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quering grace of faith is able to give them the foil, and to trample over all the powers of darkness. O my Lord God, do thou arm and fortify my soul, with a lively and stedfast faith in thee; I shall not fear what man nor devil can do unto me: settle my heart in a firm reliance upon thee, and turn me loose to what enemy thou pleasest.

XLIII.

THE UNFAILING FRIEND.

NEXT to the joy of a good conscience, there is no greater comfort upon earth, than the enjoyment of dear friends; neither is there any thing more sad than their parting; and, by how nearer their relations are, so much greater is our sorrow in foregoing them. What moan did good David make, both for Absalom, as a son, though ungracious; and for Jonathan, as a friend! Surely, when our dear ones are pulled away from us, we seem to have limbs torn away from our bodies; yet this is a thing must be looked for: we are given to each other, or lent rather, upon condition of parting: either they must leave us, or we them; a parting there must be, as sure as there was a meeting. It is our fault, if we set our hearts too much upon that, which may, yea, which must, be lost. Be wise, O my soul, and make sure of such friends, as thou canst not be bereaved of. Thou hast a God, that hath said, I will not leave thee nor forsake thee. It was an easy suit, and already granted, which the holy Psalmist made; Cast me not off, in the time of old age: forsake me not, when my strength faileth; Psalm lxxi. 9: and, again, When my father and my mother forsake me, in their farewell to a better world, yet then the Lord will take me up; Psalm xxvii. 10. It is a happy thing, to have immortal friends. Stick close unto them, O my soul, and rejoice in them evermore; as those, that shall sweetly converse with thee here, and shall at last receive thee into everlasting habitations.

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XLIV.

QUIET HUMILITY.

He is a rare man, that is not wise in his own conceit; and that says not within himself, "I see more than my neighbours:" for we all are born proud and self-opinionate; and, when we are come to our imaginary maturity, are apt to say, with Zedekiah, to those of better judgment than our own, Which way went the Spirit of God from me to speak unto thee? 1 Kings xxii. 24. Hence have arisen those strange varieties of wild paradoxes, both in philosophy and religion, wherewith the world abounds every where. When our fancy hath enter

tained some uncouth thought, our self-love is apt to hatch it up, our confidence to broach it, and our obstinacy to maintain it; and, if it be not too monstrous, there will not want some credulous fools to abet it: so as, the only way, both to peace and truth, is true humility; which will teach us, to think meanly of our own abilities, to be diffident of our own apprehensions and judgments, to ascribe much to the reverend antiquity, greater sanctity, deeper insight of our blessed predecessors. This only will keep us in the beaten road, without all extravagant deviations to untrodden by-paths. Teach me, O Lord, evermore to think myself no whit wiser than I am: so shall I neither be vainly irregular, nor the Church troublesomely unquiet.

XLV.

SURE MERCIES.

THERE is nothing more troublesome in human society, than the disappoint of trust, and failing of friends: for, besides the disorder, that it works in our own affairs, it commonly is attended with a necessary deficiency of our performances to others. The leaning upon a broken reed gives us both a fall and a wound. Such is a false friend, who, after professions of love and real offices, either slinks from us, or betrays us. This is that, which the great pattern of patience so bitterly complains of, as none of his least afflictions; My kinsfolk have failed me, and my familiar friends have forgotten me; Job xix. 14. It went to the heart of David, that his own familiar friend, in whom he trusted, which did eat of his bread, should lift up his heel against him; Psalm xli. 9. And, surely, those, that are stanch and faithful in themselves, cannot but be so much the more deeply affected with the perfidious dealing of others; and yet also so much the more, as their confidence and entireness was greater: this was that, which heightened the vexation of that man, who is so famous for the integrity of his heart: It was thou, O man, mine equal, my guide, my acquaintance; we took sweet counsel together, and walked to the house of God in company; Psalm lv. 13, 14. And still, our daily experience gives us miserable instances in this kind. He hath had little to do in the world, that hath not spent many a sigh upon others' faithlessness. And now, O my soul, the more sad proof thou hast had of the untrusty disposition and carriage of men, the more it concerns thee to betake thyself, in all zealous and absolute affiance, unto the sure protection and never-failing providence of thy God; the God, who, being Truth itself, never did, never can forfeit his trust to any soul, that relied upon his most certain promises, upon his promised mercies, upon his merciful and just performances. My

soul wait thou only upon God, for my expectation is from him: he only is my rock and my salvation: in God is my salvation and my glory; the rock of my strength, and my refuge is in God; Psalm lxii. 5-7. It shall not trouble thee to find men false while thou hast such a true God to have recourse unto.;

XLVI.

DANGEROUS PROSPERITY.

It was a just and needful precaution, O God, which thou gavest of old to thine Israel: When thou shalt have eaten, and art full; then beware, lest thou forget the Lord; Deut. vi. 11, 12. There was not so great fear of forgetting thee, while they were in a hungry and dry wilderness; although, even there, they did too often forget themselves, in an ungracious murmuring against thee and their leaders: the greatest danger of their forgetting thee would be, thou knewest, when they should come to be pampered in the land that flowed with milk and honey. There it was, that, accordingly, Jesurun waxed fat, and kicked: there, being grown thick and covered with fatness, he forsook God which made him, and lightly esteemed the rock of his salvation; Deut. xxxii. 15. Nothing is more difficult, than to keep ourselves from growing wanton by excess; whereas nature, kept low, is capable of just obedience: like as in the body also, a full feed breeds superfluous and vicious humours; whereas a spare diet keeps it both clean and healthful. Do not I see, O Lord, even the man, that was after thine own heart, while thou keptest him in breath, with the persecution of an unjust master, how tenderly conscientious he was; remorsed in himself, for but cutting off a lap of the robe of his causeless pursuer; 1 Sam. xxiv. 5: who yet, when he came to the full scope of his ease and courtly jollity, made no scruple of the adulterous bed of fair Bathsheba, or the bloody murder of a faithful Uriah. Who was I, O Lord, that I should promise myself an immunity from the peril of a prosperous condition, under which thy holier servants have miscarried? It was thy goodness and wisdom, who foreseest not what shall be only, but what might be also, in prevention of the danger of my surfeit to take away the dish, whereon I might have overfed. O God, I do humbly submit to thy good pleasure, and contentedly rest upon thy Providence; which hast thought fit rather to secure me in the safe use of my little, than to exercise me with the temptations of a bewitching plenty.

XLVII.

CHEERFUL OBEDIENCE.

Ir is not so much the work that God stands upon, as the

mind of the worker. The same act may be done with the thanks and advantage of one agent, and with frowns and disrespect to another. If we do our business grudgingly, and because we must, out of the necessity of our subsistence, we shall have as much thank to sit still: it is our own need, that sets our hands on work, not our obedience; so as herein, we are our own slaves, not God's servants; whereas, if we go about the works of our calling cheerfully, offering them up to God as our willing sacrifice, in an humble compliance with his commands, and an awful and comfortable expectation of his gracious acceptance, we are blessed in our holy endeavours, and cannot fail of an Euge from our Master in Heaven. Alas, Lord, it is but little, that I can do; and, without thy enabling, nothing. Thou, that vouchsafest to give me an abilitation to the work, put into me also good affections to thee in performing of it: let me do thy will here, as thy angels do in heaven, with all gracious readiness and alacrity; and be no less glad, that I shall do it, than that it is done: so, while carnal hearts shall languish under their forced tasks, my labour shall be my pleasure; and I shall find unspeakable comfort, both in the conscience of my act, and the crown of my obedience.

XLVIII.

HEAVENLY ACCORDANCE.

As our condition here upon earth is different, so must our affection needs be also. That, which is one man's joy is another's grief; one man's fear is another man's hope: neither can it be otherwise, while our occasions draw us to so manifest contradictions of disposition. These diversities and contrarieties of inclination and desire, are the necessary symptoms of our wretched mortality; and, the nearer we grow to the perfection of our blessedness, the more shall we concentrate in the united scope of all our actions and affections, which is the sole glory of our Creator. Know then, O my soul, that the closer thou canst gather up thyself in all the exercises of thy faculties, and proposals of thy desires, to the only respect of the honour of that great and good God, which gave thee thy being, thou aspirest so much nearer to thy heaven, where all the blessed saints and angels agree together, in one perpetual employment of praising their Maker; and sweetly accord in that one most perfect ditty and note of an eternal Hallelujah to him, that sits upon the throne of that celestial glory. O God, do thou draw in my heart more and more from this variety of earthly distractions, and fix it upon this one heavenly work: put me upon that blessed task here below, which shall never know any end, but endure for ever in heaven.

XLIX.

DIVINE BOUNTY.

HAD not the Apostle said so, yet our own sense and experience would have told us, that every good and perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of Lights; James i. 17: for, sure, from below, it cannot come. How should any perfect gift arise from the region of all imperfection? How should evil afford any good? What is below, but earth and hell? whereof the one yields nothing, but torment; the other, nothing, but misery and sin. If, therefore, it be perfect or good, since nothing ean give what it hath not, it must needs come from above. And, from whom, above? Not from those lightsome bodies of the stars, whose influences cannot reach unto the soul; whose substance is not capable of any spiritual power, whether to have or give perfect gifts: not from the blessed spirits, which are angels of light; they may help, through God's gracious appointment, to convey blessings to us; they neither will or can challenge an original and primary interest in the blessings which they convey: only, therefore, from the Father of Lights; who, as he is light, so is the Author of all whatsoever light, both inward and outward, spiritual and sensible. And, as light was the first good and perfect gift which he bestowed on the world, so it well may imply all the spiritual blessings conferred on the creature: so as, he, that said, Let there be light: said also, "Let this man be wise: let that be learned: let that other be gracious and holy." Whence then, O whence, can I look for any good thing, but from thy hands, O my God, who givest to all men liberally and upbraidest not; James i. 5: whose infinite treasure is not capable of any diminution; since, the more thou givest, thy store is not the less, thy glory more. Thou dost not sell thy favours, as we men are apt to do, looking through our small bounty, at an expected retribution; but thou givest most freely, most absolutely neither dost thou lend thy best blessings, as looking to receive them back again, but so conveyest them to us, as to make them our own for ever: since, therefore, thy gifts are so free, that all thy heavenly riches may be had for asking; how worthy shall I be to want them, if I do not sue for them to the Throne of thy Grace! Yet even this, since it is a good thing, I cannot do, without thee: Oh, then, give thou me the grace, that I may be ever begging faithfully of thee; and give me the graces, that I beg for.

VOL. VIII.

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