paint the sweetresse of a thing. Who ever could paint the sweetneffe of the honey.combe? The joyes of an hypocrite as they are groundlefse and imaginary, so like his services, they are vanishing and transitory: Bue a Chriftian as hee's alwayes breathing after his God , so hee's alwayes drawing sweerneffe from him. And here 'cwere easie to Thew, how in every condition the soul breaths after its God, when it sees the vanity of the moft flourilbing condition, it panis after fulnesse in its God; when it sees the vexation of a cloudy condition, it pants after contentment only to be found in its God. But I shall infance only in these two, as having some neerer acqoaintance with the iext, ibe Atrong pantings of a tempied soul, and the secret pantings of a languishing and a deserred soul. And

1. In temptations the soul pants after God. They that are skill'd in those terms, tellus, that an Hart is properly a flagge which has escap't a King in hunting: And there are some such Chriftans, that have escap't the Prince of the aire ( that Nimrod ihe mighty hunter ) and all his fiery darts. God he has set bis bowe in the clouds as a token of a peace and reconciliation (che rain-bowe, the lace of Peaces coat:) And the devil be mul sec his bowe in the clouds too; in the troubled and cloud!y spiritgand there are arrowes in the hand of the mighty.. lortu Bineuve, TrueTysiotas sisós. And how shall ihe soul escase these fiery darts, but by panting after its God as the only place of refuge, strong tower and a rock of defence, and by breathing after Heaven as a place where 'cis sure to be free from them?: Máy Tunthous sipayor izotáze, as he said to the Comedy. A crowned Chriftian is vĘw Bians, and Satans fiery darts can by no means reach Heaven. And the foul pants.

Arise O Lord, and save me O my God, from the moutb of the Lion that's ready to devour me, lejt be teare my soul and rent it to pieces while there is none to deliver. Lo, the enemy bas bent his bowe, and made ready his arrow upon the firing, that he might secretly

shoot at the upright in heart : But compass me, O God, with thy favour as with a shield; keep me as the apple of thine eye and hide me under the covert of thy wings : Deliver me from my strong enemy and from bim that bateth me, for be is too strong for me. O send me help from thy. Sanctuary, and strengthen me out of sion. and thus when wiih a sure recumbency it leans upon ics God, it has leasure then with

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an holy triumph to out-brave the Enemy: And as for thee that wouldit make a partition between me and my God, see if thou cauft tear me from the bleeding wounds of my dying Saviour ; rend me ( if thou knowit how ) from the bowels, the tenderest bowels of Gods de arest compassions : See if the gates of Hell can

: prevail against the Rock of Eternity.If chou, O God,be with us, if the God of Jacob be our Refuge, we will not fear what all the powers of darkness can do against us: ingvixõun, We are more iban Conquerors. These are the frong pancings of a tempted foul.

2ly, lo desertions,even then the soul pants after its God; Aux ve σβικνυμένοικαι ολυμένοιο λεανδρε, when the foul is ready to perith in the dark, it panis after the water brooks, and can meet with nothing but waters of Marab and Meribah; God dips his pen in gall, and writes bitter things against it. é Nifmory é fuxil, the soul is athirst, and like its Saviour, it can have nothing buc Gall and Vinegar to drink, yet still it panis after its God. 'Tis under a Cloud indeed, but even these Clouds (hall drop farness, they shall drop upon the dwellings of the Wilderness, and the barren, fou! Thall rejoyce; like Jobn the Baptist, it feeds upon honey in the desert, not uíne agelov, wilde honey, such as is the Worldlings joy; but honey out of the Rock, upon the tip of the Rod, like Jonatbans,to open the

eye,

and to refresh the heart. A Coul in a Desertion is as it were a soul in a Consumption, & one only taste

a of Gods tweetest love in Jesus Chrift, is a sure Restaurative for

a such a languithing soul. Now in the greatest Eclipse of Gods favour in the total Eclipse, when there is not so much as a secret light;yet there's Itrong infrence ; nay, Aronger then at another time, for his ttrength is proportiond'd to our weakness:And they are Pauls own words, When I am weak, then I am strong. And even now there is origua Tupds, as Homer calls those sparkles that seemd to be buried in the ashes; and a Christian in time may avalatugir tik gabeen a ordinay there is onipum Owrds too, Light is fown to the righteous, there's a door of Hope open'd in the Valley of Achor; and now the soul pants after God, as a father of Mercies, and a God of Confolations. A God of Consolation ? what higher, what sweeter Arain ? All the Balm of Gilead seems to be wrapt up in this Expression. A God of Consolacion ; that's one, who in the frangest exigencies, and Araiteft repug.

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nances, when comforts fail, can create new comforts; for that's to be a God of Consolation ; Creation is his property, can raise them out of the barren womb of nothing, for that's Creation ; can do it with a word, for Omnipotency useth to put it self to no greater expencer : Imperatoria brevitas, the very commanding word, Let there be light in such a soul, is enough to make it more glorious than the Empyrean Heaven. And now the soul pants thus, as you my hear David panting almost in every Plalm: Husa long wilt thou forget me O Lord, for ever. And homo long wilt thou hide thy face from me ? Rath the Lord forgotten to be gracious ? And bath He in anger shut up his tender mercies? Is the Hand of Omnipotency abbreviated, that it cannot belp; and His Arm shortenid, ibat it cannot save? Or is His Mercy clean

gone for ever, and does His Promise fail for evermore? Weeping hath endured for a Night,why comes not Joy, in the Morning? When wilt thou satisfie the longing soul, and fill the thirfly with thy goodness? When wilt thou lead me into thy green Paftures, and refresh my soul with sweetness ? When, O when! shall I ep

. joy an Ordinance in its orient luftre, in its beavenly beauty, in its full and purest (weetness ? When , O blessed Saviour ! wilt thou become the Lilly of the Vallies ? the Beauty and the Ornament of the humble soul? And when shall these Vallies ftand so chick.of Corn, as that they may laugh and fing? And then it breaks it fell into fome fuch Expression, as that of a sweet finger in our lsrael. Ab my dear God, though I be clean forgot; Let me not love ibee, if I love tbee not. These are the secret pantings of a languishing soul.

Thus you see how the soul pants afier its God even as the Hart: pants after the Water brooks. We are to discover in the next place, whác manner of Communion with ics Godit is, that the soul thus paprs after; and that either mediate Communion with him here in his Ordinances,or immediate Communion with him hereafter in glory. And,

First, it trongly desires acquaintance with him here in his Ordinances. Chrysostomos very Rhetorical upon the Text, and tells up, how that David, like a Lover in absence, he muft express affe&ion: As they have their dainty fighes, and passionate complaints; their loving exclamations, and sundry discoveries of afe. fe&ion; they can meet with never a Tree, but in the bark of it

they

they muffengrave the name of their Darling; Aarda d'oxpus bons

xirse d'utós éme maons a'radigal reepdows; 'will twine upon every opportunity, as the Moralift fpeaks ; ll 'Egad dzis, épürtas 11 i swr irisau eutus Il exor go al dentov 11 Juxñs how xdegrua, as Anacreon fings: And the true Lovers of God, they are alwayes thinking upon him,figbing for him, pancing after him, talking of him, and (if' were possible ) would ingrave the name of the Lord Jesus upon the breasts of all the men in the world; Look upon David, now a banilh'r man, and fled from the presence of Saul, and see how he behaves himself : not like Ibemistocles or Camillus, or some of those brave banilt'. Worthies. He does not complain of the ungratefulness of his Country, the malice of his Adversaries, and his owo unhappy Success ; No, inftead of murinuring, he falls a panting, and that only after his Godo He's banith't from the San&uary, the Palace of Gods nearest presence, and chiefert residence, he can't enjoy the beauty of holiness, and all other places seem to him but as the Tents of Keder. He's banish't from the Temple, and he thinks himself banilh's from bis God, as ’cis in the following words, O when shall I come and appear before the face of God? The whole ftream of Expofitors run this way, that 'ris meant of bis ftrong longing to visit the Temple, and those amiable Courts of his God, w th which his soul was so much raken ; and so'ris equivalent to that in the 63.PS. My soul thirstesh for thee,to see thing glory and thy power, so as I have seen it in the Sanctuary, there to appear before the face of God. In the Ordinances extat Dei facies, as Calvin freaks and the Gospel, in 2 Cor. 46. is calld acóre mor 'Inoi Resi, as suppose a Glass ( 'cis one of our own Divines Illustratior:s ) when a man hath lookt into it, should keep a permanent and unvanishing p.cies of his face, though he himfelf towards were absent, we might well say there were the face of such a pan. The Gospel is such a Glars, reprelenting Chrift unto us, 'cis επαύγασμα ή δόξης και χαρακτής και υποφάσεως αυτέ, that I may borrow ihar Expression in the Hebrewes, so that when we shall come to see him how tov rus ghowto in Heaven, we may be able to say, Surely this is the very Saviour that was described to me in the Gospel, fic ille manus, fic ora ferebat, God has made himself very conspicuous in his own Ordinances. No doubt, but that even now God was a licile San&uary una

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to David, and he had a private Oratory in his own breaft, where he could mentally retire, and (huc up his thoughts and affe&i. ons in that inferiour Closet, and yet he pages after the publick worship of his God. Mufick in Consore is sweeteft: And some have took it for mysterious in nature, and one of its Magnalia, that affe&ions are wrought upon in publick more ftrongly than in private. The Ordinances, these are the water-brooks Davids heart pants

afier Brothnos üless, Din Din, bubling up to eternity. And yet ’uis not the out-side of an Ordinance that the Coul thus breaths for; alas ! there's little sweetness in a shell. ox mun miegóza, as the Apostle sayes in another case, the superficies, the lurface of it soon passes away;and 'cis pra&ical Popery to rest in an Opus operatun. Yoo may hear David pancing in another place, 0 who will give me no drink of the water of the Well of Bethlehem? It was not the outward water that he lo much long for. You see when that was brought him by the hazard of mens lives, 'was but water (pilc upon the ground : No, was a Saviour to be born in Bethlehem that his soul thirsted after: 0 who will give me to drink of the water of the Well of Bethlebem? Thou haft open'd thy mouth wide(Oblessed Prophes!) and thy Saviour hath fill'd it; thou hast tafted of the water which he ha's given thee to drink, and thou shalt never thirst any more : but 'uis a Well of water springing up io thee to eternal life. A soul breaths after an Ordinance, as an opportunity of having freer entercourfe with its God; συγχρωματίζεται το Θεό, to have an heavenly cin&ture upon it, to breach in lo sweet an Aire to be fteep't in a Divine Nature, have some forecastes and prelibations of happiness, a prepossession of heaven, and some Jawnings of glory. And then it enjoyes it in its orient luftre in its heavenly beauty, in its full and pureft sweetness, when it ineers with its God there, and increaseth its acquaintance with hin. And would you see how the soul thus breathes after its God in every Ordinance.

in the Word, there it defires the idiorgdra, as the Apoftle speaks. Homer tells us cf a People, i hat he terms Zanax Topté 200; and Eustathius there tells us, that the same were wont to be called Stonbons, both names very well agree to them, that delire this lincere milk of the Word that they may grow thereby, Faith pants after a promise, a breast of consolation.

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