presently,' said the martyr. O therefore, let no afflictions or troubles work thee to shun the ways of God, or to quit that service which should be dearer to thee than a world, yea, than thy very life.

Dev. 3. The third device that Satan has to hinder souls from holy and heavenly services, is by presenting to the soul, the difficulty of performing them. Says Satan, 'It is so hard and difficult a thing to pray as thou shouldest, and to wait on God as thou shouldest, and to walk with God as thou shouldest, and to be lively, warm, and active in the communion of saints, as thou shouldest, that you had better, ten thousand times to neglect them than to meddle with them.' And doubtless by this device Satan has kept and does keep off thousands from waiting on God, and from giving to him that service which is due to his name. Now the remedies against this device of Satan, are these,

Rem. 1. The first remedy is, to dwell more upon the necessity of the service and duty, than on the difficulty which attends the duty. You should reason thus with your souls. O our souls, though such and such services be hard and difficult, yet are they not exceedingly necessary for the honour of God, and keeping up his name in the world; and the keeping under of sin; and the strengthening of weak graces; and the reviving of languishing comforts; and the keeping clear and bright of your blessed evidences; and for the scattering of your fears; and for the raising of your hopes; and for the gladdening of the hearts of the righteous; and stopping the mouths of unrighteous souls, who are ready to take all advantages to blaspheme the name of God, and throw dirt and contempt upon his people and ways?' O never leave thinking on the necessity of this and that duty, till your souls are lifted up far above all the difficulties that attend religious duties.

Rem. 2. Solemnly consider that the Lord Jesus will make his services easy to you, by the sweet discovery of himself to your souls, whilst you are in his service. Thou meetest him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness; those that

remember thee in thy ways, Isa. lxiv. 5. If meeting with God, who is goodness itself, sweetness itself, beauty itself, strength itself, glory itself, will not sweeten his service to thy soul, nothing in heaven or earth will. Jacob's meeting with Rachel, and enjoying of Rachel, made his hard service to be easy and delightful to him; and will not the soul's enjoying of God, and meeting with God, render his service much more easy and delightful? Doubtless it will. The Lord will give that sweet assistance by his Spirit and grace, as shall make his service joyous, and not grievous, a delight, and not a burden; a heaven, and not a hell, to believing souls. The confidence of this divine assistance raised up Nehemiah's spirit far above all those difficulties and discouragements that did attend him in the work and service of the Lord, as you may see in Neh. ii. 19, 20; But when Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah the servant the Ammonite, and Geshem the Arabian, heard it, they laughed us to scorn, and despised us, and said, What is this thing that ye do? will ye rebel against the king? Then answered I them, and said unto them, The God of heaven he will prosper us; therefore we his servants will arise and build: but you have no portion, nor right, nor memorial in Jerusalem. Ah, souls, while you are in the very service of the Lord, you will find, by experience, that the God of heaven will prosper you, and support you, and encourage and strengthen you, and carry you through the hardest service with the greatest sweetness and cheerfulness that can be. Remember this, that God will suit your strength to your work, and in the hardest service you will have the choicest assistance.

Rem. 3. Dwell upon the hard and difficult things that the Lord Jesus Christ has passed through for your temporal, spiritual, and eternal good. Of what a sea of blood, a sea of wrath, of sin, of sorrow, and of misery, did the Lord Jesus wade through for your internal, and eternal good. Christ did not plead, "This cross is too heavy for me to bear; this wrath is too great for me to lie under; this cup, which has in it all the ingredients of divine displeasure, is too bitter for me to taste; how much more to drink the very dregs of it?' No; Christ stands not upon this; he pleads not the difficulty of the service,

but resolutely and bravely wades through all, as the prophet Isaiah shews, The Lord God hath opened my ear and I was not rebellious, neither turned away my back. I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair. I hid not my face from shame and spitting. Christ makes nothing of his Father's wrath, the burden of your sins, the malice of Satan, and the rage of the world, but sweetly and triumphantly passes through all. Ah, souls, if this consideration will not raise up your spirits above all the discouragements that you meet with, to own Christ and his service, and to stick and cleave to Christ and his service, I am afraid nothing will. A soul not stirred by this, not raised and lifted up by this, to be resolute and brave in the service of God, notwithstanding all dangers and difficulties, is a soul left by God to much blindness and hardness.

Rem. 4. Consider that religious duties, holy and heavenly exercises, are difficult only to the worse, to the ignoble part of a saint. They are not difficult to the noble and better part of a saint. To the noble part, the soul, and the renewed affections of a saint, holy exercises are a heavenly pleasure and recreation, as the apostle speaks, I delight in the law of God after the inward man. With my mind I serve the law of God, though with my flesh the law of sin. To the noble part of a saint, Christ's yoke is easy, and his burden light. All the commands and ways of Christ, even those that tend to the pulling out of right eyes and cutting off of right hands, are joyous and not grievous to the noble part of a saint. All the ways and services of Christ are pleasantness in the abstract to the better part of a saint. A saint, so far as he is renewed, is always best, when he sees most of God, when he tastes most of God, when he is highest in his enjoyments of God, and most warm and lively in the service of God. '0' says the noble part of a saint, that it might be always thus. O that my strength were the strength of stones and my flesh as brass, that my worse part might be more serviceable to my noble part; that I might act by an untired power in that service, which is a pleasure, a' paradise to me !'

Rem: 52+ Solemnly consider that great reward and glori

ous recompense which attends those that cleave to the service of the Lord in the face of all difficulties and discouragements. Though the work is hard, yet the wages are great. Heaven will make amends for all; aye, one hour's being in heaven will abundantly recompense you for cleaving to the Lord and his ways in the face of all difficulties. This carried the apostle through the greatest difficulties; he had an eye to the recompense of reward; he looked for a house that had foundations, whose builder and maker was God, and for a heavenly country; yea, this bore up the Spirit of Christ in the face of all difficulties and discouragement. Looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our Faith, who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame; and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God, Heb. xii. 2.

Christians who would hold on in the service of the Lord, must look more upon the crown, than upon the cross; more upon their future glory, than their present misery, more upon their encouragememnts, than upon their discouragements. God's very service is wages; his ways are strewed with roses, and paved with joy that is unspeakable and full of glory, and with peace that passeth understanding. Some degree of comfort follows every good action; as heat accompanies fire; as beams and influences issue from the sun. Moreover, by them is thy servant warned, and in keeping of them there is great reward; not only for keeping, but in keeping of them, there is great reward. The joy, the rest, the refreshing, the comforts, the contents, the smiles, the incomes, that saints now enjoy in the ways of God, are so precious and glorious in their eyes, that they would not exchange them for ten thousand worlds. If the vails be thus sweet and glorious before pay-day comes, what will be that glory which Christ will crown his saints with, for cleaving to his service in the face of all difficulties; when he shall say to his Father, Lo, here am I, and the children which thou hast given me. If there be so much to be had in a wilderness, what then shall be had in paradise?

Dev. 4. The fourth device that Satan has to keep souls off from holy exercises, from religious services, is by working them to make false inferences from those blessed and glorious things which Christ has done; as, that Jesus Christ has done all for us, therefore there is nothing for us to do but to joy and rejoice: he has perfectly justified us, and fulfilled the law, and satisfied divine justice, and pacified his Father's wrath, and is gone to heaven to prepare a place for us, and in the mean time to intercede for us; and therefore away with praying, and mourning, and hearing. O what a world of professors has Satan drawn, in these days, from religious services, by working them to make such sad, wild, and strange inferences from the sweet and excellent things that the Lord Jesus has done for his beloved ones!

Now the remedies against this device are these—

Rem. 1. The first remedy against this device of Satan, is to dwell as much on those scriptures, which shew you the duties and services that Christ requires of you, as upon those scriptures which declare to you the precious and glorious things that Christ has done for you. It is a sad and a dangerous thing to have two eyes to behold our dignity and privileges, and not one to see our duties and services. I should look with one eye upon the choice and excellent things that Christ has done for me, to raise up my heart to love Christ with the purest love, and to joy in Christ with the strongest joy, and to lift up Christ above all, who has made himself to be my all; and I should look with the other eye upon those services and duties that the scriptures require of those for whom Christ has done such blessed things: as upon that of the apostle, What, know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's, 1 Cor. vi. 19, 20: and that, Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord, 1 Cor. xv. 58: and that, And let us not be weary in well doing, for in due season we shall reap if we