God for flesh and blood cannot be accessory to these gracious dispositions.

3. Lastly, for our PRACTICE, it is a clear word, which we hear God say by Ezekiel, I will put my Spirit into the midst of you; and will by it cause you to walk in my statutes, and keep my laws; Ezek. xxxvi. 27. Lo, herein is the main crisis of a soul led by the Spirit of God, and adopted to this heavenly sonship. It is not for us, to content ourselves to talk of the laws of our God, and to make empty and formal professions of his Name. Here must be a continued walk in God's statutes: it will not serve the turn for us, to stumble upon some acceptable work; to step aside a little into the paths of godliness, and then draw back to the world. No, my Beloved: this leading of God's Spirit must neither be a forced angariation, as if God would feoff grace and salvation upon us against our wills; nor some sudden protrusion to good; nor a mere, actual, momentary, transient conduction, for a brunt of holiness and away, leaving us to the sinful ways of our former disobedience, and to our wonted compliances with the world, the devil, and the flesh but must be in a steady, uninterrupted, habitual course of holy obedience; so as we may sincerely profess, with the man after God's own heart, my soul hath kept thy testimonies, and I love them exceedingly; Psalm exix. 167.

Now then Dear Christians, lay this to heart seriously; and call yourselves sadly to this trial. What is the carriage of our lives? What obedience do we yield to the whole Law of our God? If that be entire, hearty, universal, constant, perseverant, and truly conscientious; we have whereof to rejoice; an unfailing ground to pass a confident judgment upon our spiritual estate, to be no less than happy. But, if we be willingly failing in the unfeigned desires and endeavours of these holy performances, and shall yet loose the reins to any known wickedness; we have no part nor portion in this blessed condition.

Mark, I beseech you, how fully this is asserted to our hands: In this, saith the Beloved Apostle, the children of God are manifest, and the children of the Devil; whosoever doth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loves not his brother; 1 John iii. 10. Observe, I pray you, what test we are put to. Ye hear him not say, "Whoso talks not holily," or "Whoso professes not Godliness:" in these, a hypocrite may exceed the best saint: but Whosoever doth not righteousness. Withal, see, what a clause the Disciple of Love superadds to the mention of all righteousness, neither he that loves not his brother: surely the Spirit of God is a Loving Spirit; Wisdom i. 6: and St. Paul hath the like phrase; Rom. xv. 30.

To let pass, then, all the other proofs of our guidance by the Spirit; instance but in this one. Alas, my Brethren, what is become of that charitable and Christian carriage of men towards

one another, which God requires of us; and which was wont to be conspicuous amongst Christian compatriots! Woe is me! instead of that true and hearty love, which our Saviour would have the Livery of our Discipleship, the badge of our holy profession; what do we see but emulation, envy and malice, rigid censures and rancorous heart-burnings, amongst men? Instead of those neighbourly and friendly offices, which Christians were wont lovingly to perform to each other: what have we now, in the common practice of men, but underminings, oppressions, violence, cruelty? Can we think, that the Spirit of Him, who would be styled Love itself, would lead us in these rugged and bloody paths? No; no: this, alone, is too clear a proof, how great a stranger the Spirit of God is to the hearts and ways of men; and how few there are, that, upon good and firm grounds, can plead their right to the sonship of God. Alas! alas! if these dispositions and practices may bewray the Sons of a holy God, what can men do to prove themselves the children of that hellish Apollyon, who was a man-slayer from the beginning?

For us, my Beloved, Oh, let us hate and bewail this common degeneration of Christians; and, as we would be and be acknowledged, the Sons of God, Let us put on, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercy, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering; forbearing one another; forgiving one another, if we have a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave us; and, above all these things, put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness; Col. iii. 12, 13, 14.

And, lastly, forsaking the mis-guidance of Satan, the world, and our corrupt nature, which will lead us down to the chambers of death and eternal destruction, let us yield up ourselves to be led by the Holy Spirit of God, in all the ways of righteousness and holiness, of piety, justice, charity, and all manner of gracious conversation; that we may thereby approve ourselves the Sons and Daughters of God; and may be feoffed in that blessed inheritance, which he hath laid up for all his. To the possession whereof, may he happily bring us, who hath dearly bought us, Jesus Christ the Righteous: To whom, with the Father and the Blessed Spirit, One Infinite God, be given all praise, honour, and glory, now and for ever. Amen.

SERMON XL.

THE MOURNER IN SION.

ECCL. III. 4.

[There is] a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn,

and a time to dance.

I NEED not tell you, that Solomon was a wise man. His wisdom, as it was in an extraordinary measure put into him, by Him, that is wisdom itself; so was it in a more than ordinary way improved, by his diligent observation. His observation was universal; of times, things, persons, actions, events: neither did he lock his experiments up in the closet of his own breast; but, by the direction of God's Spirit, laid them forth to the world in this Divine Sermon; which, not as a king, but as a prophet, he preached to all posterity. Every sentence here, therefore, is a dictate of the Holy Ghost.

It is not Solomon then, but a greater than Solomon, even the Holy Spirit of the Great God, that tells you there is not a time only, but a season too, for every thing and for every purpose under heaven: that is, as I hope you can take it no otherwise, for every good thing, or indifferent; as, for evil things or actions, if men find a time, yet sure God allows no season: those are always damnably-unseasonable abuses of times, and of ourselves.

Not to meddle with other particulars; our thoughts are now, by the Divine Providence, pitched upon, a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; or rather only upon the time to weep and mourn, for our time of laughing and dancing is past already: and perhaps we have had too much of that in our former times; which makes the causes and degrees of our now weeping and mourning, as more uncouth, so more intensive we must be so much deeper in our mourning, by how much we have been more wild and wanton in our laughter and dancing.

I. To fall right down therefore upon our intended discourse, without any previous circumlocutions; There is a THREEFOLD TIME OF JUST MOURNING: 1. When a man is sensible of his Punishments; 2. Of his Sins; 3. Of his Dangers.

1. Of his PUNISHMENTS, first; or rather, which is more general, of his Afflictions; for all afflictions are not intended for punishments: some are fatherly chastisements only for our good,

whereas all punishments are afflictive. When we are whipped then, when we smart with the rod, we have cause to weep; and if, in this case, we shed no tears, it is a sign of a graceless heart.

It is time, therefore, to mourn, when we are pressed by sufferings; whether from the immediate hand of God, or mediately by the hands of men; whether by private or public calamities.

Are we smitten in our Bodies, by some painful and incurable diseases? Doth the pestilence rage in our streets? Hath God forbidden us the influence of heaven, and cursed the earth with barrenness? Hath he broken the staff of bread, and sent leanness into our souls? Hath he humbled us with the fearful casualties of fire or water? by wrecks at sea; by lightnings and tempests by land? Hath he sent murrain amongst our cattle, and destroying vermin into our barns and fields? now God tells us, it is a time to mourn.

Are we disquieted in our Minds, by some overmastering passions of grief; for the miscarriages of children, for the secret discontents of domestical jars, for unjust calumnies cast upon our good name? Are we molested in our minds and spirits with impetuous, and no less importune than hateful temptation? now it is a time to mourn.

Do we find in our Souls a decay and languishment of grace; a prevalence of those corruptions, which we thought abated in us? Do we find ourselves deeply soul-sick with our sinful indispositions? Shortly, do we find the face of our God for the time withdrawn from us? now, now it is a time to mourn.

If we turn our eyes to those evils, which are cast upon us by the hands of men: Do men find themselves despoiled of their estates, restrained of their liberties, tortured in their bodies? Do they find the woeful miseries of an intestine war; killings, burnings, depopulations? Do they find fire and sword raging in the bosom of our land? Now it is a time to mourn. Were these evils confined to some few persons, to some special families, they were worthy of the tears of our compassion; for it is our duty to weep with them that weep: but, where they are universal, and spread over the whole face of any nation, there cannot be found tears enough to lament them.

2. Punishments then are a just cause of our sorrow and mourning but, to a good heart, sIN is so much greater cause of mourning, by how much a moral evil is more than a natural; and by how much the displeasure of an Almighty God, is worthy of more regard than our own smart. Doth thy heart then tell thee, that thou hast offended the Majesty of God by some grievous sin? now is thy time to weep and mourn; as thou wouldest for thy only son; Zech. xii. 10: now it is time for thee to be in bitterness, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. Thy soul is foul, wash and rinse it with the tears of thy repentance: go forth with Peter, and weep bitterly. Dost thou find in the place where

thou livest, that sin, like some furious torrent, bears down all before it now it is time for thee to mourn for the sins of thy people; and to say, as the holy Psalmist did, Rivers of water run down mine eyes, because men keep not thy law: Psalm cxix. 136.

3. Lastly, as our sufferings and our sins make up a due time for our mourning, so do our DANGERS also; for fear is no less afflictive than pain: yea, I know not whether there can be a greater pain, than the expectation of imminent mischiefs. Do we therefore see extremities of judgments hovering over our heads, ready to fall down, like Sodom's fire and brimstone, from heaven upon us? now it is high time to mourn, for the anteverting of a threatened vengeance. Shortly, therefore, to sum up all that we have spoken, whether we feel evils of punishment or fear them, or be conscious of the evils of sin that have deserved them, we cannot but find it a just time to weep and mourn.

And now, to come home close to ourselves; can any man be so wilfully blind, as not to see that all these are met together, to wring tears from us; and to call us to a solemn and universal mourning?

1. What single men SUFFER, themselves best feel; and our old word is, The wronged man writes in marble. I meddle not with particulars. Our pains of body, our losses in our estate, our domestic crosses, our wounds of spirit, as they are kept up in our own breasts, so they justly call us to private humiliations.

If we cast abroad our eyes to more public afflictions; have we not seen, that God hath let his sea loose upon us in divers parts of our land? as if, for a new judgment upon us, he would retract the old word of his decreed limitation; Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further; and here shall thy proud waves be stayed; Job xxxviii. 11. Hath not God given us, in divers parts of our nation, a feeling touch of some of the Egyptian plagues; in the mortality of our cattle; in the unusual frequency of noisome and devouring vermin? But woe is me! all these are but flea-bites, in comparison of that destructive sword, that hath gone through the land; and sheathed itself in the bowels of hundred thousands of brethren. Oh, that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people; Jer. ix. 1. Was there ever a more fearful example of divine vengeance against any nation, than to be armed against each other to their mutual destruction? that Christian compatriots, brethren, should pour out each other's blood like water in our streets, and leave their mangled carcases for compost in our fields? that none but the sharper sword should be left to be the arbiter of our deadly differences? that fathers and sons should so put off all natural affection, as to think it no violation of piety to cut the throats of each other? Oh, that we have lived to see the woeful havoc, that the hellish