I must believe, now I will never doubt of mercy and of grace again. Only take these few words of advice.

Be sure that you understand your comforts rightly; be not mistaken in them: labour to distil and refine your comforts. As there was a mixed company came out of Egypt, which set the Israelites a murmuring; so there is a mixed company that comes with your comforts. Every creature is born into the world with some filth; when you have comfort, labour to find out and separate the dross and filth, put away that mixed company. Rose leaves keep not long in the leaf: distilled comforts keep the longest.

If you would be rid of Satan from coming into your quarters, fall you upon his; the way to keep the enemy out of our country, is to fall into his. So deal with Satan, do him all the mischief you can; be not barely offensive, up and be doing against him.

If you would keep your comforts, put them all into the hand of Christ to be kept for you. A child that knows not how to keep his money, if he get a penny from any friend, he brings it to his father or mother, and saith, Mother, pray keep this penny for me. You have experience that you cannot keep your own comforts, you will lose and spend them quickly. As Jesus Christ is the Lord Treasurer of all our graces, so he is the Lord Keeper of all our comforts; and therefore, when God is pleased to give in any comfort to you, go to Jesus Christ, and say, Lord, keep my comforts for me, keep my evidences for me, keep my assurance for me: ye must not only depend upon Christ for graces, but for comforts; and as well for the keeping, as for the getting of them.

As you have any spiritual comfort from Christ, spend all for Christ: for though in temporal things, the way to have little, is to spend much; yet in spiritual things, the more you spend, the more you have. And therefore, whatsoever comfort you have, spend it with the saints. Do as Moses did when Moses was in Pharaoh's court, and in great preferment, standing in the presence of the king, he went out to visit his brethren, and to comfort them under their burdens: "I will see (saith he) how it fares with my brethren, under their burdens." So do you also. Hath the Lord spoken peace and comfort to your soul, and do you now

stand in the presence of the King of kings, having his face shining on you, with your comforts all restored unto you } Now then go out unto your brethren, and inquire who they are that labour under any burden, and with the same comfort wherewith you have been comforted yourselves, comfort others, knowing this for certain, that the more you spend, the more you shall have, and the longer you shall keep your comforts: yea, and this Christ expects, that what comforts we have from him, we should spend for him.

And thus I have also done with this second argument.

SERMON III.

SAINTS SHOULD NOT BE DISCOURAGED WHATEVER THEIR CONDITION BE.

"Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me, &c"-Psalm xlii. 11.

HAVING spoken of the two first doctrines, the third followeth, which is this:

The saints and people of God have no true reason for their discouragements, whatever their condition be.

David had as much cause and reason for his discouragements here as any other, for he did want ordinances, yea, he was kept from the ordinances; therefore, saith he, verses 1, 2,"As the hart panteth after the water-brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God, when shall I come and appear before God?" Yea, after he had known the sweetness of them he was deprived of them, verse 4, " For I had gone with the multitude, I went with them to the house of God." And in this condition he had many enemies, he was in the state of affliction and persecution, his enemies reproached him, they reproached him in the matter of his God, and that daily, verses 3 and 10, "While they continually say unto me, Where is thy God? As a sword in my bones mine enemies reproach me, while they say daily unto me, Where is thy God?"

And he was now under great desertions: though the enemies did reproach him in the matter of his God, yet if God

وو

had been present with him, he had been well enough; but they said, "Where is now thy God?" and his own heart said so too, that God had left and forsaken him, which was his failing, verse 9, "I will say unto God, my rock, why hast thou forsaken me?" yet for all this he saith, "Why art thou cast down, O my soul?" As if he should say, Thine enemies do not only reproach thee in the matter of thy God, but thine own heart; thou art now kept from those precious ordinances which once thou didst enjoy; yet why shouldst thou be disquieted or cast down? there is no reason for it. So that the words speak plainly this truth, A godly, gracious man hath no true scripture reason for his discouragements whatever his condition be.

It was a sad condition that the prophet Habakkuk did present unto himself, yet, saith he, chap. iii, “ I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation," verse 18. But oh thou servant of God, thou art now under a threatening, and not under a promise, which makes thy very belly to tremble, and wilt thou, canst thou now rejoice? Yes, saith he, verse 16, "When I heard, my belly trembled, my lips quivered at the voice, rottenness entered into my bones; yet will I rejoice in the Lord," &c.

But it may be thou thinkest this threatening will never be fulfilled. Yes, saith he, verse 17, "Although the figtree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the field shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no meat in the stalls: yet will I rejoice in the Lord," &c.

But a man may rejoice, though he have no wine to drink or olive to eat, because these are but creatures which are for our refreshment: but wilt thou rejoice, O prophet, if thou wantest thy daily bread, and such creatures as are for our daily nourishment?

Yes, saith he, "Although the field shall yield no meat, and the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there be no herd in the stall, yet will I rejoice in the Lord." So that whatever a godly man's condition be, he may rejoice, and there is no true reason for his discouragement.

Indeed, there is no sin so unreasonable, but the sinner thinks he hath reason for it; and so the saints and people of

God may think, that they have reason for their discouragements: hence it is that they have so many whys and wherefores, "Why hast thou forsaken me?" "Why go I mourning?"

Yea, they may not only seem to have some reason, but, in a way of nature, they have reason for their discouragements; and therefore saith David, "When I saw the prosperity of the wicked, I said, I have cleansed my hands in vain, until I went into the house of the Lord," Psalm lxxiii. So that, so long as he was in the house of nature, and natural reason, he did see reason for his discouragement.

Yea, not only so, but take things asunder, and consider things by pieces, one from another, abstracting the means from the end, and so the saints may have a true and real reason for their discouragements, for every affliction is grievous. If the husbandman look only upon the breaking up of his ground, without respect to the harvest, he may well be discouraged, but take both together, and so he will not: thus if the saints consider their breakings apart from their harvest, they may see cause for their discouragements; but if they do consider their breaking up and their harvest together, the means and the end together; I say, take all together, and then, whatever their condition be, they have no reason to be cast down or be disquieted.

What is there in or for the saints that may be a sufficient bulwark against all discouragements?

I answer, A godly, gracious man hath propriety and interest in God himself. Some special men and women there are in the world, whom the great God of heaven and earth doth make over himself unto, and they that have him for their God and portion, have no reason to be disquieted whatever their condition be: thus it is with the saints, and therefore the Psalmist doth not barely say, that he would rejoice, but that God was "his exceeding joy," Psalm xliii. Satan may darken this light and joy for a time, but he can never put it out; all the saints and people of God are possessed of this. It is written of Antoninus the Emperor, one of the persecutors in the primitive times, that being environed and compassed about by his enemies, whereby he and all his army in the field were like to be lost for water, he commanded the christians of his army to pray for rain; whereby present re

lief came to him, his army was preserved, and his enemies destroyed; whereupon he wrote a letter to the Roman senate in favour of the christians, and gave this commendation of them in it, That they were a people which were, Deo contenti, content with God, quem circumferunt secum in pectore, whom they did always carry about with them in their bosom: yea, saith he, in that same letter, it is very credible, that although we think them wicked men, Deum pro munimento habere in conscientia, that they have God in their conscience for their bulwark.* Thus a heathen, thus an enemy, thus he who was once a persecutor confessed, and shall not we say as much?

Oh but, say some, tolle meum et tolle Deum, take away that word my, and take away the comfort of that word God; no God to me unless he be my God, and there are many of God's people that cannot say, God is my God, for they do want assurance; and therefore how can they have comfort in this ?

Yes, if my very resting on God doth make him mine, I may have comfort in him too; now the saints and people of God may always, and do rest on God, and though Satan saith by way of temptation, You have not believed, you have not rested on God; yet they may say, Oh, but now I do rest on God, and so may always have comfort in their propriety and interest in God.

God doth always know them and their conditions. " I know thy works, and thy tribulation, and thy poverty," saith Christ to the church of Smyrna, Rev. ii. 9, 10: and this Christ speaks as a relieving comfort to that church in a sad condition; for saith Christ," Satan shall cast some of you into prison ten days." Yet be of good comfort, Smyrna; I know thee and thy tribulation and poverty; whatever thy condition be, I do know thee in it: and it seems this is a general cordial, for it is given unto all the churches; I know thy works O Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, and Philadelphia: it is spoken as a terror, indeed, to Laodicea, for that which is most comfortable to the good is most

* Δια τον Θεον ον φερουσι καλα συνειδησιν ιεκος ουν εστιν ους υ πος λαμβανομεν α Θεους είναι Θεον έχουσι αυτό ματον εν συνειδήσει τετειXLμevov.-Justin Mart. 2 Apol.