directed to look up to a figure of the 'cross. And where should the impatient now look up, but to Jesus the author and finisher of their faith; that great example of patient suffering, who for their sakes endured the cross, and despised the shame of it. If we are tempted to be weary and faint in our minds, when the Providence of God is leading us by some tedious and disagreeable way against our will, then we are to look up to this pattern of patience, and to consider, how he took the painful way of the cross, and submitted his own will to the will of God. With this example before us, let us ask ourselves whether we have any thing to complain of; we who ought to have been there instead of him! In his death we see the victory that overcometh the world. For the joy that was set before him, he waited till the great work of our salvation was finished: and we are to wait in like manner, till all the designs of Providence are accomplished in us; for we can inherit the promises on no other condition: he that endureth unto the end, the same shall be saved.

But salvation, such as God hath promised, is not an object to all men. Some have no opinion of it; as there were those amongst the people in the wilderness, who thought scorn of that

pleasant

pleasant land to which they were going. When the spies who were sent to view the land of Canaan made their report of it, and brought back with them some of its fruits, they differed very much in their accounts. They who proved faithful and told the truth, said it was an exceeding good land, flowing with milk and honey; and that they were well able, with God on their side, to take possession of it, and overcome the inhabitants, whose defence was departed from them. Others brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched: they described it as a land which ate up, that is, starved its inhabitants; and that these were men of a gigantic stature, to whom ordinary men were but as grasshoppers. This latter report found too much credit: and the congregation was so discouraged and terrified by it, that they lift up their voices and wept; and they murmured against Moses and Aaron for bringing them into these insuperable difficulties, and even determined to make them another captain and go back. This is the act of unbelief for which they were doomed to fall in the wilderness, without being permitted to see that land which they would take no pains to win.

Such is the case of those fearful minds and

.

faint hearts, which say there is a lion in the way, and magnify all the difficulties of the Christian warfare. The heavenly land, as they conceive of it, and as they hear from people like themselves, is not a place that would make them happy. Besides there are such temptations in the way as no man can resist. Vice is strong, and nature is weak. The gospel prescribes a way of life that would starve people, and take away all their comfort. Therefore when all things are considered, nothing is to be done, but to give up the cause, and go back to the opinions and ways of the children of this world.

If I may give you my own sentiment, I do not suppose there is a sin upon earth more hateful to God, than this of undervaluing his promises, distrusting his protection, and making unjust representations either of his religion itself, or of the rewards of it; as if his service were hard, or the end of it not worth attaining. This I can tell you, that such people are often made more miserable, and suffer worse agitations of mind from disappointments in the way of their own chusing, than the most abstracted saint ever suffered from the practice of self-denial in the way of godliness. For we may lay it down as a certain rule, that they who have

not

not faith to see the value of the other world, have not the wit to use this properly and no man need wish his worst enemy more wretched than the abuse of this world will make him. But, on the contrary, what words can describe the blessedness of him, who depending on the promises of God, conquers the difficulties of life, and hath hope in his death! such an hope as is signified by the divine Psalmist, in words much to our present purpose-I should utterly have fainted, but that I believe verily to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. As if he had said, "I believe the report concern

દ

ing that good land, to the possession of which

"we are journeying; I know the value of it, "and that the Lord himself is my defence by "the way; and so my heart hath not failed "me: therefore I give the same advice to all; "wait on the Lord; be of good courage, and he "shall strengthen thine heart: he who led

Joshua to victory in the promised land, shall

bring down the walls of the mighty, and support thee against all that appears gigantic " and terrible in the way of thy salvation." St. Paul, having pointed out to us, and applied all these figures as examples to us under the gospel, draws this weighty moral from the history of our fathers who journeyed in the wilderness:

where

66

wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth "take heed lest he fall.

"tation taken you, but

There hath no tempsuch as is common to

"man: but God is faithful who will not suffer

ર

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you to be tempted above that ye are able, but

will, with the temptation also, make a way to escape that ye may be able to bear it *." This is the doctrine we are to learn from their history. He that standeth may now fall through unbelief, as they did he that has been brought out of Egypt, may fall in the wilderness; therefore let us pass the time of our sojourning here in fear. But then, as God is still with us, we are never to be discouraged in the time of trial, nor to doubt of his protection. If there is a sea on one side, and a host of Egyptians on the other, and there seems no way to escape, the waters shall be divided and the Egyptians shall be overthrown. If there is neither bread nor water in appearance, some improbable causes shall give us a supply of both: some flinty stone shall become a springing well, and the heavens above shall give us meat enough. Then for the sicknesses of the soul, we have the remedy of the cross; and against the gigantic race of Anak, a defender who will never leave us nor forsake us: howsoever great and formidable

* 1 Cor. x. 12, 13.