church no more; Peter denied Christ no more.

But I speak of ordinary infirmities. Job's friends were good men, yet he says to them, "These ten times have ye reproached me." So then no such conclusions follow from this first ground of doubting.

2. The second ground is the declining and withering of our affections to spiritual things. "O," says the upright soul," ifever I had been planted a right seed, I should have been as a green olive tree in the house of my God; but my branches wither, therefore my root is naught." But stay; may you not be mistaken about the decay of grace, and fading of your affections? What, if they are not so quick and ravishing as at first? May not that be recompensed in the spirituality and solidity of them now? "I pray God your love may abound more and more in all judgment," Phil. i. 9. It may be more solid, though not so fervent. Or do not you mistake by looking forward to what you would be, rather than backward to what you once were? We discern the growth of grace, as we do the growth of plants, which we perceive rather to have grown, than to grow.

But grant it be so indeed, as you affirm, must it needs follow, that the root of the matter is not in you? David's last ways are distinguished from his first, 2 Chron. xvii. 3, and yet both first and last he was a holy man. The church of Ephesus is charged by Christ with leaving her first love, and yet she was a golden candlestick; many precious saints were in that church, Rev. ii. 2, 3, 4.

3. A third ground of these sad conclusions is, the excess of your affections to some creature-enjoyments. I fear I love the creature more than God; and if so, my love is but hypocritical. I sometimes feel stronger, and more sensible motions of my heart to earthly comforts, than I do to heavenly objects, therefore my soul is not upright in me. But stay, O soul; may not a man love God more solidly and strongly, than the creature, and yet his affections to the creature be sometimes moved more violently and sensibly, than they are towards God? As rooted malice argues a stronger hatred, than a sudden though more violent passion, so we must measure our love, not by a violent motion of it now and then, but by

the depth of the root, and constancy of its actings. Because David was so passionately moved for Absalom, Joab concludes, that if he had lived and all the people died, "it would have pleased him well," 2 Sam. xix. 7. But that was argued more like a soldier, than a logician. If you indeed love the creature for itself, if you make it your end and religion but a means, then the conclusion is rightly drawn against you. But if you love the creature in reference to God, and see nothing in it separated from him, though sometimes your affections offend in the excess, this is consistent with sincere love to God. To love the creature inordinately, that is, to put it in God's room and make it a man's end, this is the love of a carnal heart; to love it immoderately, that is, to let out more affection to it than we ought, is sometimes the sin of the best hearts.

Have not many souls feared, as you do, that when Christ and creatures shall stand as competitors in some eminent trial, they should forsake Christ rather than the creature; and yet when brought to that dilemma, have been able to cast all the world at their heels for Christ? Many of the martyrs had such fears, and they were satisfied. The power of love is best seen at parting. There may be more love to Christ in thy soul, than thou art now aware of; and if God bring thee to such an extremity, thou mayest see it.

4. A fourth ground of these sad conclusions, is from hence, that we find our hearts sometimes more straitened in private, than in public duties. O if my soul were sincere, its actings in duty would be uniform. I fear upon this ground I am but a Pharisee. It is sad indeed that we should at any time find our hearts straitened in private; but do not all thine enlargements in duty, whether public or private, depend upon the Spirit, who is the Lord of influences; and according as he gives out or holds back those influences, art not thou so enlarged, or straitened? And what if sometimes he pleases to give that in a public, which he withholds in a private duty, as long as thy soul is satisfied in neither, without communion with God, and the straitness of thy heart is indeed its burden? Does that prove thee to be a hypocrite?

2. Dost thou not make conscience of private duties,

and set thyself as before the Lord in them? If indeed thou livest in the constant neglect or careless performance of them, if thou art careful about public, and careless about private duties, that would be a sad sign; but when thou hast conscientiously performed them, and often met with God in them, it will not follow that thou art insincere, because that communion is sometimes interrupted.

May there not at times be something in a public, which is wanting in a private duty, to raise and assist thine affections? God may sometimes make use of the melting affections of them with whom thou hearest, or prayest, as petty instruments to move thy affections; this advantage is wanting in private; therefore from hence, the case being thus, no such inference can be drawn.

5. Another ground is from those horrid injections of Satan with which the soul is greatly perplexed. By these I may see what a heart I have. Can grace be where these are? Yes, grace may be where such thoughts are, though not where they are lodged and consented to. Dost thou cry out under the burden, enter thy protest in heaven against them, strive to keep up holy and reverend thoughts of God? Then it is violence, not a voluntary prostitution.

6. The last ground of these sad conclusions, is the Lord's long silence, and seeming denial of our long depending suits and prayers. O if God had any regard to my soul, he would have heard my cries before now! But I have no answer from him, therefore no interest in him. But stay, doubting soul; Have not many saints stumbled upon this stone, before thou? "I said in my haste, I am cut off from before thine eyes; nevertheless thou heardest the voice of my supplication," Psal. xxxi. 22. So the church in Lam. iii. 44; "Thou coverest thyself with a cloud, that our prayers should not pass through." "Then said I, I am cast out of thy sight," Jonah ii. 4. And may not you be mistaken in this matter, as well as they?

Though God's abhorring and finally rejecting prayer, is an argument of his abhorring the person that prays, yet dare we conclude so from a mere suspension of the answer? God may bear long with his own elect, that cry unto him day and night, Luke xviii. 7.

Can you deny but that there are some signs appearing in your souls, even whilst God suspends his answer, that argue your prayers are not rejected by him? Though no answer come, yet you are still resolved to wait. You dare not say as that profane wretch did in 2 Kings vi. 33, "This evil is of the Lord, why should I wait for him any longer?" You can clear and justify God still, and lay the reason and cause of his silence upon yourselves. So did David; "O my God, I cry in the day time, and thou hearest not; and in the night, and am not silent, but thou art holy," Psal. xxii. 2, 3. The suspension of God's answer makes you inquisitive into your own hearts, to discover what evils are there that obstruct your prayers. So the church in Lam. iii. 8, "He shutteth out my prayer:" and how does this work? You may see in ver. 40; "Let us search and try our ways." Well then neither from hence may you conclude that God has no love for your souls.

And thus I have shown you how to keep your hearts, in a dark and doubting season, from those desperate conclusions of unbelief. God forbid any false heart should encourage itself from these things! It is our unhappiness that when we give saints and sinners their proper portions, that each of them should be so prone to take up the others' part.

SECTION XI-A Season of Persecution.

The eleventh special season calling for this diligence to keep your hearts, is when sufferings for religion come to an height. Then look to your hearts. "All these are the beginning of sorrows; and they shall deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you; and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake; and then shall many be offended," Matth. xxiv. 8, 9, 10. When sufferings for religion grow hot, then blessed is he that is not offended in Christ. Troubles are then at their height, When a man's nearest friends and relations forsake and leave him, Mic. vii. 5, 6; 2 Tim. iv. 16; when a man is engaged alone; when it comes to resisting to blood, Heb. xii. 4;-when temptations are presented to us in our sufferings, Heb. xi. 37;-when persons eminent for profession turn aside, and desert the cause of Christ

2 Tim. ii. 19;-when God hides his face in a suffering hour, Jer. xvii. 17;-when Satan falls upon us with strong temptations, to question the grounds of our sufferings, or the soul's interest in Christ. Now it is hard to keep the heart from turning back, and the steps from declining from God's ways.

The eleventh question then shall be this-How the heart may be kept from relapsing under the greatest sufferings for religion?

If the bitterness of sufferings at any time cause thy soul to distaste the way of God, and take up thoughts of forsaking it, stay thine heart under that temptation, by propounding these eight questions solemnly to it

1. What reproach and dishonor shall I pour upon Christ and religion, by deserting him at such a time as this? This will proclaim to all the world, that how much soever I have boasted of the promises, yet when it comes to the trial, I dare hazard nothing upon the credit of them. And how will this open the mouths of Christ's enemies to blaspheme! O better had I never been born, than that that worthy name should be blasphemed through me! Shall I furnish the triumphs of the uncircumcised? Shall I make mirth in hell? O if I did but value the name of Christ, as much as many a wicked man values his own name, I could never endure to see it exposed to such contempt! Will proud dust and ashes venture death, yea, hell, rather than a blot upon their names? And shall I venture nothing to save the honor and reputation of Christ?

2. Dare I violate my conscience to save my flesh? Who shall comfort me when conscience wounds me? What comfort is there in life, liberty, or friends, when peace is taken away from the inner man? When Constantius threatened to cut off Samosatenus's right-hand, if he would not subscribe somewhat that was against his conscience, he held up both his hands to the messenger who was sent, saying, "He shall cut off both, rather than I will do it." Farewell all peace, joy, and comfort, from that day forward. "Had Zimri peace, that slew his master?" said Jezebel. So say I here, Had Judas peace? Had Spira peace? And shall you have peace, if you tread in their steps? O consider what you do!