nothing: though thou art a little troublesome, I will never confefs thee to be evil. If upon fuch grounds as thefe they could fupport themselves under fuch grinding and racking pains, and even delude their difeafes by them; how much rather should the precious promifes of God, and the fweet experiences which have gone along step by step with them, make you to forget all your wants, and comfort you in every ftrait.

Confid. 3. If it be bad now, it might have been worse; hath God denied thee the comforts of this life? He might have denied thee Chrift, peace, and pardon alfo, and then thy cafe had been woful indeed. You know God hath done fo to millions in the world: how many fuch wretched ob jects may your eyes behold every day, that have no comfort in hand, nor yet in hope, are miferable here, and will be fo to eternity; that have a bitter cup, and nothing to sweeten it; no, not fo much as an hope that it will be better. But it is not fo with you, though you be poor in this world, "yet rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom "which God hath promifed," Jam. ii. 5. O learn to fet fpiritual riches over againft temporal poverty. Balance all your prefent troubles with your fpiritual privileges. Indeed if God had denied your fouls the robes of righteousness to clothe them, the hidden manna to feed them, the heavenly manfions to receive them; if your fouls were left deftitute as well as your bodies, you might well be penfive; but this confideration hath enough to bring the confidering foul to reft under any outward ftrait. It was bravely faid by Luther, when want began to pinch him, Let us be contented with our hard fare (faid he), for do not we feaft with angels upon Chrift, the bread of life?" "And bleffed be God (faith Paul) who hath abounded to us in all « fpiritual bleffings," Eph. i. 3.

Confid. 4. This affliction, though great, is not fuch an affliction but God hath far greater, with which he chaflifes the dearly beloved of his foul in this world; and fhould he remove this, and inflict thofe, you would account your prefent ftate a very comfortable state, and bless God to be as now you are.

What think ye, firs? Should God remove your present troubles, fupply all your outward wants, give you the defire of your hearts in creature-comforts, but hide his face from you, fhoot his arrows into your fouls, and cause the venom of them to drink up your spirits? Should he leave you but a few days to the buffetting of Satan, and his blaf phemous injections; fhould he hold your eyes but a few nights waking with horrors of confcience, toffing to and fro till the dawning of the day: fhould he lead you through the chambers of death, fhew you the vifions of darknefs, and make his terrors fet themselves in array against you: Then tell me if you would not count it a choice mercy to be back again in your former neceffitous condition, with peace of confcience; and count bread and water, with God's favour, a happy ftate? O then, take heed of repining. Say not God deals hardly with you, left you provoke him to convince you, by your own

fenfe and feeling, that he hath worse rods than thefe for unfubmiffive and froward children.

Confid. 5. If it be bad now, it will be better shortly.

O keep thy heart by that confideration: the meal in the barrel is almoft fpent; well, be it fo, why fhould that trouble me, if I am al❤ most beyond the need and use of all these things. The traveler hath spent almost all his money, but a fhilling or two left: well, faith he though my money be almoft fpent, yet niy journey is almoft finished too; I am near home, and then I fhall be fully fupplied. If there be no candles in the house, yet it is a comfort to think that it is al moft day, and then there will be no need of candles. I am afraid, Chriftian, thou mifreckoneft thyself when thou thinkest thy provi fion is almost spent, and you have a great way to travel: many years to live, and nothing to live upon; it may be not half so many as thou fuppofeft; in this be confident, if thy provifion be spent, either freth fupplies are coming, though thou feeft not from whence, or thou art nearer thy journey's end than thou reckoneft thyself to be. Defponding foul, doth it become a man or woman travelling upon the road to the heavenly city, and almost arrived there, within a few days journey of his Father's house, where all his wants shall be fupplied, to take on thus about a little meat, drink, or clothes, which he fears he fhall want by the way? It was a noble faying of the forty Martyrs, famous in the Ecclefiaftical story, when turned out naked in a frosty night to be starved to death, with these words they comforted one another, sox, &c. The winter indeed is fharp and cold, but heaven is warm and comfortable; here we fhiver for cold, but Abraham's bofom will make amends for all.

Objection 1. But I may die for want.

Solution (1.) Whoever did fo? When were the righteous forfaken? (2.) If fo, your journey is ended, and you are fully fupplied.

Object. 2. But I am not fure of that; were I fure of heaven, it were another matter.

Sol. Are you not sure of that? Then you have other matters to trouble yourselves about than thefe: methinks thefe fhould be the leaft of all your cares: I do not find that fouls perplexed and troubled about the want of Chrift, pardon of fin, &c. are ufually very anxious, or folicitous about these things. He that feriously puts fuch questions as these, What shall I do to be faved? How fhall I know my fin is pardoned? doth not usually trouble himfelf with, "What fhall I eat, what shall I drink, or wherewith fhall I be clothed ?” Confid. 6. Doth it become the children of fuch a Father to diffruft his all-fufficiency, or repine at any of his dispensations ?

Do you well to question his care and love upon every new exigence? Say, have you not been afhamed of this formerly? Hath not your Father's feasonable provifions for you in former ftraits, put you to the bluth, and made you refolve never to question his love and care any more? and yet will you renew your unworthy suspicions of him

again? Difingenuous child! reafon thus with thyfelf; if I perifh for want of what is good and needful for me, it must either be because my Father knows not my wants, or hath not wherewith to supply them or else regards not what becomes of me. Which of these fhall I charge upon him? Not the first; for, Mark vi. 32. "My "Father knows what I have need of;" my condition is not hid from him nor the fecond, "For the earth is the Lord's, and the fulness "of it, Pfal. xxiv. 1. His name is God all-fufficient, Gen. xvii. 1. Not the laft, for, "as a father pitieth his children, fo the Lord pities "them that fear him," Pfal. ciii. 13. "The Lord is exceedingly pi❝tiful, and of tender mercy," Jam v. 11. "He hears the young " ravens when they cry," Job xxxviii. 41. and will he not hear me? "Confider (faith Chrift) the fowls of the air," Matth. vi. 26. Not the fowls at the door, that are every day fed by hand, but the fowls of the air, that have none to provide for them. Doth he feed and clothe his enemies, and will he forget his children? He heard the very cry of Ifhmael in diftrefs, Gen. xvi. 17. O my unbelieving heart! doft thou yet doubt? Remember Hagar and the child.

Confid. 7. Your poverty is not your fin, but your affliction only! if by finful means you have not brought it upon yourfelves; and if it be but an affliction, it may be borne the easier for that.

It is hard indeed to bear an affliction coming upon us as the fruit and punishment of fin; when men are under trouble upon that accound, they ufe to fay, O! if it were but a fingle affliction coming from the hand of God by way of trial, I could bear it, but I have brought it upon myself by fin, it comes as the punishment of fin: the marks of God's difpleasure are upon it; it is the guilt within that troubles and galls more than the want without.

But it is not fo here, and therefore you have no reason to be cast down under it.

Objection. But though there be no fting of guilt, yet this condition wants not other flings: As first, the difcredit of religion; I cannot comply with mine engagements in the world, and thereby religion is like to fuffer.

Solution. It is well you have an heart to discharge every duty, yet if God difable you by providence, it is no difcredit to your profeffion, because you do not that which you cannot do, fo long as it is your defire and endeavour to do what you can and ought to do; and in this cafe God's will is, that lenity and forbearance be exercised towards you, Deut. xxiv. 12, 13.

Objećt. 2. But it grieves me to behold the neceffities of others whom I was wont to relieve and refresh, but now cannot.

Sol. If you cannot, it ceases to be your duty, and God accepts the drawing out of your foul to the hungry in compaflion and defire to help them, though you cannot draw forth a full purfe to relieve and fupply them.

Object. 3. But I find fuch a condition full of temptations, a fore clog in the way to heaven.

- Sol. Every condition in the world hath its clogs and attending temptations; and were you in a profperous condition, you might there meet with more temptations and fewer advantages than you now have: For though I confefs poverty hath its temptations as well as profperity, yet I am confident profperity hath not thefe excellent advantages that poverty hath: For here you have an opportunity to discover the fincerity of your love to God, when you can live upon him, and find enough in him, and conftantly follow him, even when all external inducements and motives fail. And thus I have fhewed you how to keep your hearts from the temptations and dangers attending a poor and low condition in the world, when want pinches, and the heart begins to fink, then improve and bless God for these helps to keep it.

Seafon 6. The fixth feason of expreffing this diligence in keeping the heart, is the season of duty; when we draw nigh to God in public, private, or fecret duties, then it is time to look to the heart; for the vanity of the heart seldom difcovers itself more than at fuch times. How oft doth the poor foul cry out, O Lord! how fain ⚫ would I serve thee, but vain thoughts will not let me; I came to • open my heart to thee, to delight my foul in communion with thee, • but my corruptions have fet upon me: Lord, call off these vain thoughts, and fuffer them not to prostitute the foul which is ef • poused to thee before thy face. The fixth cafe then is this,

Cafe 6. How the heart may be kept from diftractions by vain thoughts, in the time of duty.

There is a twofold diftraction or wandering of the heart in duty: (1.) Voluntary and habitual, Pfalm lxxviii. 8. "They fet not their

hearts aright, and their spirit was not 'steadfast with God." This is the cafe of formalifts, and proceeds from the want of an holy bent and inclination of the heart to God; their hearts are under the power of their luft, and therefore it is no wonder they go after their luft, even when they are about holy things, Ezek. xxxiii. 31. (2.) Involuntary and lamented distractions, Rom. vii. 21-24. "I find "then a law, that when I would do good, evil is prefent with me ; "O wretched man that I am," &c. This proceeds not from the want of a holy bent and aim, but from the weakness and imperfection of And in this cafe the foul may make the like complaint against its own corruptions that Abijah did against Jeroboam, 2 Chron. xiii. 6, 7. "Yet Jeroboam the fon of Nebat is rifen up against his "lord, when Rehoboam was young and tender-hearted, and could "not withstand him, and there are gathered unto him vain men, ❝ the children of Belial." Grace hath dominion, but lufts are mutinous and feditious, during the infancy thereof. But it is not my business to shew you how these distractions come into the heart, but rather how to get and keep them out of the heart: in order whereunto take these ten following helps.

Help 1. Sequefter yourselves from all earthly employments, and

fet apart fome time for folemn preparation to meet God in du ty: You come reeking hot out of the world into God's prefence, but you will find a tang of it in your duties: It is with the heart a few minutes fince plunged in the world, now at the feet of God, just as with the fea after a ftorm, which still continues working, muddy, and difquiet, though the wind be laid, and the ftorm over: Thy heart must have fometime to fettle. There are few muficians that can take down a lute or viol, and play presently upon it, without fome time to tune it; there are few Christians can presently say, as Pfalm lvii. 7. "O God, my heart is fixed, it is fixed." O when thou goeft to God in any Duty, take thy heart afide, and fay, O my foul, I am now addreffing myfelf to the greateft work that ever a creature was employed about: I am going into the awful prefence of God about bufinefs of everlafting moment.

Oh my foul, leave trifling now, be compofed, watchful, ferious, this is no common-work; it is God-work, foul-work, eternity-work. I am now going forth bearing feed, which will bring forth fruit to life or death in the world to come; paufe a while upon thy fins, wants, troubles; keep thy thoughts a while on thefe before thou addrefs thyself to duty. David first mused, and then fpake with his tongue, Pfal. xxxix. 3, 4. So Pfal. xlv. 1. «My heart is inditing," &c.

Help 2. Having compofed thy heart by previous meditation, prefently fet a guard upon thy fenfes: How often are poor Chriftians in danger of lofing the eyes of their mind by those of their body; for this Job covenanted with his fenfes, Chap. xxxi. 1. for this David prayed, Pfal. cxix. 37. "Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity, "and quicken thou me in thy way." This may ferve to expound that mystical Arabian proverb, which advifes to fhut the windows that the house may be light:' It were excellent if you could say in your outfets upon duty, as an holy man once did, when he come off from duty: Claudimini, oculi mei, claudimini, &c. Be fhut, O mine eyes, be fhut for it is impoffible you should ever see fuch beauty and glory in any creature, as I have now feen in God.' You had need avoid all occafions of diftraction from without, for be fure you will meet enough from within. Intention of spirit in the work of God, locks up the eye and ear against vanity. When Marcellus entered the gates of Syracufe, Archimedes was fo intent about his mathematical scheme, that he took no notice of the foldiers when they entered his very ftudy with drawn fwords; a fervent cannot be a vagrant heart.

Help 3. Beg of God a mortified fancy. A working fancy, faith one, how much foever it be extolled among men, is a great fnare to the foul: except it work fellowship with right reafon, and a fanctified heart: The phantafy is a power of the foul placed between the fenfes and the understanding, it is that, which firft ftirs itfelf in the foul, and by its motions the other powers are stirred; it is the common