nature, and all its subtle tendencies and operations!

While we are in the flesh, conflict with it must be more or less our daily exercise. And the use of it is, chiefly, to keep our hearts from pride and sloth, to bring down the love of self in all its desires, and the love of sin in all its forms, to endear Christ to our souls in the holy ways of his salvation, to cause us to give up ourselves to him with less reserve, to wean us from earth and earthly comforts, and to fix our affections more firmly on heaven. If all this ensue, we shall then have happily disappointed the devil, and beaten him with his own weapons; and therefore shall in the end rejoice for every trial and conflict, which have led us on toward the attainment of that blessed state of mind, which is the true life and expectation of a christian in this world. O that I may recollect these things for myself; while I am aiming to stir up the minds of others to the remembrance of them! Lord, thy strength is made perfect in weakness, and thy wisdom in folly, I call upon thee, therefore, and upon thee alone, to be the Guide, the Help, the Defender, and Deliverer of my soul! Thou art FAITHFUL, that hast promised; and here, and not upon my own natural reason or corrupted powers, do I rest my every hope of safety and salvation.

R

CHAP. XXXII.

ON ADVERSITY.

WE naturally love the world, and the things that are in the world; and this love, unsubdued, is the sole cause and ground of what are called mortifications and disappointments from the world. If the love of Christ prevailed more in us, it would not be in the power of outward things to give us so much pain as they do; or rather, if this love were perfect in us, we should be ashamed and sorry that these things should give us any pain at all.

This is the truth; but how do we use it? Very often, in the time of trial, we make no other use, than to assent to it as a truth, and there leave it. Reflections of this kind are but orations to the winds, unless shall grace second and enforce them. The most trifling loss, as I have often observed in myself and others, is sufficient to unhinge and throw us out of order; if we have no stronger power than our own to keep us in it.

There is not a plant upon earth, how unsightly and bitter soever, but which hath an end for its being. God, likewise, hath not intended his providential works, however adverse or disagreeable to our sense, but for some just purpose and design. There is alsø

a needs be, if we fall into divers temptations. And, if needful, then they are right and profitable, and will appear to be so at the last.

We have many evil humours, that require correction; and God sends adversity, as a medicine, to heal some disorder in the soul. When it comes with grace into the spirit of a christian, how doth it soften and blunt his rough and acid dispositions, how reform and lower his swelling and confident frames, how chasten and subdue his restless and impatient tempers; while the better part, his renewed mind, gathers strength, and holiness, and resignation, and hope? We shall, indeed, thank God heartily for all our adversities, by and by; and, though they are not to be counted as any part of our inheritance, we shall rejoice eternally, that they were graciously made a part of the means for bringing us to it. Lazarus himself can now rejoice over all his sores, and adore the Lord for the worst of them.

The apostle Paul was a chosen vessel, and dearly beloved of the Lord; but the Lord did not say concerning him, what great things he was to do or enjoy (though nobody perhaps ever did more for Christ, or enjoyed more of him, upon earth) but what great things he must SUFFER for my name's sake. The flesh shrinks at this; but grace can enable the soul to count it all joy when it falls into divers temptations; not for the grief that is in them, for that would be un

natural, but for the peaceable fruits of righteousness which they shall produce in the end.

We must pray, then, to trust the wisdom and love of God in all sorrowful dispensations; since he doth not willingly or wantonly afflict his children, nor send one sorrow more than what is absolutely necessary to their edification and welfare.

When we can bear all trouble as a part of the burden of Christ, and can obtain his assistance to bear it with us; we shall find it daily grow lighter and lighter, and at length press upon us only like the burden of wings on a bird, enabling us to fly the swifter and the higher towards heaven.

CHAP. XXXIII.

ON PROSPERITY.

GOD's people are seldom trusted with much prosperity; and, when they are, it very rarely appears for their good. The things of earth and time, in affluence or abundance, have a fascinating power over the carnal senses, entice them first into the ways of evil, and then (if grace prevent not) intoxicate them with it. How many spiritual sots are there in the world, who, though

averse to gross intemperance, are reeling instead of running in the path of duty, their heads being turned with the fumes of this earth, and their hearts waxed gross through the abundance of her delicacies? And it is one dreadful proof of the strength of this intoxication upon them, when they hate to be told of it, and feel angry, not at themselves, but at the friendly and faithful informer.

The gaiety, parade, lightness, and lofty airs of many religious professors too well show, what a dangerous thing it is to possess much of this world, and how easily our hearts may be made drunk, and then drowned in sensuality, if not in perdition. Were Christ and his apostles now upon earth in their plain and lowly form, it is much to be feared, that they would be thought hardly good company. enough for many of the present race of genteel and modish professors of religion.

It is an excellent prayer, which christians in worldly prosperity cannot remember too · often; In all time of our WEALTH, good Lord, deliver us!" We want his help, then, more if possible than in adversity; lest the Lust of other things, entering in, should choke the word, and it become unfruitful. We have weak heads and a disordered appetite, which are soon overcharged with a full cup of temporal prosperity. They were filled (says the Lord speaking by the prophet to the Jews) They were filled, and their heurt was