what a fad confideration is this! enough to lay me in the duft; when I confider,

(1.) That their mercies have greatly humbled them; the higher God has raifed them, the lower they have laid themselves before God. Thus did Jacob, when God had given him much fubftance. Gen. xxxii. 10. "And Jacob faid, I am not worthy of the leaft of all ❝thy mercies, and of all the truth which thou haft fhewed unto "thy fervant; for with my ftaff I paffed over this Jordan, and now "I am become two bands." And thus it was with holy David, 2Sam. vii. 18. When God had confirmed the promise to him, to build him a houfe, and not reject him as he did Saul, he goes in before the Lord, and faith, "Who am I? and what is my father's houfe, that thou haft brought me hitherto?" And fo indeed God required, Deut. xxvi. 5. when Ifrael was to bring to God the firft-fruits of Canaan, they were to fay, " A Syrian ready to perifh was my fa"ther," &c. Do others raife God the higher for the raifing them? And the more God raifes me, the more fhall I abuse him, and exalt myfelf? O what a fad thing is this!

(2.) Others have freely afcribed the glory of all their enjoyments to God, and magnified not themfelves, but him, for their mercies: So David, 2 Sam. vii. 26. "Let thy name be magnified, and the

houfe of thy fervant be established." He doth not fly upon the mercy, and fuck out the sweetness of it, looking no farther than his own comfort; no, he cares for no mercy except God be magnified in it. So Pfalm xviii. 2. when God had delivered him from all his enemies, "The Lord (faith he) is my ftrength, and my rock, he is "become my falvation." They did not put the crown upon their own heads, as I do.

(3.) The mercies of God have been melting mercies unto others, melting their fouls in love to the God of their mercies. So Hannah, 1 Sam. ii. 1. when she received the mercy of a fon, "My foul (faith "fhe) rejoiceth in the Lord;" not in the mercy, but in the God of the mercy. And fo Mary, Luke i. 46. "My foul doth magnify the "Lord, my Spirit rejoiceth in God my Saviour." The word fignifies to make more room for God; their hearts were not contracted, but the more enlarged to God.

(4.) The mercies of God have been mighty reftraints to keep others from fin. So Ezra ix. 13. "Seeing thou, our God, haft given us fuch a deliverance as this, fhould we again break thy command«ments?" Ingenuous fouls have felt the force of the obligations of love and mercy upon them.

(5.) To conclude, The mercies of God to others have been as oil to the wheels of their obedience, and made them fitter for fervices, 2 Chron. xvii. 5. Now if mercies work contrarily upon my heart, what caufe have I to be afraid that they come not to me in love? I tell you, this is enough to damp the fpirit of any faint, to fee what fweet effects they have had on others, and what fad effects on him,

2. Seafon, The fecond fpecial feafon in the life of a chriftian requiring more than a common diligence to keep his heart, is the time of adverfity; When providence frowns upon you, and blasts your outward comforts, then look to your hearts, keep them with all diligence from repining against God, or fainting under his hand; for troubles, though fanctified, are troubles still; even sweet-brier, and holy thistle, have their prickles. Jonah was a good man, and yet how pettifh was his heart under affliction? Job was the mirror of patience, yet how was his heart difcompofed by • trouble? You will find it as hard to get a compofed fpirit under great afflictions, as it is to fix quick-filver. O the hurries and tumults which they occafion even in the best hearts! Well, then, the second cafe will be this :'

Cafe 2. How a Chriftian under great afflictions may keep his heart from repining, or defponding under the hand of God? Now there are nine fpecial helps I fhall here offer, to keep thy heart in this condition; and the firft fhall be this, to work upon your hearts this great truth,

1. That by thefe cross providences, God is faithfully pursuing the great defign of electing love upon the fouls of his people, and orders all thefe afflictions as means fanctified to that end.

Afflictions fall not out by cafualty, but by counfel, Job v. 6. Eph. i. 11. by this counsel of God they are ordained as means of much fpiritual good to faints, Ifa. xxvii. 9. "By this fhall the iniquity of "Jacob be purged," &c. Heb. xii. 10. "But he for our profit," &c. Rom. viii. 28. "All things work together for good." They are God's workmen upon our hearts, to pull down the pride and carnal fecurity of them; and being fo, their nature is changed; they are turned into bleffings and benefits, Pfalm cxix. 71. "It is good "for me that I have been afflicted." And fure, then, thou haft no reafon to quarrel with, but rather to admire that God fhould concern himself so much in thy good, to ufe any means for the accomplishing of it. Philip. iii. 11. "Paul could blefs God, if by any

means he might attain the refurrection of the dead. My brethren, "(faith James) count it all joy when you fall into divers temptations," Jam. i. 2, 3. My father is about a defign of love upon my foul, and do I well to be angry with him? All that he doth is in purfuance of, and in reference to fome eternal, glorious ends upon my foul. O it is my ignorance of God's defign, that makes me quarrel with him!? he faith to thee in this cafe, as to Peter, "What I do thou knoweft but hereafter thou fhalt know it,"

" not now,

Help. 2. Though God hath referved to himself a liberty of afflicting his people, yet he hath tied up his own hands by promife, never to take away his loving-kindness from them. Can I look that fcripture in the face with a repining, difcontented fpirit, 2 Sam. vii. 14, "I fhall be his father, and he will be my fon; if he commit iniquity, "I will chaften him with the rod of men, and with the ftripes of

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"the children of men: Nevertheless, my mercy fhall not depart "away from him." O my heart! my haughty heart! dost thou well to be discontented, when God bath given thee the whole tree, with all the clusters of comfort growing on it, because he fuffers the wind to blow down a few leaves; Chriftians have two forts of goods, the goods of the throne, and the goods of the footstool; moveables, and immoveables: If God have fecured these, never let my heart be troubled at the lofs of thofe; indeed, if he had cut off his love, or difcovenanted my foul, I had reason to be caft down; but this he hath not, nor can he do it.

Help 3. It is of marvellous efficacy to keep the heart from finking under affliction, to call to mind, that thine own father hath the or dering of them: Not a creature moves hand or tongue against thee, but by his permiffion. Suppofe the cup be a bitter cup, yet it is the cup which thy father hath given thee to drink; and canft thou fufpect poifon to be in that cup which he delivers thee? Foolish mau, put home the case to thine own heart, confult with thine own bowels; canft thou find in thy heart to give thy child that which would hurt, or undo him? No, thou wouldft as foon hurt thy felf as him; "If "thou then being evil knoweft how to give good gifts to thy child"ren," how much more doth God? Matth. vii. 11. The very confideration of his nature, a God of love, pity, and tender mercies, or of his relation to thee as a Father, Husband, Friend, might be fecurity enough, if he had not spoken a word, to quiet thee in this cafe; and yet you have his word too, Jer. xxv. 6. I will do you no hurt. You lie too near his heart to hurt you; nothing grieves him more than your groundless and unworthy fufpicions of his defigns do; would it not grieve a faithful, tender-hearted physician when he hath ftudied the cafe of his patient, prepared the most excellent receipts to fave his life, to hear him cry out, O he hath undone me! he hath poifoned me; because it gripes and pains him in the operation? O when will you be ingenuous!

Help 4. God refpects you as much in a low, as in a high condition; and therefore it need not fo much trouble you to be made low: nay, to speak home, he manifefts more of his love, grace, and tenderness, in the time of affliction, than profperity. As God did not at first chufe you because you were high, fo he will not forfake you because you are low: Men may look fhy upon you, and alter their refpects, as your condition is altered. When providence hath blafted your eftates, your fummer friends may grow ftrange, as fearing you may be troublesome to them; but will God do fo? No, no!" I will never leave thee, nor forfake thee," Heb. xiii. 5. Indeed if adverfity and poverty could bar you from accefs to God, it were a fad condition; but you may go to God as freely as ever. "My God (faith the church) will hear me," Mic. vii, 7. Poor David, when stripped of all earthly comforts, could yet encourage himself in the Lord his God; and why can

not you? Suppofe your husband or child had loft all at fea, and fhould come to you in rags; could you deny the relation, or refufe to entertain him? If you would not, much less would God: Why then are you so troubled? Though your condition be chang ed, your Father's love and respects are not changed.

Help 5. And what if by the loss of outward comforts, God will preferve your fouls from the ruining power of temptation? Sure then, you bave little caufe to fink your hearts by fuch fad thoughts about them. Are not these earthly enjoyments the things that make men shrink and warp in times of trial? For the love of these many have forfaken Chrift in fuch an hour, Matth. xix. 22. "He went away forrowful, " for he had great poffeffions." And if this be God's defign, what have I done in quarrelling with him about it? We see mariners in a ftorm can throw over-board rich bales of filk, and precious things, to preserve the veffel and their lives with it, and every one faith they act prudently; we know it is ufual for foldiers in a city befieged, to batter down, or burn the faireft buildings without the walls, in which the enemy may fhelter in,the fiege; and no man doubts but it is wifely done: Such as have gangrened legs or arms, can willingly stretch them out to be cut off, and not only thank, but pay the chirur. geon for his pains: And muft God only be repined at, for cafting over what will fink you in a ftorm? For pulling down that which would advantage your enemy in the fiege of temptation? For cutting off what would endanger your everlasting life? O inconfiderate, ingrateful man! are not these things, for which thou grieveft, the very things that have ruined thousands of fouls? Well, what Chrift doth in this, thou knowest not now, but hereafter thou mayeft.

Help 6. It would much stay the heart under adverfity, to confider, That God, by fuch humbling providences, may be accomplishing that for which you have long prayed and waited: And should you be troubled at that? Say, Chriftian, haft thou not many prayers depending before God upon fuch accounts as thefe; that he would keep thee from fin, discover to thee the emptiness and infufficiency of the creature; that he would kill and mortify thy lufts, that thy heart may never find reft in any enjoyment but Chrift? Why now, by fuch humbling and impoverishing ftrokes, God may be fulfilling thy defire: Wouldft thou be kept from fin? Lo, he hath hedged up thy way with thorns. Wouldft thou fee the creature's vanity? Thy affliction is a fair glafs to discover it; for the vanity of the creature is never fo effectually and fenfibly discovered, as in our own experience of it. Wouldst thou have thy corruptions mortified? This is the way; now God takes away the food and fuel that maintained them; for as profperity begat and fed them, fo adverfity, when fanctified, is a mean to kill them. Wouldst thou have thy heart to reft no where but in the bofom of God? What better way canft thou imagine providence should take to accomplish thy desire, than by pulVOL. V.

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ling from under thy head, that foft pillow of creature delights on which thou restedst before? And yet you fret at this, peevith child § how dost thou exercife thy Father's patience? If he delay to anfor thy prayers, thou art ready to fay he regards thee not; if he do that which really anfwers the fcope and main end of them, but not in the way thou expectedft, thou quarrellest with him for that ; as if inftead of answering, he were crofling all thy ropes and aims; is this ingenious? Is it not enough that God is fo gracious to do what thou defireft, but thou must be fo impudent to expect he should do it in the way which thou prefcribeft.

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Help 7. Again, It may ftay thy heart, if thou confider, That in thefe troubles, God is about that work, which if thou didst fee the defign of, thy foul would, rejoice. We, poor creatures, are bemifted with much ignorance, and are not able to difcern how particular providences work towards God's end; and therefore, like Ifrael in the wilderness, are often murmuring, becaufe Providence leads us about in a howling defart, where we are expofed to straits; though yet, then he led them, and is now leading us, by the right way, to a city of habitations. If you could but fee how God, in his fecret counfel, hath exactly laid the whole plot and defign of thy falvation, even to the fmalleft means and circumftances; this way, and by these means fuch a one fhall be faved, and by no other; fuch a number of afflictions I appoint for this man, at this time, and in this order; they fhall befal him thus, and thus they fhall work for him: Could you, I fay, but difcern the adinirable harmony of divine dif penfations, their mutual relations to each other, together with the general refpect and influence they all have unto the laft end; of all the conditions in the world, you would chufe that you are now in, had you liberty to make your own choice. Providence is like a curious piece of arras, made up of a thousand threds, which fingle we know not what to make of, but put together, and ftitched up orderly, they represent a beautiful hiftory to the eye. As God works all things according to the counfel of his own will, fo that the counsel of God hath ordained this as the best way to bring about thy falvation: Such a one hath a proud heart, fo many humbling providences I appointed for him: fuch a one an earthly heart, fo many impoverishing providences for him: Did you but fee this, I need fay no more to fupport the moft dejected heart.

Help 8. Farther, It would much conduce to the fettlement of your hearts, to confider, That by fretting and discontent, you do yourselves more injury than all the afflictions you lie under could do; your own difcontent is that which arms your troubles with a fting; it is you that make your burden heavy, by struggling under it. Could you but Jie quiet under the hand of God, your condition would be much eafier and fweeter than it is; Impatiens agrotus crudelem facit medicum. -This makes God lay on more strokes, as a father will upon a stubborn child that receives not correction,