PRACTICAL WORKS.

Even Rabshakeh himself spake truer than he was aware of: Am I now come up without the Lord against this place? 2 Kings xviii. 25. No, certainly, thou insolent blasphemer: thou couldst not move thy tongue, nor wag thy finger against God's inheritance, without the providence of that God, who returned answer to thy proud master, the King of Assyria; I know thy abode, and thy going out, and thy coming in, and thy rage against me. Thy rage, and thy tumult, is come up into my ears: therefore, I will put a hook in thy nose, and my bridle in thy lips; and I will turn thee back by the way by which thou camest; 2 Kings xix. 27, 28. So true is that word of Elihu, His eyes are upon the ways of man, and he seeth all his goings. There is no darkness nor shadow of death, where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves; Job xxxiv. 21, 22: seconded by the holy Psalmist; The Lord looketh from heaven: he beholdeth all the sons of men. From the place of his habitation, he looketh upon all the inhabitants of the earth; Ps. xxxiii. 13, 14.

Neither is this Divine Providence confined only to man, the prime piece of this visible creation; but, it extends itself to all the workmanship of the Almighty: O Lord, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches: So is the great and wide sea; wherein are things creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts. These wait all upon thee, that thou mayest give them their meat in due season. Thou givest it them; they gather thou openest thy hand; they are filled with good; Ps. civ. 24, 25, 27, 28. The young lions roar after their prey, and seek their meat from God; v. 21. The ravens neither sow nor reap, nor have any storehouse or barn, yet God feedeth them. The lilies toil not, nor spin, yet the great God clothes them with more than Solomon's glory; Luke xii. 24, 27. Who knoweth not in all these, that the hand of the Lord hath wrought this? In whose hand is the soul of every living thing; and the breath of all mankind; Job xii. 9, 10,

What dost thou then, O thou False Spirit, think to choke the Divine Providence with the smallness and multitude of objects? as if quantities or numbers could make any difference in the Infinite: as if one drop of water were not all one to the Almighty, with the whole deep; one corn of sand, with the whole mass of the earth: as if that hand, which graspeth the large circumference of the highest heaven, could let slip the least fly or worm upon earth: when thou feelest, to thy pain, that this eye of omniscience, and this hand of power, reaches even to thy nethermost hell; and sees and orders every of those torments, wherewith thou art everlastingly punished; and, at pleasure, puts bounds to thy malicious endeavours against his meanest creatures upon earth?

Thou tellest me of the wickedest men's prosperity. This is no new dart of thine; but the same, which thou hast thrown, of old, at many a faithful heart. Holy Job, David, Jeremiah, felt the dint of it not without danger; but, without hurt.

It is true, wicked men flourish: what marvel is this? the world loves his own. Doth any man wonder to see the weeds overtop the

good herbs? They are natives to that soil, whereto the other are but strangers.

Wicked men prosper :--It is all the heaven they are like to have; and yet, alas, at the best it is but a woeful one: how intermixed with sorrows and discontentments! how full of uncertainties! how certain of ruin and confusion! It is a sure and sad interchange, whereof Father Abraham minds the man, who was now more full of torment than formerly of wealth: Son, remember, that thou, in thy life-time, receivedst thy good things, and Lazarus evil; but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented; Luke xvi. 25.

The wicked man prospers: but, how long? I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay-tree: Yet, he passed away; and, lo, he was not: I sought him; but he could not be found; Ps. xxxvii. 35, 36.

The wicked prosper:-Alas, their welfare is their judgment ! God doth not owe them so much favour, as to afflict them. They walk on merrily towards a deadly precipice. The just God lets them alone; and will not so much as molest their jollity, with a painful check.

The wicked thrive in the world:-How should they do other? Mammon is the God they serve; and what can he do less, than bless them with a miserable advantage? for, thus, their wealth is made to them, an occasion of falling; Ps. Ixix. 22: The prosperity of fools shall destroy them; Prov. i. 32.

The wicked prosper:-Let me never prosper, if I envy them. Do not I see their day coming? Do not I know that they are merely fed up to the slaughter? Wherefore do the crammed fowls and fatted oxen fare better than their fellows? Is it out of favour; or is it, that they are designed to the dresser? Amnon is feasted with his brethren: those, that serve him, see death in his face. Belshazzar triumphs in mirth, carouseth freely in the sacred vessels: the hand writes upon the wall, Thy days are numbered; thy kingdom finished; Dan. v. 26. The revelling of the wicked, is but-a lightning before an eternal death.

Thou tellest me, on the contrary, that the godly are persecuted, afflicted, tormented; Heb. xi. 37.

It is true. None knows it better than thyself, who, under the permission of the Most High, art the author of all their sufferings. It is thou, the Red Dragon, that standest ready to devour the masculine issue of God's Church; Rev. xii. 4, 13. It is thou, that, when the persecuted woman flees into the wilderness, pourest out of thy mouth, after her, floods of water to drown her; v. 15. It is thou, that inspirest tyrants with rage against the innocent Saints of God; and actuatest their hellish cruelty. But, when thou hast all done, the Most Wise and Mighty Arbiter of Heaven turns all this to the advantage of his dear ones upon earth. The blood of the Martyrs doth and shall prove the seed of the Church; whereof every grain yields thirty, sixty, a hundred fold: neither had the Church of God been so numerous, if there had been less malice in thy prosecution; Acts vii. 52. And, as for those several Chris

tians, that have undergone the worst of thy fury, they are so far from finding cause of complaint, that they rejoice and triumph in the happy issue of their intended miseries: they can say to thee, as Joseph said of old to his once envious brethren, Thou thoughtest evil against us, but God meant it unto good; Gen. 1. 20: they had not now sat so gloriously crowned in the highest heaven, if thou hadst not persecuted them unto blood.

None are so afflicted, thou say est, as the godly:-True: their Saviour hath told them, beforehand, what to trust to: In the world ye shall have tribulation; John xvi. 33. Have they any reason to look for better measure, than their Blessed Redeemer? If the world hate you, saith he, ye know that it hated me, before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own; but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you; Matt. xxiv. 9. Luke xxi. 12, 13. John xv. 18, 19. 2 Tim. iii. 12. Now, welcome, welcome that hate, that is raised from our Dear Saviour's love and election. Woe were us, if we were not thus hated! Let the world hate and hurt us thus still, so we may be the favourites of heaven.

None fare so ill on earth as the godly, both living and dead: The dead bodies of God's servants have they given to be meat to the forels of the heaven; the flesh of his Saints, unto the beasts of the field: Their blood have they shed like water; and there was none to bury them. They are become a reproach to their neighbours; a scorn and derision to them, that are round about them; Ps. lxxix. 2, 3, 4:Oh, the poor impotent malice of wicked spirits and men! What matters it, if our carcases rot upon earth, while our souls shine in heavenly glory? Rev. xvi. 6. What matters it, if, for a while, we be made a gazing-stock to the world, to angels, and to men; 1 Cor. iv. 9: while the Son of God hath assured us of an eternal royalty? To him, that overcometh, will I grant to sit with me in my throne; even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne; Rev. iii. 21.

None are so ill-entreated as the godly:-It is true: for none are so happy as they: Blessed are they, which are persecuted for righteousness' sake; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye, when men shall recile you, and persecute you, and say all manner of evil of you falsely, for my sake: Rejoice, and be exceeding glad; for great is your reward in heaven; Matt. v. 10, 11, 12. Who would not endure wrongs a while, to be everlastingly recom pensed? Here is not place only for patience, but for joy, and that exceeding; in respect of a reward, so infinitely glorious. It is no marvel then, if we be bidden to pray for them which despitefully use us, and persecute us; Matt. v. 44: these are the men, that are our great benefactors; and, though full sore against their wills, contribute to our eternal blessedness.

The wicked triumph, while the righteous are trampled upon:What marvel? we are in a middle region, betwixt heaven and hell; but nearer to this latter, which is the place of confusion. It is but staying awhile, and each place will be distinctly peopled with his

own. There is a large and glorious heaven, appointed for the everlasting receptacle of the just; a hell, for the godless: till then, the eternal wisdom hath determined, for his most holy ends, to give way to this confused mixture, and to this seeming inequality of events. How easy were it for him, to make all heaven! but he hath a justice to glorify, as well as a mercy: and, in the mean time, it is the just praise of his infinite power, wisdom, goodness, that he can fetch the greatest good, out of the worst of evils.

All things go cross here: the righteous droop; the wicked flourish-The end shall make amends for all. The world is a stage: every man acts his part. The wise compiler of this great interlude hath so contrived it, that the middle scenes shew nothing but intricacy and perplexedness: the unskilful spectator is ready to censure the plot; and thinks he sees such unpleasing difficulties in the carriage of affairs, as can never be reconciled: but, by that time he have sat it out, he shall see all brought about to a meet accordance; and all shut up in a happy applause. Blessed is the man, that endureth temptation; for when he is tried, he shall receive the. crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him; James i. 12.

The world is an apothecary's shop, wherein there are all manner of drugs; some poisonous, others cordial. An ignorant, that comes in, and knows only the quality, not the use of those receipts, will straight be ready to say, "What do these unwholesome simples, these dangerous minerals, these deadly juices here?" But the learned and skilful artist knows how so to temper all these noxious ingredients, that they shall turn antidotes; and serve for the health of his patient. Thus doth the Most High and Holy God order these earthly, though noxious, compositions, to the glory of his Great Name, and to the advantage of his chosen: so as that suggestion, wherewith thou meanest to batter the Divine Providence of the Almighty, doth invincibly fortify it; his most wise permission and powerful overruling of evil actions and men through the whole world, to his own honour, and the benefit of his Church.

VIITH. TEMPTATION:

"If God be never so liberal in his promises and sure in performances of mercy, to his own; yet, what is that to thee? thou art none of his, neither canst lay any just claim to his election:" Repelled.

How boldly can I defy thee, O thou Lying Spirit, while I have the assurance of him, who is the Word of Truth! How confidently dare I challenge thee upon that unfailing testimony, which shall stand till heaven and earth shall pass; Matt. v. 18. Ye, that have believed in Christ, are sealed with that Holy Spirit of Promise, Which is the earnest of our inheritance, until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory! Eph. i. 13, 14.

Lo here a double assurance, which all the powers of hell shall in vain labour to defeat; the Almighty's Seal and his Earnest: both made and given to the believer; and therefore to me.

In spite of all temptations, I believe, and know whom I have believed. I can accuse my faith of weakness: thou canst not convince it of untruth. And all the precious promises of the Gospel, and all the gracious engagements of God, are made, not to the measure, but to the truth of our belief: and why should not I as truly know, that I rely upon the word of my Saviour; as I know, that I distrust and reject thine?

Since then I am a subject truly capable of this mercy, what can hinder me from enjoying it? Cheer thyself up therefore, O my soul, with this undefeasible confidence, that thou hast God's seal, and his earnest for thy salvation.

Even an honest man will not be less than his word; but if his hand have seconded his tongue, he holds the obligation yet stronger; but if his seal shall be further added to his hand, there is nothing that can give more validity to the grant or contract. Yet, even of the value of seals, there is much difference: the seal of a private man carries so much authority, as his person; the seal of a community hath so much more security in it, as there are more persons interested: but the signet of a King hath wont to be held, to all purposes, authentical; as we find, to omit Ahab, in the signatures of Ahasuerus and Darius. Who desires any better assurance for the estate of him and his posterity, than the Great Seal? And, behold, here is no less than the Great Seal of Heaven for my election and salvation; Ye arc sealed with the Spirit of Promise.

But, lest thou shouldest plead this to be but a grant of the future; and therefore, perhaps, upon some intervenient misdemeanors or unkindness taken, reversible; know, that here is, yet further, an actual conveyance of this mercy to me; in that here is an earnest given me, beforehand, of a perfect accomplishment: an earnest, that both binds the assurance, and stands for part of payment, of that great sum of glory which abides for me in heaven.

This seal I shew; this earnest I produce: so as my securance is unfailable.

And, that thou mayest not plead this seal to be counterfeit, set on only with a stamp of presumption and self-love; know, that here is the true and clear impression of God's Spirit, in all the lines of that gracious signature: a right, though weak, illumination of mind, in the true apprehension of heavenly things; sincerity of holy desires; truth of inchoate holiness; unfeignedness of Christian charity; constant purposes and endeavours of perfect obedience.

And, as for my earnest, it can no more disappoint me, than the hand that gave it. My soul is possessed with true, however imperfect, grace: and what is grace, but the beginning of glory? and what is glory, but the consummation of grace? What should I regard thy cavils, while I have these pledges of the Almighty?

It is not in thy power, Malicious Spirit, to sever those things, which God's eternal decree hath put together. Our calling and