our remem­brance? Have we no reason at all to apprehend the approach of a general judgment, either upon the world, or upon our sinful nation?  Do we not now envy those once despised persons who have made their accounts ready? We thought it madness to see them pine away with penitential exercises, and macerate themselves with mourning. We thought that fully, which they called conscience, and for which they denied themselves the pleasures of the world. "We fools counted their lives madness, and their latter end to be without honor." But the time is coming when they shall be "comforted," and we shall be " tormented." " Because He has called and we have refused, He has stretched out his hand, and we have not regarded, He will laugh at our calamity, and mock when our fear cometh; when our destruction cometh as a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon us,"

            May we not therefore give up ourselves to our hearts, and surrender our souls unto despair? So Israel said; There is no hope, we will follow every one the devices of his heart: "—" After twenty, thirty, or forty years' con­tinuance in our courses, it is in vain to think of turning from them. Our arrears are gone so far, that there is no hope of discharging them; and why should we trouble our-selves with the thoughts of our account? Nay, that which must come, let it come;—what is a few days' respite to eternity? ` Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we shall die.' Let us go forth as at other times, and shake our-selves, and scatter these troublesome apprehensions of future judgment. What if we should drink a little, to drive away melancholy? "--Yes! and fall, perhaps, in our intoxication, and rise no more!

            Nay, but, I beseech you, stay a little, and consider; consider, " at least in this your day, the things which belong to your peace. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living Goo! Who among us can dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us can dwell with ever-lasting burnings? "  Such careless and desperate resolutions are the advan­tages at which the Devil aims, that he may sear our con-sciences, and seal us up in a final obduration. But there is another kind of advantage, at which GOD, and our LORD CHRIST, and the HOLY SPIRIT, and the Gospel, aim,—that advantage of which I told you in the beginning of my discourse; that "knowing the terror of the LORD, they may persuade men."

            And now what is it, to which they would persuade us? That we will be contented to part with the tormenting fears of judgment; that we will condescend not to be miserable to all eternity; that we will accept of deliver­ance from the wrath to come; that we will not neglect so great salvation, nor trample on the blood of the everlast­ing covenant.

            Behold! GOD calls upon us: " Turn you, turn you at my reproof, why will you die, O house of Israel? As I live, says the LORD, I desire not the death of sinners." Our LORD CHRIST calls upon us: " Come unto me, all ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest." In the last day of the feast of tabernacles, he "stood and cried, saying, "If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink." " The SPIRIT says, Come, andwhosoever will, let him come, and take of the water of life freely." The Gospel assures us, that " GOD so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten SON, that who­soever believeth on him should not perish, but have ever-lasting life."

            Behold! I " set before you life and death, blessing, and cursing: " and, as an unworthy ambassador in CHRIST'S stead, I " pray you be reconciled to Goo." Take his "yoke upon you; his yoke is easy, and his burden light:" embrace now the tender of the Gospel; only repent, and believe in the LORD JESUS,—accept him for your SAVIOR and your LORD, your Prophet to instruct you, your King to govern you, your Priest to save you,—and you shall be saved; saved from the fears and horrors of a guilty con-science, condemned by its own witness; saved from the wrath of GOD and of the Lamb. You shall meet the LORD with confidence. We shall be able to stand with boldness in the judgment, to "lift up our heads with joy, because our redemption draweth near."

            This is the way to save our own souls from perishing; which is the general design of all our preaching. And this is the way to appease the wrath which is gone out against us, and to preserve our nation from destruction; which is the particular and more immediate end of our present humiliation, whereof I am yet to speak. The hand of the LORD has indeed been heavy upon us; his wrath has been kindled; it has " waxed hot against the sheep of his pasture," and he has plagued our nation very sore: his judgments have been multi-plied; his strokes have been redoubled; and for all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still."

            Wars and pestilences, and other forerunners of CHRIST'S coming to judgment, have been seen and felt amongst us: And now when these have not been able to prevail with us, to awaken a drowsy people, to rouse up a lethargic nation, and to ferment a people settled upon their lees, GOD has made a new thing in the midst of us; he has wrought a work in our days, which makes the ears of all that hear it to tingle,—a work not to be paralleled, perhaps, in all the circumstances, since the creation of the world.

            " How has the LORD covered the daughter of our Zion with a cloud in his anger, and cast down from heaven to earth the beauty of Israel, and remembered not his footstool in the day of anger? He has swal­lowed up the habitation of his people; he has taken away his tabernacles, and destroyed his places of assem­blies; the ramparts and the walls lament and languish; her gates are sunk to the ground, her bars are de­stroyed."

            Who can express the terror of this judgment,—the unexpected eruption, the sudden increase, the irresistible force, the remorseless rage, the insatiable voracity of this fiery judgment? The present sufferings and the lasting miseries of private persons are inexpressible; the public damage, and the dangerous consequences, it may be, are inconceivable.

            What thing shall I liken to thee, O daughter of my people? Whereunto shall I compare the day of thy visi­tation? To the destruction of Jerusalem, or to the great and terrible day of judgment?  O the terrors and affrights, the shrieks and lamenta­tions, the agonies and confusions, of that day! They that were on the house-top durst not stay to take any thing out of their houses, nor he that was in the field return back to take his clothes; they that were in the city betook themselves to the fields and mountains, where they beheld their flaming habitations, and trembled to behold the abomination of desolation raging in the holy places.

            How were the wise men amazed, and the strong men terrified? Despair seized them; counsel and strength fled away from them; there was no help in them; they presently gave up all for lost; they stood affrighted at a distance, gazing at the dreadful spectacle. Vain they thought it to contend; it looked so like the coming of the SON OF MAN.

            The breath of the LORD kindled the fire. " He rode upon the cherub, he came flying upon the wings of the wind." He made " the winds his messengers," and the " flames of fire his ministers." He " brought the winds out of his treasure," and (to point the flame directly upon the bulk and body of the city) "through his power he brought in the south-east wind." " As a thief in the night," as " pains upon a woman in travail," as " the lightning that cometh from the east and passes to the west," so came this flaming judgment; and so shall the coming of the Son of MAN be.—I cannot endure to dilate this argument; sorrow and anguish are in the considera­tion of it. Animus menzinisse horret, luctuque refugit. Great is the judgment; and there is reason for us to fear that it may be portending and symptomatical.

Yet who can tell but GOD may have mercy upon us, and yet save us from destruction? Though our breach be great as the sea, yet it is not irreparable;' though our wounds be deep and gaping, they are not desperate or incurable. Hitherto we may say with the Apostle, we are "chastened, but not killed; afflicted, but not in despair."

            The signs and symptoms of an approaching final judg­ment are not so peremptory, as that we should despair. Col's final judgments have hitherto been accompanied with signs of mercy; and this is a plain case, that he is not fond of our destruction, and that he had rather that we should live. " He does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men." He stands pausing and hesitating, as the did once before, saying, "O Ephraim, how shall I give thee up? " " How shall I give thee up, O England?" What mean else those alternations, and those mixtures and combinations, of wonderful judg­ments and of wonderful deliverances and mercies, which our ears have heard, and our eyes have seen? We have heard with our ears, and our fathers have told us what wonderful deliverances he wrought in their time of old. We have seen vicissitudes great and prodigious, mixtures and combinations, marvelous in our eyes; horrible de­structions, and wonderful restitutions, succeeding one another; raging plagues at home, and signal victories abroad. GOD has filled us with bitterness, and covered us with ashes: but "it is of his mercy that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not." If the arm of his justice and severity has been made bare, that it might be seen of all the people, he has not left his mercy without witness. If his judgment has been great and terrible, in that which is consumed, his mercy is wonderful and miraculous in that which is preserved. "Exce.p.t the LORD had left us a remnant," (and visibly interposed to do it,) we should not have had this place wherein we are to humble ourselves before him: "we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah." It was He who in " the midst of judgment remembered mercy." When the flaming venge­ance was at its height; when, in the opinion of all men, it had arrived at the state of irresistibility; when every man's heart failed him, and the hopes of all men were sunk into despair; He checked the domineering vengeance, He put up the flaming sword, He controlled the stream­ing waves of fire, and said, " Thus far shall ye come, and no farther." In a wonderful manner he preserved the goods and persons of the poor inhabitants of the city. He restrained the rage of our enemies, that cried con­cerning our Jerusalem, "Down with it, down with it. Aha! so would we have it." He suffered not a foreign enemy to land, nor our domestic foes to make head in our confusions. He was a wall of fire about the persons of our gracious Sovereign, and his Royal Highness, and of those noble persons who adventured boldly and strenu­ously, and indefatigably labored, for the public pre­servation. He has given signal preservations and victories to our fleets abroad. He has restored our generals, and our fleet, in health and safety. He has given us plenty of all things necessary for the life of man. In one great word,—to sum up great and various mercies,—he has upheld our religion and government in peace; and for an earnest of his further preservation, he has given us this seasonable opportunity, with health and safety, in this place to attend the public service, in order to advise and assist in this arduous juncture of affairs.—Arduous and difficult indeed it is, to restore our city, and defend our country; to restore the houses of God, and public build­ings; to re-edify ten thousand private habitations; to sustain the poor and needy; to preserve the rights and properties of men; to find such a temper of justice and equity, " that there be no decay, no just complaining in our streets;" to uphold the traffic of the nation, and to keep it in order and security, free from private robberies and public insurrections; and, in order to all these ends, to uphold our religion in zealous and effectual exercise, as well as to make provision against our dangerous and cruel enemies, " Gebal, and Amnion, and Amalek," the French, the Dutch, and the Danes, who have conspired for our destruction.

These things are arduous, but not insuperable; difficult, but not to be despaired of. Concerning Jerusalem, burned and laid waste by the Assyrians, DANIEL foretold that the " streets and the walls thereof should be rebuilt even in troublous times;" and when the time came that they were re-edified, we read in Nehenaiali, that the laborers in one hand held the trowel, and in the other held a weapon; one half of the people labored in the work, and the other half held the spears and the shields, because of their cruel enemies on every side.

If GOD shall be pleased to give us a spirit of under-standing, and "teach our senators wisdom;" if he shall pour out a public spirit upon our councils, a spirit of tenderness and compassion, of justice and equity, tem­perance and frugality, fortitude and magnanimity; if all orders and degrees amongst us, civil, military, and eccle­siastical, shall take to themselves the spirits of Christians and of men; if our councils and endeavors shall be an­swerable to the benignity, to the fervor, and strenuous industry of our gracious Sovereign, and to the alacrity and magnanimity of our courageous and generous country­men;—then, (speaking humanly, and abstracting from our deservings,) we need not greatly fear, but we may yet subdue the pride and insolence of our barbarous enemies, and may yet behold our city rising out of its ashes, in greater splendor than we have seen it hereto-fore. Wherefore arise, and gird yourselves, O ye princes, ye nobles, ye rulers of our Israel! Consult, consider, and give sentence. " Men, brethren, and fathers," let us arise and labor; let us up and be doing. "Be strong and of good courage," and the good hand of our GOD shall be upon you; he shall give you the honor to be defenders of your country; he shall make you "repairers of the breaches, restorers of our city to dwell in."

Yet I cannot, I may not, forbear to put you in remem­brance of this one thing; "Except the LORD build the city, their labor is but lost that build it." It is not our wisdom or industry, much less our confidence, that will do it, unless Gm) be for us; neither will GOD be for us, unless we turn from the evil of our ways. Except we repent, we have reason to fear, that what we have seen hitherto, will be no more than the beginning of our sorrows. The Prophet ISAIAH tells us, that "the LORD sent a word into JACOB, and it lighted upon Israel: and all the people shall know, that say, in the pride of their hearts, The bricks are fallen down, but we will build with hewn stones; the sycamores are cut down, but we will change them into cedars. Therefore the LORD shall set up their adversaries, and join their enemies together, the Syrians before, and the Philistines behind, and they shall devour Israel with open mouth; because this people turneth not to him that smiteth them."—" Wherefore turn you, turn you every one from the evil of his ways. Let us search our hearts, and try our ways, and turn to Him that has smitten us;—turn unto Him with all our hearts,with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning. He has smitten us, and He will heal us, because his corn-passions fail not. "—"Come now, and let us reason together, says the LORD; though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow."

There is yet a way open to take away the terror of our particular judgment, and to prevent a final judgment from falling upon the nation. We are yet in the land of hope, and space is given for repentance; the door of mercy is not yet shut upon us, nor the cars of our judge sealed against us.

"O that men would therefore praise the LORD for his goodness, and declare the wonders that he has done for the children of men! He has not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities;" he has not cut us off in the midst of our sins, nor in the height of our impenitencies snatched us away to judg­ment; he has not dealt with us as with the apostate angels, and with thousands of our brethren, who were better and more righteous than we.

            Let us once more then return into ourselves. Let us consider our condition; let us look over and balance the grounds of our hopes, and the reasons of our fears. Let us take an exact account of our whole estate and interest, in reference to all our concernments, national and per­sonal, temporal and eternal. Let us deliberate and advise what is to be done, and what is to be avoided. Did I say deliberate?—Whether we shall save our souls from utter darkness and everlasting burning? Whether we shall save the nation from final ruin and desolation?—Nay, rather, let us "break off our sins by repentance, and our iniquities by showing mercy to the poor." Let us make ourselves " friends of the mammon of unrighteousness, that when " we " fail," we " may be received into ever-lasting habitations." Let us " lend unto the Lord," that, we may have " treasure in heaven, where neither moth nor rust does corrupt, nor thieves break through and steal." Let us fast " the fast that the Lord has chosen; and loose the bands of wickedness; feed the hungry; " clothe the naked." "He that has two coats, let him give to him that had' none; and he that has meat let him do likewise."

            Such an occasion scarcely happens in many hundreds of years; and as to motives to charity, they are all corn-prized in the great argument of the judgment to come.—When the Son of Man shall come to judgment, " and shall sit upon the throne of his glory;" when " all nations shall be gathered before him," and he " shall set the sheep on his right hand, and the goats on his left;" this shall be the mark of their discrimination. He shall " say to those on his right hand, I was hungry, and ye fed me; thirsty, and ye gave me drink; naked, and ye clothed me; sick and in prison, and ye visited me; come, ye blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom prepared for you." And he " shall say unto them on the left hand, I was hungry, and ye fed me not; thirsty, and ye gave me no drink;" wherefore "go ye cursed into everlasting fire, prepared for the Devil and his angels."

            The way is short and compendious to save all our interests. " What does the LORD require of us but to do justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly with our GOD P" Let us be merciful therefore as our heavenly Father is merciful, and let us humble ourselves under the Almighty hand of GOD," as we pretend to do this day. Let us betake ourselves afore-hand to our Judge, and pour out our complaints before him. Let us confess our wicked­ness, and be sorry for our sins. Let us lay hold on the feet of our blessed Redeemer, and give him no rest till he has sealed our pardon. Let us hase with our tears the wounds we have made. Let us cry mightily to the throne of grace. Let us wrestle and strive with our Redeemer, and not let Him go until He bless us; until he open our eyes to see the dangers we are in, and through his mercy show us a way to escape them; until he quicken us to resolutions of amendment, and carry us strongly through these resolutions; until he heal our backslidings, and make up our breaches; until he save our souls from death, and our nation from destruction!

To fix us in these resolutions, and to make them abide upon us all our days, let us remember what has been spoken; and let us frequently meditate upon that sarcastical concession of the text; " Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the clays of thy youth; and walk in the ways of thy heart, and in the sight of thine eyes: but know You, that for all these things GOD will bring thee into judgment."

THE
SPIRITUAL BEE;
OR,
A MISCELLANY
OF
DIVINE MEDITATIONS.

THE
SPIRITUAL BEE;
OR, A MISCELLANY OF
DIVINE MEDITATIONS.

            THERE is a very little viper at Amyclae, says SOLINUS, which is disregarded for its smallness, but hurts the more easily because slighted. The Devil often comes to plead for some sins, sub forma pauperis; saying, " Is it not a little one? " And being listened to, he can improve the smallest grant to his great advantage in our hurt and discomfort. Therefore when he shooteth this shaft, let us take it up and retort it on himself again. If he makes the smallness of the thing a consideration to tempt us to compliance, let us make use of it to facilitate our re­sistance. If it be small to yield to, it is little to resist; and it is easiest to deny SATAN in the smallest things, whom we must not gratify in any. So long as we show no kindness to him, he can never hurt us: but if we give him the least corner of our souls, only to sojourn in, he will soon get an absolute rule. If he have admittance at the smallest pass, " behold a troop comes;" as the whole power of an army may break in upon a city at a narrow breach. A little spark may set on fire a whole town. It is therefore an excellent saying of the Son of &RACH, " He that contemneth small things shall fall by little and little." Let me crush the cockatrice in the egg, that I feel not the mortal sting of the serpent when engen­dered; and strangle sin in its infancy, that the first breath it takes may be likewise the last, and that it may expire in the first motions; and that though it be con­ceived, yet it may prove abortive. Happy shall he be, " O daughter of Babylon," that thus " taketh thy chil­dren," while young, " and dasheth them against the stones."

            II. I HAVE sometimes seen a blazing light, much out-shining other stars, and attracting the eyes of men to behold it with wonder, which yet, by vanishing a while after, has appeared to have had no true place among the stars; and which, notwithstanding its glorious lustre, secretly sent forth vapours of a malignant nature. How many have been seen and gazed on with admiration, who have shone with glorious beams, which yet have at length discovered themselves to be exhalations only, gilded with rays, and counterfeiting the stars. Many have had a shining zeal in those exercises of religion that he open to the view, and so have gotten and kept up a high esteem and credit; but not trading on a solid stock, no wonder that they prove bankrupts at last. These falling stars shall never shine in the firmament of heaven. Let all there-fore try, and assure to themselves, the fixedness of their station; and, making just abatement for that false light, with which worldly credit and advantage, or slavish fear of GOD, may have vested them, examine what remains which is true and firmly grounded. Let me never deceive myself or others with a false light. I had rather be a true star, though the smallest, and shining undiscerned, like the stars in the milky-way, than be the most glorious comet.

            III.  FINDING my friend in a passion, d endeavored by some motives to reduce him to moderation; but I per­ceived that he was the more incensed, and that after the attempts I made to allay his heat, it was become greater than before. Passion is deaf to all advice but what may seem to encourage it. This wild-fire makes that its fuel, which was intended to quench it; and turns that into food, which was designed for remedy. Water cast on the smith's forge makes it burn the fiercer. A torrent is so far from being restrained by what is set to stop it, that it swells the higher, and spreads the farther;—Fontem indignatur. To encounter a man in the boister­ousness of his passion, is to enter the combat with such creatures as ST. PAUL fought with at Ephesus;—to cast reins on the waves of the sea when it rages;—and to use rational endeavors to call a soldier to council in the heat and fury of a battle. The method therefore most kind and effectual is, to give place to wrath while the tempest rages;—and not to apply ourselves to the cure of it in its paroxysm, nor, at too great a disadvantage, to meet it with reason and counsel, when it comes forth armed with fury, and hooded with blindness. When the fire has got a full conquest, and the flame is outrageous, we seek not to quench it with water, and to save the house; but rather, by pulling down the next, to make the want of fuel diminish the flame. The violence of anger is best broken by giving way, and yielding to it, as a flint is most easily broken on a cushion; and time is the best lenitive to mollify.

            IV.  IT has been observed, that those who have the longest freedom from diseases, most hardly escape, when a disease once takes hold of them; and hence it is, that fevers are generally more pernicious in England, than in places about us, because that disease is less familiar to our natures, than to those in our neighboring countries.  Temptations are usually most dangerous where least frequent; and their assaults are most effectual on those who have most seldom experienced them. They are then most to be feared, when their power is increased by a strength gathered from a long discontinuance, and the edge of our resistance blunted by long ease. When our shield is laid by, and may have contracted rust, then those fiery darts are with most difficulty repelled; when our bow is unbent, and our hand in our bosom, no wonder if our disadvantage be great, upon the enemy's onset. Hence SATAN has this stratagem amongst others, not to be frequent in his assaults in places where former alarms have excited care and vigilance; but rather to attempt an entrance, where a long quiet has produced security, and lessened the power of defense. Where he bestows his visits most rarely, he is least feared, and consequently least provided against. Let me not think myself secure from those temptations with which I have been little exercised, lest I find myself over-powered where I least suspected assault, and add to the other advantages, of which SATAN has too many over me, that of mine own security.

            V.  THE deepest waters move silently, and undiscernibly. The stars, though vast and glorious bodies, yet from their distance seem very small; and many stars, as in the galaxy, shine unseen. The moon, when that side towards the earth is darkened, towards heaven shines bright. If in some men's conversation I seem to discern little or no splendor, let me not be forward in my censures of their state. It may be, that I do not approach near enough to them. Perchance, " our heavenly Father " may see that in secret, which does not discover itself openly; —they may have a bright side heaven-ward, though toward earth they seem wholly eclipsed. Perchance they have so much more of the Publican in them, than of the Pharisee, that they will not let their " left hand know what their right hand doth." As most men seem better than they are in truth, so some are better than they seem to be. I had rather be good and not seem so, than seem good and not be so: for the Publican went home justified rather than the Pharisee.

            VI.  THE Book which ST. JOHN ate, while in his mouth, was sweet and pleasant, but in his belly became bitter. We read of waters in Miletum and elsewhere, which are fresh at the top, and bitter at the bottom; and of a lake in Phrygia, whose water makes those that drink it strangely jocund and full of laughter, but ends in their death. While we are pleasing ourselves in worldly pleasure, we should do well to consider whether it will not be bitter­ness in the end. There is no earthly pleasure which has not the inseparable attendance of grief,—and that fol­lowing it as closely as JACOB came after ESAU, " holding it by the heel." Yea, worldly delight is but a shadow; and when we catch after it, all that we grasp is substan­tial sorrow in its room. The honey should not be very delightful, when the sting is so near; it is better to want it, than to feel the smart and venom that attends it. Let me rest on nothing that has not a real and unmixed pleasure in it; and then I shall find I must leave this world, and take a higher flight; there is no such thing here, on which I can rest the sole of my foot; all earthly things have within them both the saltness and the turbulency of the sea. I will not bid adieu to innocent delight; but neither shall it have any thing of my heart. If I unwarily press too much on roses in the pulling, the prickles may run into my fingers. I will honestly enjoy my delights, but not purchase them at so dear a rate as my own danger. That mortal laughter and dancing which the bite of the tarantula causes, are only cured by music. The best remedy against the madness of laughter, is the voice of that "wise charmer:"—GOD can cure and retrench the exorbitances and profuseness of our spirits in worldly delights.

            VII.  LET us contemplate prayer in its journey between earth and heaven, as JACOB did the angels ascending and descending. It ascends lightly mounted on the wings of faith; but it always comes laden down again upon our heads. It goes up, it may be, in a shower of tears; but descends in a shower of blessings. It is wafted into heaven with groans; (for these have a force to open heaven's gates, and that prayer flies swiftly that is carried on the wings of a groan;) but those sighs return again laden with comforts, like the south winds in Egypt, whose wings are loaded with the sweet odors of spices. They go out weeping, but never come weeping back; for where the spring and seed-time are wet, the harvest is clear and joyful. " They that sow in tears reap in joy.

            VIII.  I HAVE sometimes wondered, and almost judged it another miracle, that BALAAM was no more amazed at that most strange and uncouth miracle, when he heard a voice come from that mouth which was wont only to bray, and saw himself out-reasoned by that which was remark-able for nothing so much as its stupidity and dullness. I marvel that his knees did not tremble, and his heart become like a stone; and that he did not so much as alight, on account of it; but, as though no strange thing had fallen out, he gave the beast a wrathful answer, without any symptoms of wonder. although, perchance, being a sorcerer, he might be not wholly a stranger to converse not much different from this, which might make it seem less uncouth; yet I rather think, that the transport of madness which so possessed this Prophet, and the covet­ousness which blinded his eyes, left no room for reflection. See, then, how senseless and stupid lust and passion make us. Many are so eager in the pursuit of their foolish desires, and so wholly possessed with contrivances to compass, and hopes to attain, their satisfaction, that they regard not any providences, though ever so strange and remarkable, which cross them in their course. Though GOD meet them in the way with a drawn sword, though he speak from heaven in a voice of thunder against them, they are not astonished. They may storm and rage at the impediments which traverse their unlawful pursuit, and at the blocks which are laid in their way; but they take no notice of the hand of Providence which casteth them there, though it be, perhaps, as visible and miracu­lous as that which wrote BELSHAllAR'S doom on the wall.

            IX.  WE read in GELLIUS of a soldier, who, riding forth to a muster, with a horse as lean as if he had been newly raised out of a charnel, and being himself so well habited and full, that he might have been a very sufficient burthen for a more able beast, was asked by the Censors whence came such a great disproportion between the meagreness of the one, and the grossness of the other; to which he answered, " That it was because he took care of himself, but his servant took charge of his horse." Most men have languid and infirm souls, while their bodies are in a vigorous habit. And whence is this? Because their souls have no share in their care; they do not mind them as their own proper charge. Their time and diligence are all laid out on their bodies; these are the darlings they pamper, and which engross all their thoughts; or if they expend any in the other way, they soon rescue themselves as from an usurpation and encroachment. But, surely, souls so weakened and emaciated will not be able to stand the least brunt in the day of battle, laboring under the pressure and weight of flesh so much indulged. Let me have a lean, unhealthy, deformed body;—no matter, so I may find my soul sound, strong, and beautiful, in the eyes of GOD.

            X.  SOME are so curious as to conjecture, that CHRIST'S prayer, which he made after his withdrawment from his Disciples, was not merely mental, but vocal; inferring it from the manner in which the Evangelists relate it,--a He prayed, saying,"—which they will have to imply an audible speech and voice.

There is some advantage to be observed in prayer which is vocal, above what is mental only; although it be all one to GOD, who has an ear to hear what the heart prays, as well as what the mouth uttereth. This ad-vantage consists in the following particulars.

            1. By joining a voice to our mental prayer, our affec­tions are more awakened and quickened; as we find by experience, that the sense of a misery, when cooped up in our own thoughts, does not always burst into tears, which are the language of grief, but yet, when we vent it to others, in our recounting it, we cannot refrain from weeping.

            2. It confines the mind more closely, and keeps it more fixed and intent upon what is spoken.

            3. We find sometimes, that vehemency of affection forces us to it; for when our devotion is ardent, and the fire is kindled within us, it breaks forth into outward ex­pressions, complaints, or tears.

            4. I may add, lastly, that we can sometimes better form, or at least draw out in better order, our con­ceptions of what we pray for in an audible voice.

            XI.  I SAW a painter, who had made the picture of a face smiling, on a sudden, with no more than one dash of his pencil, make it seem to weep. How near are the confines of joy and sorrow, both of which, by the change of a line, may be made to sit on the same countenance! Their nature is much more distant than their abode. In the twinkling of an eye, in the turning of a hand, sadness may jostle out mirth; and deep sighs may be fetched from that breast, whence loud laughter has just made its eruption. Pleasure may die in the same moment that gave it its birth; and a sudden succession of grief may turn its cradle into its grave. The tears, in which an enlarged and vehement passion of joy had run over, may be arrested in the middle of their course, and be made to minister unto grief. In the flight of a minute, or in the beating of a pulse, the dilation of the heart by pleasure may be turned into a contraction of it by sorrow.

            XII.  LIVY tells us, that the Gauls, when they had once tasted of the wines of Italy, were so much taken with the plea­santness of them, that they would not afterwards rest contented with a bare trade thither for their wine, but firmly resolved to get possession by conquest of the land which produced it. Thus the antepasts of glory do but provoke the desires, and excite the appetite, of the believ­ing soul. He is so far from being satisfied by foretastes, that they do but augment his thirst after a full fruition. He is not content with those small drops which are de-rived unto him at so great a distance from the fountain: nor are those degrees of grace and comfort, which he gains by holding commerce with heaven while upon earth, by means of prayer and faith, in the worship and ordinances of GOD, sufficient to allay his hunger. He cannot drink his fill, nor slake his thirst, at those cisterns. A holy insatiableness does so enlarge the capacity of his soul, that the more he has, the more he longeth for; and the wideness of his increasing desires is proportioned to the largeness of his receivings. He therefore resolves and aims, by a holy violence, to get possession of that spiritual Canaan from whence these grapes are brought; that so he may there drink of that wine of the kingdom, and of those rivers of pleasure.

            XIII. IT is strange how ST. PETER, who not long before had been so daring as to draw his sword on a whole regiment, was yet, notwithstanding all his resolves and protestations about not forsaking CHRIST, suddenly infected with the air of the priest's hall. As soon as he had got in thither, his temper was changed, as though a contagion had seized him; and while he did but warm himself at their fire, his zeal and respect for his Master were abated and chilled. As many times, our foot is in the Devil's snare, and we are grievously entangled, where we thought we might have been safe enough. We may venture upon occasions of sin, and put ourselves within SATAN'S circle, thinking we are sufficiently armed by peremptory resolves and engagements; not duly considering, either the plausible and insinuating nature of sin, the treachery and deceit of our hearts, or the craft and importunity of the Tempter. Hard it is to avoid infection in the company of those that have the pestilence; especially as evil men have so much of that quality which is ascribed to those who have the plague,—a desire to taint others. It is hard not to be seized by evil, though by gentle and insensible degrees, in the society of the wicked. Evil converse cannot but leave a tincture upon us, if rare; if more frequent, a deep and double dye. The spirits and manners of men are, by a secret enchantment, transformed into the conditions of those with whom they communicate.

We may say generally of rivers, that they never run within the same banks without mixing their current. Waters, passing through the earth, have a quality and savour derived to them from the nature of the soils and minerals through which they pursue their course.

            XIV. I HAVE seen a deception used, to keep some from their meat, so that they dare not eat it, by laying shreds of lute-strings on it, which appeared like worms; and to keep them from their drink, by putting into it the coun­terfeit of a toad. SATAN often plays this part; and uses such a deception to affright the children of GOD from their Father's table, and to make them out of conceit with duties. He presents to their sight the corruptions of their performances, and so represents them, that they appear formal though ever so zealous, and proud or hypocritical, though attended with ever so much humility and sincerity. When you have done thy work, then he comes with his sophistry, to make thee afraid that what you have done will turn to thy hurt; and, opening the parts of thy duty, tells thee,—" Here thy corruptions wrought, and there thy pride discovered its stirrings; here you wert as cold as if you caredst not whether you went heeded or not, and there you hadst lost thine heart. And is there not death in the pot, thiukest thou? Or expectest you wages for what deserveth stripes?" These artifices he uses, to dis­hearten believers from their services; and he has this great advantage, that they are usually apt to suspect themselves; their humors are stirred to his hand, and therefore he may the more easily work on them; they are ready to give credit to any that comply with their pensive apprehensions, and therefore are easily induced to use SATAN'S perspective, which at one end magnifies the evil of their performances, and makes it seem greater than it is, while at the other end, it extenuates the good, and makes it appear less. It is easy for SATAN to press down him that is already sinking, and to dye that soul sable black, which is of a dark and sad hue before. You who art not ignorant of SATAN'S devices, show him that you seest the sophistry, and understand the cheat.

            XV.  THERE is what we are wont to call good nature, which, however desirable, yet does very much prepare and expose those in whom it is found to temptations. For it is nothing but a pliable, yielding, waxen frame, which is so much the more subject to evil impressions rather than good, as wickedness is more insinuating than virtue. Such flexible twigs are easily bowed into crookedness; such a soft temper of mind is easily wrought and moulded to a compliance with the most dangerous suggestions; as the soft head of the infant is framed into any fashion by the midwife and nurse. Their facility and bashfulness often betray persons of this temper into a grant of that which yet they secretly condemn; and they know not how not to comply with the desires of the boldest and most unreasonable insinuator. That bashfulness is dan­gerously bold, which dares to offend GOD, lest it displease men. Nothing is more laudable than a firm, inflexible temper, when found in the way of righteousness. Let me never be ashamed to deny, what another is so shameless as sinfully to ask. Let my heart be as wax to the im­pressions of goodness, but as marble to those of evil; —as pliant as an osier to the hand of virtue, as stiff as an oak to SATAN and his instruments. Let a just request be as a command to me; let me obey it as a law, though it be but a desire; but let an unjust and wicked demand be cast back by me with abhorrence. If my friend be in any thing a factor for SATAN, let me bid him, "Get behind me," as our SAVIOR did ST. PETER. It is better to lose my friend than my innocence; and safest to keep at a distance from him, when he breathes contagion.

            XVI.  SOMETIMES I have intermitted or deferred the per­formance of duty, upon apprehension of some present indisposition and unaptness. I have thought, " It is better not to set my hand to GOD'S work, than to spoil it; better to omit my offering, than to give the lame and blind in sacrifice;--the next time I will make amends, when I am fitter to do it:" and the next time, perhaps, the task has been more irksome to me, and my plea of unfitness has seemingly had more strength than before; so that what before I did only defer, now I could be content wholly to neglect.—" Have I found thee, O mine enemy?" Here the serpent's head discovers itself. Hereafter, when this plea is put in, it shall be rejected without hearing. I will check the least thought of reluctance toward the per­formance of the work I have assigned to myself. A lame prayer may get to heaven. I may, by rubbing and chafing my heart, get warmth into it. If I put forth my strength, I may break asunder the cords with which I am bound.  THE SPIRIT may come, and fill my sails; and I may have the wind with me, though the tide be against me. That rule of physicians is well applied to practice, in such cases, which advises persons of weak stomachs to eat, though they have no present appetite, because they shall feel the effects thereof in their future increase of strength.

            XVII.  THE Turks have a saying concerning the Tartars, whom they repute a very wise nation,—that other nations have their wisdom written in their books, but the Tartars have devoured their books, and so have wisdom lodged in their breasts. Many Christians have the word of GOD written in their Bibles, but they never, as ST. JOHN, swallowed the book. The laws of GOD are best inscribed ill the tables of the heart; the soul is the best repository for them, and practice the fairest transcript of them. He is a good text-man, whose life is a comment on Scripture.

            What benefit can accrue to us from gold in the mine, or pearls in the bottom of the sea; except we dig for the former, and coin it into money,—and dive for the latter, that we may have them to apply to our use. He to whom the word of GOD is not as his necessary food, or who does not,. GQ tanquam sacer helluo," " as a holy glutton," devour, digest, and convert it into succum et sanguinenc, is like him, who as long as he had PLATO'S book on the immortality of the soul in his hands, was a Platonist, but as soon as he had laid it by, became an Epicure again. As we often say of physicians, that they are better ac­quainted with GALEN than with the disease; so of such we may say, that they carry their wisdom rather in their book than in their heart.

            XVIII.  OUR SAVIOR (Luke 4:) would not give the Devil audience,, even when he spoke truth, saying, " I know thee who you art, the holy one of GOD;"—refusing to have the rather of Lies to bear witness of him, because he knew that he used the truth, only to countenance error. And on the same account the Apostles (Acts 16: 17,) silenced the spirit of divination, when he would have defiled the Gospel by preaching it. In Matt. 4: 6, we find the Devil quoting Scripture; but he strangely maimed and perverted it, to make it serve his own turn; for one part is left out, the other misapplied. We may be sure this impostor has never any errand but deceit, whatever message he seems to bring. This liar always mixes some truth with his tale, that may make way for it to enter into belief. For vice and falsehood must still borrow the assistance of virtue and truth. There is always true corn strewed under a pit-fall; and they are full and weighty ears, which we daub with lime, to deceive the poor birds in a snow. Even in the dunghill of MA­HOMET'S Alcoran there are some jewels; and SERGIUS has bespangled and decked it with some parcels of branches of Scripture and of Christianity. Et part em veri fabula queeque tenet.

            This great deceiver, SATAN, deals as cheats are ordinarily wont to do; who, to make their impostures more passable, use some means to gain credit, before they can cozen. Let me beware of SATAN'S hook, though covered with ever so specious and pleasing a bait. Though his pills be gilded, yet they are poisonous. Though he take upon him the covering of an angel of light, yet, by a circum­spect eye, the black fiend may be discerned under it. There suspect him most, where his pretences are most plausible.

            XIX. MAN that was once in honor, and placed little lower than the angels, having lost his birth-right, is now become lower than the beasts that perish; and the Scripture sends him to school to them;—to the ant to learn industry, to the ox and the ass to learn duty to GOD, to the dove to learn innocency, to the serpent to learn wisdom. But how many descend so far even below their degraded estate, that they transcribe these patterns not is the good but the evil; and whereas they should make use of then, as tutors and monitors, they degenerate into the very nature of beasts, and make NEBUCHADNEZZAR'S punish­ment their choice. We know that centaurs, made up of half marl and half beast, came not from Thessaly, but had their original in PINDAR'S poetic fancy, which was the Prometheus that fashioned them: and GALEN, considering the utter irreconcileableness of the fiction with the prin­ciples of anatomy, is very angry at his vanity in it. But we find many such monsters in morality, if we consider the strange discomposure that is in the souls of men; in which the difference is only this, that here the prodigy is more wonderful, in that the beast is placed before the man, and passion and lust above reason. How much rather should men endeavor to advance their natures above their pre-sent sphere, to recover and raise them, rather than thus depress them; and, if they will needs forsake their huma­nity, to assume the nature of angels, and succeed to that vacated rank, which the Prince of the Morning was willing to leave.

            XX. POPE ALEXANDER 5:, who had been so bountiful to the poor, that he had left little or nothing to himself, (records do not abound with such popes,) would often say of him-self, a That he was a rich bishop, a poor cardinal, and a beggarly pope." Many are thus retrograde in Christianity. Like NEBUCHADNEZZAR'S image, the further they are from the beginning, the more their goodness decays; as in that, the further from the head, the coarser was the metal. Their first commencement in Christianity had a golden beginning; they went on to a silver progress; and in the conclusion they are all earthy.

We should go up the hill to Zion; every day should bear us a step nearer heaven; but these go down the hill, and are further from salvation in the evening of their life than when they first believed. Whereas they should be like the sun going on from strength to strength, till they come to their meridian lustre,—they rather resemble him, as he was in HEZEKIAH'S time, when he went backward; for in this subject the case is one, where non progredi est regredi: he that does not go forward in Christianity, goes backward; he is already come to a decrease of goodness, that does not strive after an increase of it. Many, the higher they rise in the world, the more they fall in good­ness; and their true riches decrease by the increase of out-ward accessions; like trees, which, as they advance higher in growth, strike their roots proportionably deeper into the earth; and like stars, which, the higher they are, the more their beams are contracted. The Devil effects on them what he did but tempt our SAVIOR to;—no sooner are they raised to a pinnacle, but straightway they cast themselves down; and being placed on a mountain, where they have a more large and alluring view of the world, they fall down before SATAN.

            XXI. I MEET with an excellent advice of a heathen;—so excellent, that I cannot but think it came from a higher dictate than that of his own spirit, as well as many other sayings, both of the same and other stoical authors: " To procure that which all men seek, contentment, *, will nothing but what GOD wills." Methinks this is like a north-west passage, or a shorter cut, to a treasure greater than that of the Indies, and to a haven of rest, at which men generally seek to arrive by a wide compass of vain contrivances. This is such an elixir, that the very touch of it turns all into gold. This is that universal remedy, that prevents and removes all frettings, tumults, disquiets, murmurings, and discouragements of the soul; and puts it into a temper so equal, calm, and serene, that it does in a mea­sure anticipate its future happiness. For when our will is thus, as it were, resolved and melted into the will of GOD, we have all that we desire, and nothing can happen to us but what we will;—and what more needeth there to make us happy? This is a higher degree of grace than that of merely submitting ourselves to Coil's will; (which yet is a high attainment;) for it makes the divine will and ours to be the same. This is the ready way to procure riches, and honors, and pleasures; not by using endeavors to add to our wealth, reputation, and carnal enjoyments; (for we find by experience, that he who has most, has greatest want in his store;) but by a more compendious and less tiresome way,—by detracting from our desires, and by reducing them to a due proportion. And thus we shall find it true, that he has most, who has as much as he desires; as he is not rich who has much, but he who has enough; nor he indigent who has little, but he who craves more;—for we are not rich or poor, happy or unhappy, so much according to the proportion of what we possess, as of what w desire. Therefore I commend the answer of one, who, when his friend wished that the GODs would give him whatever he desired, replied, " Nay, rather wish, that they would give me to desire only what they give."

            XXII. WHEN NEBUCHADNEZZAR closely besieged Jerusalem, and they were reduced to extremities, the Jews made a solemn covenant with GOD to dismiss their servants, and set them free; but no sooner had the King removed his siege, but they reversed their vow, and brought back their servants to bondage.

How often do those whom GOD has chastened with affliction, and seemed to have marked out for death, make covenants and promises of reformation, and of putting away their sin; and yet, when he withdraws his terrors, or causes the sickness to retreat, those ties do no more bind them, than the withs did Samson; but they arise, and go out, and do as at other times. While they sit on the margin of the grave, their spirits stoop, their passions are broken, their thoughts are humbled; then to be liberal of promises is an easy bounty; but when the storm is over, then they are straitened in performances, and rescind former en­gagements. The sighs of their sick-bed, which they turned into penitent groans, are now vanished into air; the sad reflections and serious recollections of their ways, to which they were reduced when they dwelt in sorrow, are now as little thought of, as the dolorous accents of their grief. When they come newly out of the furnace, while the smell of fire is yet on them, they are scrupu­lous and tender; but it is only like those who come out of a hot stove, and shrink from a cold air at first, but by degrees are brought to their former hardiness. If the soul be not changed, though for a while some religious colour may appear in the man's face, he will at last return to his former habit.

            It was therefore wise advice which THEODORICUS,Bishop of Cologne, gave to the Emperor SIGISMUND, when he asked how he might be directed in the way to heaven: " Live so as you promisedst to do, in a painful fit of the gout or stone." The Israelites, when they had been humbled with the voice out of the fire, the uproar in all the elements, the thunder, darkness, and terror of Mount Horeb, were very prodigal of their promises: " All these things will we do." But GOD foresaw, though they spoke as they intended in that distress, that they would after-wards be niggardly in their performances: " O that there were such a heart in them!" And what people ever were more rebellious than they? Never was a heart harder than PHARAOH'S; and yet upon the repetition of every plague, how couchant is the lion! How he fawns and crouches to the power which his stubbornness in­censed! At every stroke how he cries out, " Spare me this once, and I will offend no more!" And at length, when death had made all Egypt to ring at once with passing-bells, and even his palaces were invaded by that King of Terrors,. he suddenly gives the Israelites a dismis­sion, and, as it were, thrusts them forth, as if he could not be soon enough rid of them: " Rise up, get you forth from among us." And yet, no sooner were they gone,, but the stream of his passion has a reflux, being only diverted by that judgment; and he goes after them with the whole force of his country, to fetch them back again.

            LORD, never let my holy resolutions pass away with my afflictions; nor my health dispense with the vows of my sickness. Let me not, when I have in my distress found sanctuary in thy mercy as a votary, in my enlarged con­dition indulge myself as a libertine. Let me maintain my credit, and faithfully pay my vows, and discharge the bonds I have entered into with thee, in my necessitous and low state. Let immunity from evil never render me such a stranger to what I was in distress, as to make me recoil from my promises, and disown them.

            XXIII.  IT is not a new remark, that the SPIRIT OF GOD himself doth, in Scripture, make use of heathenish speeches and observations, and apply them to a spiritual use. Thus ST. PAUL took notice of a pagan inscription on an altar, and began his sermon to the Athenians on that text; and in the same place he quotes one of their poets, ARATUS; as also MENANDER, in 1 Cor. 15: 33; and CALLIMACHUS, Or EPIMENIDES, in Tit. 1: 12. Surely the warrant of such an example will give good ground for our making use of the borrowed helps of human writers in sacred things; if we deal with them as GOD commanded the Israelites to deal with the Canaanitish captives, if they would wed them, —to " shave their heads, and pare off their nails," &c.;—if we divest them of their pagan superfluities. For surely it would reflect upon the wisdom of GOD, to think that he has given the gold and treasures of arts and learning, the spoils of the Egyptians, to be used only for making a golden calf, (and such are all other subjects, compared with divine,) rather than to be applied to the use of the sanctuary, the service of GOD, and, as in Exod. xxxv., to the adorning of the tabernacle. Oply let them be made to pass through the fire, as the Midianitish gold and silver, (Numb. xxxi. 22,) and be thoroughly refined and purged from their heathenish dross. He that furnished CYRUS with treasure and riches of secret places, for the building of his temple, (Ezra 1: 2,) doubtless had an eye to the framing and edifying of his church in that light of knowledge with which he has embellished such writers. ELIJAH did not nauseate or reject the food that was brought to him even by a raven, which was an unclean creature under the law.

            XXIV.  A VINE, which is one of the most fruitful of trees, (and is used by GOD to illustrate the case of a Christian) if it be left to its natural excrescences, unregarded and un­pruned, shoots forth into many superfluous branches and stems, spends its most generous strength in that way, and so becomes weak and fruitless. If GOD should leave the Christian to the vicious exorbitancies of his own heart and affections, and not curb and prune them, and retrench the extravagancy of his desires, his strength would be spent on that which profiteth not, and he would soon grow barren and useless. There is need that both by his restraining grace he should reduce and limit our desires, and by the sharpness of affliction check their excrescences. JONAH grew fond of his gourd, and GOD smote it, and therein nipped and restrained the unruliness of his spirit, which would have spent his love and delight on a silly plant. HEZEKIAH'S pride was grown to such a height, that he must needs vent it by boasting of his treasure; but GOD blasted it, by sending the Chaldeans to plunder him. When my heart irregularly runs out after vanity, let the smart of thy hand correct my wanderings, and tame the wildness of my affections! Better I should bleed by thy pruning hook, than be cut down by thy axe as withered and fruitless, and cast into the burning!

            XXV. WE may observe, that lightning works with most force, where it meets with the greatest resistance; and acts more on that which has hard and firmly compacted parts, than on what is soft and yielding, and gives easy passage to it. Hence it is, that it has been sometimes said to pass through the scabbard, without any effect, and to melt the sword in it. Hence also, the hard oak and firm cedar feel its effects, when the bay, which is of a more yielding nature, is passed over untouched by it. The judgments of GOD in their working are much accommodated to the temper of the subjects on which they light. Where they meet with a stubborn, unpliant enemy, they fall with greater force, and are most pressing and heavy; they will break what they cannot bow. " The foolish heart fretteth against the LoRD; he is careless and rageth." (Prov. xix.) But what is the effect? "The man that hardeneth his neck when he is rebuked, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy." Those that are as wild bulls in the net of GOD, their own rage does but the more entangle, perplex, and weaken; but where GOD meets with souls of a soft and complying temper, his dealings are accordingly gentle, he afflicts them lightly, and does not stir up all his wrath. In this respect, because GOD thus wisely and carefully distinguishes between the different states and tempers of the patients with whom he has to deal, he is said " to correct us in judgment?'

            XXVI. If salt-petre, which is in itself observed to be of a fiery nature, be mixed with lukewarm water, at first it contesteth with it; but when it is overcome and dis­solved by it, the water becomes abundantly more cold than otherwise it could have been. And water which has been warmed, and afterwards returns to its native tem­perature, becomes more cold, and more subject to be frozen, than that which has not felt the fire. Where the convictions of the SPIRIT OF GOD do not work a thorough change, the heart becomes afterwards benumbed into a greater coldness and deadness. A spiritual relapse is very pernicious. Where GOD has been knocking, and sent away with a repulse, he will suffer another bar to be put on that door. He that has conquered the good motions and de-sires which Heaven kindled in him, is given over to a more reprobate' sense, as the temper of iron is more hardened by being quenched after it has been heated in the forge. No sinner does more eagerly wallow in the mire, than he that returns to it after he was once washed. Where the unclean spirit, after his departure for a season, on his return finds the soul without CHRIST, swept and emptied of all gracious dispositions, and garnished with whatso­ever vice may suit the entertainment of so unclean a guest, his re-entrance is with new attendance, and his hold is rendered seven-fold more impregnable than before: "he taketh to himself seven other spirits worse than him-self, and that man's last state is worse than his first." LORD, let me never quench those sparks which I sho