Competent measure of natural abilities, as well as a profound experience; this I think appears plain to any obferver; and as God has been pleased to fend both into a ministerial channel, I believe they will appear much to his own honour, the good of his people, and to the confufion of the enemies of his cause.

- Cufbi. What I am, I am by creation and grace; you may discover me better than I can difcover myself. But be affured of this, that there never were five pounds laid out upon me for human polishing fince I have been in the world; nor is my deficiency in human learning any impediment in the way of usefulness. If God the Holy Ghost prepares a man's heart, and takes poffeffion of it, he will create the fruit of the lip alfo, and give that man a mouth and wisdom that all his adverfaries fhall never be able to gainsay or refift. And for my part I have often thought that human learning has robbed God of one half of the glory that is due to him. I have read Cave's Lives of the Fathers till my heart has heaved at the work to fee how the creature has been exalted. The leading account of every character is the piety of their ancestors; just as if grace was hereditary: fecondly, their aptnefs to outstrip all others in human learning: thirdly, their mortifying their bodies in a cave; just as if the devil and the old man of fin was not to be found in a cave, as well as in a city. And as .D 2

for

for the Holy Ghost, he is hardly mentioned, though there is no fuch thing as mortifying any one deed of the flesh (to good purpose) but through him. Rom. viii. 13; and if grace be mentioned in that book, it is flightly touched just at the conclufion of a narrative.

Calamy's Life of Baxter is juft fuch another rotten jumble of human excellency. The Holy Ghost is the regenerator, the renewer, and the ornamentor of every real Chriftian; and if he be not glorified by us, we fhall furely be debased by him; for them that honour me I will honour, and they that defpife me fhall be lightly esteemed. 1 Sam. ii. 30; or, as the Saviour fays, he that exalteth himself shall be abafed, and he that humbleth himself fhall be exalted. Matt. xxiii. 13.

Abimaaz. It is right, certainly, that God in all things fhould be glorified through Jefus Chrift. But allowances, my brother, must be made: fome Chriftians have been drawn altogether by love, without any convictions at all; thefe, not feeling the plague of their hearts, nor the awful arreft of divine juftice, will remain of a legal tincture, and their language is far from being pure. Thefe are not properly evangelized, they are not brought off from all confidence in the flesh, confequently they will not favour fo fweet of the dear Redeemer as those who have been chaced by the terrors of law and juftice to embrace him as their only refuge, and lay hold of him as the only hope fet before them.

Cufbi. God is a free agent, and will work on his people as it pleaseth him; but to be converted without repentance,-to be born again without foul travail,-to be forgiven without being convinced we have nothing to pay,-to be healed without feeling our sickness,—and to be faved before we find ourfelves loft-is a mystery to me, and must remain fo.

That God often begins to allure a foul by gofpel promises I do not deny; but fuch generally find travail, and sickness too, before they arrive at God's tabernacle, or dwell on his holy hill. I have observed some persons, who have had their sharpest ftruggles with law and confcience, even on their death beds; and the very pains of death have haftened the pains of their spiritual birth, so that the birth of their fouls juft preceded the death of their bodies ;-fuch have gone to glory, full fraught with the cordials of divine confolation. This I think agrees with the gofpel fenfe of this text: But when the people of the land fhall come before the Lord, in the folemn feafts, be that entereth in by the way of the north gate to worship, fhall go out by the way of the fouth gate; and he that entereth by the way of the fouth gate, fhall go forth by the way of the north gate; he shall not gate whereby be came in, against it. Ezek. xlvi. you observe, are very legal, and favour too much of the flesh, yet I believe, if they belong to God,

9.

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return by the way of the` but shall go forth over And although fome, as

that

that he will permit their fleshly confidence fo often to deceive them, that they will be led to feel after him, who makes his ftrength perfect in our weaknefs; and as his bleffed arm is made bare to them, they will be careful to fpeak to the honour of him whofe power they feel; thus he turns to the people a pure language.

Abimaaz. I have formerly obferved feveral things which you have mentioned; and while you have been fpeaking they have occurred fresh to my mind; but I have not been fo ftrict an obferver of the works of God, and of the bleffed teachings of the Holy Spirit, as you have, which is both my fin and my lofs; as fpeaketh the Pfalmift, Whofo is wife and will obferve these things, even they fhall understand the loving-kindness of the Lord, Pfalm cvii. 43; and the more the lovingkindness of the Lord is feen, the more is the faith of a believer increafed and encouraged. And fometimes God permits an unbeliever to be forcibly ftruck with real convictions, while he beholds the vifible hand of God in fupporting and bringing his own children out of difficulties-as the Queen of Sheba was ftruck at Solomon's wifdom; their false hopes give way, and their language is like that of the Pfalmift, I had fainted unless I had believed to fee the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Pfalm xxvii. 13.

Cufki. The man that watches the dealings of God with him, both in providence and grace,

he

he fhall find the Lord's promife daily verifiedI will, fays God, make all my goodness pafs before thee. Such watchful fouls fhall fee many an obftacle removed, many a precious promise turned up, many an intricate providence made ftraight, many a knotty experience unriddled, many an enemy entangled in his own counfel, many a hint dropped for faith to catch, many a glorious beam to direct his fteps, and many a fweet drop of divine confolation will be poured as an oil on his foul, which will diffolve the stubborn heart, and divinely sweeten and soften every unruly faculty: Thus fhall the man be bleffed that feareth the Lord, and with favour will be compafs him as with a shield.

The penitential moan of Adam, as pathetic Milton paints it, is worth the notice of every tender-hearted Christian:

This moft afflicts me, that departing hence,
As from his face I fhall be hid, depriv'd
His bleffed count'nance; here I could frequent
With worthip place by place where he vouchfaf'd
Prefence divine, and to my fons relate

On this mount he appear'd, under this tree
Stood vifible, among these pines his voice

I heard, here with him at this fountain talk'd;
So many grateful altars I would rear

Of graffy turf, and pile up every stone
Of luftre from the brook, in memory,

Or monument to ages, and thereon

Offer fweet-fmelling gums, and fruits, and flowers.
In yonder nether world where fhall I feek

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His