ty, is guilty of that fin, which is called in Scripture, tempting God; and fhall affuredly meet with a dreadful disappointment.

My brethren, as much of the daily exercise of real believers regards their progress in sanctification, and their peace and comfort, it is proper that you should carefully attend to the tenor of these promifes, and to what ought to be your reliance upon them. I fhall fum up, in`a few particulars, what I apprehend to be of most importance.

1. Trust in these promises implies felf-denial, and a deep sense of your own weakness. These promises would be unneceffary and fuperfluous, were we not infufficient of ourselves for any thing that is good. Truft in God ftands directly opposed to all felf-dependence. Prov. iii. 5. Truft in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not to thine own understanding. How jealous God is, if I may speak fo, of the honour that is due to him in this respect, may be feen from the many foul and fhameful crimes into which he permitted fome of his best faints to fall, when they were off their guard, by floth, or ftill more provoked him by pride and prefumption. Noah's drunkenness, Mofes's paffion, David's adultery and murder, and Peter's denial of his mafter. 1 Cor. x. 11, 12. Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples, and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. Wherefore, let him that thinketh be ftandeth take heed left be fall. For this reason the Apostle Paul fays, with great propriety, and with great force, which is equally applicable to himself and other believers, a feeming paradox; 1 Cor. xii. 10. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

2. As we are to put no trust in ourselves, fo we are to exercise the most unfhaken confidence of our being able to discharge any duty, or undergo any trial by the help

of

of the Almighty.-Oh! how ready are we to fin on both hands? How often do we prefume upon our own ftrength, and forget the neceffity of applying for Divine aid?— And on the other hand, how prone are we to timidity or despondence in difficult cases? When corruptions have long kept their ground, we are ready to dread their influence, and to make but little out of the promises in Scripture, that we shall be made more than conquerors through him that loved us. We have learned, by fad experience, that in us dwelleth no good thing, and yet it is long before we will attend to the leffon that follows hard upon it, My grace is fufficient for thee, and my ftrength fball be made perfect in weakness.

3. As these promises are expressly made to the diligent, you must still remember that your own attention and application to duty is effentially neceffary, and that the affistance promised from on high, is always represented in Scripture as an argument and encouragement to diligence, and not a warrant or excufe for floth. Philip. ii. 12. Work out your own falvation with fear and trembling, for it is God that worketh in you both to will and to do of bis good pleasure. It is alfo well worthy of notice, that the fame Prophet Ezekiel, who fays, chap. xxxvi. 26. A new heart alfo will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you, changes the form of his expreffion; and in another place, chap. xviii. 31, 32. speaks in the following terms: Caft away from you all your tranfgreffions whereby ye have tranfgreffeds and make you a new heart and a new fpirit: for why will ye die, O boufe of Ifrael? For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, faith the Lord God; wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye. In confequence of this,

4. In the last place, truft in God will make us ready to acknowledge, that when we fail in duty, when we

forget

forget or break our resolutions, the fault is certainly in ourselves. It is impoffible to excufe or justify ourselves in any degree, without laying the blame, in the fame proportion, upon God, and calling in queftion his faithfulness and truth. But whatever our treacherous hearts may finfully fuggeft, we are not straitened in God, but ftraitened in our own bowels. We find him pleading his own cause, in this respect, in many paffages of Scripture, Ifa. lix. 1. Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot fave; neither his ear heavy, that he cannot hear; but your fins have separated between you and your God, and your iniquities have bid his face from you, that be will not hear. Upon the whole, trust in these promises is no other than an humble and diligent application to duty, under a deep fense of weakness, and dependence on promised strength, accompanied with a firm persuasion, that in the name of the Lord we shall tread down our enemies, and go on from strength to strength, till we appear before God in Zion.

3. Another class of promises are those that are suspended, not only on the fame conditions with the two former, but upon fome other circumstances in themselves uncertain, or to us unfeen. These are temporal mercies, or rather temporal prosperity, deliverance from prefent distress, and abundance or affluence of outward enjoyments. Perhaps we may also add spiritual confolation, and fenfible joy in God. I find no temporal promise precifely fixed to the fervant of God but this: Bread fhall be given him, and his water shall be sure; and it is certainly his duty, in the moft ftraitening circumstances, to maintain a confident dependence on the power and wifdom of Providence for neceffary fupply. I do not condemn those who, when reduced to extremity, have actually pleaded this Divine promife, and against hope, have believed in hope; and I am perfuaded inftances have not

been

been wanting of relief, furnished in a manner next to mi raculous. But as to every other degree of temporal prosperity, God hath referved it in his own hand to give or withhold it at his pleasure, that is, as he fees it will be moft for his glory, and the benefit of his people. It is lawful then, my brethren, for you to endeavour to procure, by honeft industry, the increase of your substance, to look well to the state of your flocks and your herds, and to ask by prayer the blefling of God upon your labours. It is lawful, and it is your duty by regularity and care, to preserve life and health, as well to ask of the Father of your fpirits, recovery from fickness, or deliverance from any other kind of diftrefs. But you are not warranted to believe that these petitions fhall be granted in hand, or in your own time and measure, even though you ask them in fincerity with the prayer of faith. There , may be reasons for withholding them, and yet you may be accepted in your prayers. An infinitely wife God knows best what is for your good, and he only hath a right to determine in what part of his own service; where and how long he shall employ you. Trust in God, therefore, in this respect, implies a careful attention to the tenor of the promises with regard to temporal mercies, and not to look for, or even, if poffible, defire what he hath not promised to bestow.

If I am not mistaken, we shall find it of moment, upon this fubject, to obferve, both what he hath not and what he hath certainly promifed. He has no where promised that his own people fhall be the richeft or the greatest on earth; but he hath certainly promised to bless their provision, and affured them, that a little that a just man hath, fhall be better than the riches of many wicked. He has not promised that they fhall be free from fuffering; but he hath certainly promised to support them by

his own prefence under their diftrefs. Ifa. xliii. 2. When thou paffeft through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee; when thou walkeft through the fire, thou shalt not be burnt; neither fball the flame kindle upon thee. The truth is, he hath promised that all things shall work together for their good. In one word, they have indeed all mercies promised, only they themselves are not in a condition, at present, to judge what they may use with safety, and what not. As the heir of an opulent eftate, though he is proprietor of all, yet is laid under restraint while in infancy and nonage, because he would foon ruin himself if it were committed to his own management; fo the believer, though an heir of God, and joint heir with Christ, yet till he is meet for the inheritance, he must be at his Maker's and Redeemer's difpofal. Take in, therefore, only this limitation, and then fee his extenfive charter. 1 Cor. iii. 21.-For

all things are yours; whether Paul, or Apollós, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things prefent, or things to come; all are yours; and ye are Chrift's; and Chrift is God's. What then is the duty of a child to God? It is to breathe after more and more fubmiffion to the Divine will, and to annex this reservation to every petition of a temporal nature, Nevertheless, not my will but thine be done. And, oh! my brethren, how happy the perfon who hath feen the weakness of human judgment; who waits the intimation of God's will, before he will fuffer his defires to faften with eagernefs on any earthly com fort, and who endeavours to keep himself free from perplexity, by an humble and fubmiffive reliance on the allfufficiency of God!

I obferved, in entering on this part of the subject, that fpiritual confolation, or fenfible joy in God, is to be confidered as a promise of the fame class, which must, there