ment to lay down your weapons at his feet, and to kiss the Son lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way.

Rem.4. Solemnly consider that you are much engaged to the Saints as instruments for the mercies that you enjoy,, and for the preventing and removing many a judgment, that otherwise might have been your ruin before this day. Were it not for the saints' sake, God would quickly make the heavens to be as brass, and the earth as iron; God would quickly strip thee of thy robes and glory, and set thee upon the dunghill with Job. They are the props that bear the world from falling about thy ears, and that keep the iron rod from breaking of thy bones. Therefore he said that he would destroy them, had not Moses his chosen stood before him in the breach, to turn away his wrath, lest he should destroy them. Ps. cvi. 23.

Ah, had not the saints many a time cast themselves into the breach, betwixt God's wrath and you, you had been cut off from the land of the living, and had had your portion with those whose names are written in the dust. Many a nation, many a city, and many a family, are surrounded with blessings for the Josephs' sakes, that live therein; and are preserved from many calamities and miseries, for the sake of men like Moses, Daniel, Noah, and Job, who dwell amongst them. That is a sweet word in Prov. x. 25, As the whirlwind passeth, so is the wicked no more: but the righteous is an everlasting foundation, or is the foundation of the world. The righteous are the foundation of the world, which but for their sakes would soon shatter, and fall to ruin. So the Psalmist; The earth and all the inhabitants thereof are dissolved; I bear up the pillars of it, Psalm lxxv. 3.

The emperor Marcus Antoninus being in Almany with his army, was inclosed in a dry country by his enemies, who so stopped all the passages, that he and his army were like to perish for want of water; the emperor's lieutenant seeing him so distressed, told him that he had heard that the Christians could obtain any thing of their God by their prayers; whereupon the emperor having a legion of Christians in his army desired them to pray to their God for his and the army's delivery out of that

danger; which they presently did, and presently a great thunder fell amongst the enemies, and abundance of water upon the Romans, whereby their thirst was quenched, and the enemies overthrown without any fight.

I shall close up this last remedy with those sweet words of the Psalmist, In Judah is God known; his name is great in Israel. In Salem also is his tabernacle, and his dwelling place in Zion. There brake he the arrows of the bow, the shield and the sword, and the battle, Psalm lxxvi. 1-3.

SECTION II.

The Devices of Satan against the Learned and Wise,

Satan has his devices to ensnare and destroy the learned and the Wise, and that sometimes by working them to pride themselves in their parts and abilities; and sometimes by drawing them to rest upon their parts and abilities; and sometimes by causing them to make light of those that want their parts and abilities, though they excel them in grace and holiness; and sometimes by drawing them to engage their parts and abilities in those ways and things that make against the honour of Christ, the joy of the Spirit, the advancement of the gospel, and the liberty of the Saints.

Now the remedies against this device are these.

Rem. 1. Seriously consider that you have nothing but what you have received, Christ being as well the fountain of common gifts, as of saving grace. What hast thou, says the Apostle, that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it? 1 Cor. iv. 7. There are those that would hammer out their own happiness, like the spider climbing up by the thread of her own weaving. Of all the parts and abilities that are in you, you may well say, as the young man did of his hatchet, Alas, master, for it was borrowed, 2 Kings vi. 5. Alas, Lord, all I have is but borrowed from that fountain that fills all the vessels in

heaven and on earth, and it overflows. My gifts are not so much mine as thine. Of thine own have we offered unto thee, said that princely prophet.

Rem. 2. Solemnly consider that men's leaning and trusting to their own wits, parts, and abilities, has been their utter overthrow and ruin; as you may see in Ahithophel, and those presidents and princes that engaged against Daniel, and, in the scribes and pharisees. God loves to confute men in their confidences. He that stands upon his parts and abilities, does but stand upon a quicksand that will certainly fail him. There is nothing in the world that provokes God more to withdraw from the soul, than this; and how can the soul stand, when its strength is departed from it? Every thing that a man leans upon, but God, will be a dart that will certainly pierce his heart through and through. Ah how many in these days have Lost their estates, their friends, their lives, their souls, by leaning upon their admired parts and abilities! The saints are described by their leaning upon their beloved, the Lord Jesus. He who leans only upon Christ, lives the highest, choicest, safest, and sweetest life. Miseries always lie at that man's door, who leans upon any thing below Christ; such a man is most in danger; and this is none of his least plagues, that he thinks himself secure. It is the greatest wisdom in the world to take the wise man's counsel, Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding, Prov. iii. 5.

Rem. 3. Consider that you do not transcend others more in parts and abilities, than they do you in grace and holiness. There may be, and often is, great parts and abilities, were there is but little grace, yea, no grace; and there may be, and often is, a great deal of grace, where there is but weak parts and abilities. You may be higher than others in gifts of knowledge, utterance, learning; and those very souls may be higher than you in their communion with God, in their delighting in God, in their dependance upon God, in their affection to God, and in their humble, holy, and unblamable walking before God. it folly and madness in a man to make light and slight of another, because he is not so rich in lead or iron as he; when he is a thousand times richer in silver and gold, in

jewels and pearls, than he? and is it not madness and folly, with a witness, in those that have greater parts and abilities than others, to slight them upon that account; when those very persons that they make light and slight of, have a thousand times more grace than they? And yet O how does this evil spirit prevail in the world!

It was the sad complaint of Austin in his time, ‹ The unlearned rise up and take heaven by violence, and we with all our learning are thrust down to hell.' It is sad to see how many of the rabbies of these times make an idol of their parts and abilities; and with what an eye of pride, scorn, and contempt, they look upon those that want their parts, and that do not worship the idol that they have set up in their own hearts. Paul who was the great doctor of the Gentiles, did wonderfully transcend, in all parts and abilities, the doctors and rabbies of our times; and yet O how humbly, how tenderly, how sweetly, does he carry himself towards the meanest and the weakest! To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak. I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some, 1 Cor. ix. 22. Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is offended, and I burn not? 2 Cor. xi. 29. Wherefore if meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth, lest I make my brother to offend, 1 Cor. viii. 13. But O how little of this sweet spirit is to be found in the doctors of our age, who look sourly, and speak bitterly against those that do not see as they see, and cannot speak as they speak. Sirs, the Spirit of the Lord, even in despised saints, will be too hard for you, and his appearance in them in these latter days, will be so full of spiritual beauty and glory, as that they will darken that which you are too apt to count and call your glory. The Spirit of the Lord will not suffer his choicest jewel, grace, to be always buried under the straw and stubble of parts and gifts.

Rem. 4. Consider that there is no such way for men to have their gifts and parts blasted and withered as to pride themselves in them; as to rest upon them; as to make light and slight of those that want them; as to engage them against those persons, ways, and things, that Jesus Christ has set his heart upon. Ah, how has God blasted

and withered the parts and abilities of many among us, who have once been famous, shining lights! How is their sun darkened, and their glory clouded! How is the sword of the Lord upon their arm, and upon their right eye! How is their arm clean dried up and their right eye utterly darkened! as the prophet speaks, Zech. xi. 17. This is matter of humiliation and lamentation. Many precious, discerning saints see this, and in secret mourn for it. And O that they were kindly sensibly of God's withdrawing from them, that they may repent, keep humble, and carry it sweetly towards God's jewels, and lean only upon the Lord and not upon their parts and understanding, that so the Lord may delight to visit them with his grace at such a rate, as that their faces may shine more gloriously than ever, and they may be more serviceable to the honour of Christ and the faith of the saints, than formerly they have been!

SECTION III.

The Devices of Satan against the Saints.

Satan has his devices to destroy the saints: and one great device that he has to destroy the saints, is, By working them first to be strange, and then to be bitter and jealous, and then to bite and devour one another. Our own woeful experience is too great a proof of this. The Israelites in Egypt did not more vex one another, than Christians in these days have done; which has occasioned a deadly consumption to fall upon some.

Now the Remedies against this Device are these Rem. 1. Dwell more upon one another's graces, than upon one another's weaknesses and infirmities. It is sad to con→ sider that saints should have many eyes to behold one another's infirmities, and not one eye to see each other's graces; that they should use spectacles to behold one another's weaknesses, rather than looking-glasses to behold one another's graces.

Erasmus tells of one who collected all the lame and defective verses in Homer's works, but passed over all that