you have been sealed for the day of redemption? Are you immoveable, abounding always in the work of the Lord? Eph. iv. And do you endeavour to be found in him, with out spot or blemish, in peace.? 1 Cor. xv.. 2 Pet. iii.

Tell me, devout souls, whether you be not as the fire and light? For as there is no flame so pure, but hath its smoke, no star so bright but disappears at the rising of the sun; so there is no life, so holy and harmless, but hath its imperfections, and caunot abide the sight of an impartial God, and the exact inquisition of his justice. When we have well prayed, wept, and, begged, forgiveness, and God hath be stowed upon us, a new heart and a new spirit, after all, wel have need that he should enlighten us afresh with the gras cious beams of his divine, countenance, that he shoukh lead, us by the hand, direct us by his, wisdom, and accomplish his virtue by qur infirmities

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Examine seriously, my dear friends, to what exercises of devotion you are most inclined, and what secret motions you feel in your souls. Who is it that hath the greatest share in your heart and affection? What thoughts lull you asleep, and what are those that awake you? What do you think upon, for the most part? Upon God and his, glory, or upon thee world and its vanities? Upon heaven and its excellencies, ore upon the earth and its riches? Upon paradise and its immorŸ tal delights, or upon the flesh and its base, satisfactions? And when you meditate upon divine things, are you certain that g you perform it with a religious attention, with an inward de light that ravishes and comforts your souls? And when you offer any prayers to God, do you discharge this duty with humility and an holy zeal? Are your hearts and affections carried up to heaven, before you lift up thitherward your A eyes and hands? Are your oraisons like the perfume of thee: saints that come out of golden phials? Are they like the insti

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cense of the ancient Israelites, that smoked upon an altar burning with celestial fire? Do they thus proceed from a soul purified by faith, which is more precious than fine gold? Do they come from an heart that is inflamed with a zeal that never dies, and that ascends continually on high? Do you bestow your alms with that earnest and fervent charity that God requires of you? Do you open your bowels to your brethren before you open to them your purse? And do you bestow your hearts upon the poor before you bestow your money?

And for the public devotions which you owe to God, pray tell me with what humility and respect they are performed: Do you call your delight the days dedicated to his glory, and to the celebration of his holy mysteries? Isa. lviii. Or do you look upon them as troublesome? Do they not cause you to complain in yourselves, as those profane Jews spoken of by Malachi, "Behold, what a weariness is it!" Mal. i. Do you go up to the house of God with the voice of melody, and transports of joy? Ps. xli. Or do you go up thither out of custom in a careless manner? When Jacob went up to Bethel to offer sacrifices, he buried under ground all the gods of gold and silver that were in his family, Gen. liii. Likewise you, religious souls, when you intend to go up to offer your spiritual sacrifices in the true Bethel, where God bestows in such plenty his bread from heaven, that gives life to the world; do you not forget to bury all your earthly cares, your carnal lusts? Or else, do you nourish in your hearts all those false gods, of whom the world is so fond? Do you look upon the holy assemblies with an unconcerned eye? Or do you behold them with reverence and respect, as the living images of that glorious church, gathered together before God's majestic throne, which worship him day and night in his holy temple? Are those divine psalms that are there sung, only upon your tongues? Or do you sing them with your hearts to the Lord? Do you think upon the angels' songs, and the holy spirits' 3 A

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hallelujahs, with sacred transports of joy? Is the word of God only an airy sound that strikes your ears, or doth it reach your consciences? Col. iii. Doth not your heart burn within you while God speaks by the ministry of his servants, and opens to you his holy scriptures? Luke xxiv. Doth this heart of yours burn with an heavenly fire, or with restless impatience, to see the end of your devotions, that you might return to your domestic affairs, to your worldly delights, or to your carnal pastimes? Amos viii. 5. Doth your soul thirst for God, for the the strong and living God? Ps. xliii. And is the performing of the holy will of your heavenly Father become your meat and your only delight? John iv. Ps. ciii. In short, do you fly as swift as the blessed angels, when your great God and Saviour offers to you an occasion of advancing his kingdom, of comforting his chosen, and edifying the souls for whom he died? When Abraham offered unto God many beasts in sacrifice, a flight of birds came, and lighted upon his dead offerings, Gen. xv. Thus, when we present unto God the sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving, and intend to multiply the acts of our devotions, a great number of vain and idle thoughts come to interrupt us. Abraham frighted away those troublesome birds; but it is not always in our power to drive away from our minds these intruding thoughts that disturb us in our devotion. When we will lift up ourselves unto God, and draw near to his sacred throne, our hearts are far more dull and heavy than ever Moses's hands were; so that they fall down again to the earth, and mind earthly things. We need, therefore, that our chief-priest should hold them up: and, furthermore, it is necessary that they should be perfumed with the sweet odours of his most holy sacrifices, Exod. xvii.

If David, a man after God's own heart, intreats that he would be pleased to sanctify the words of his mouth, and the meditations of his heart, Ps. xv. if the prophet Daniel, whom the Holy Spirit styles a man greatly beloved, Dan. ix.

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who spent the days and nights in devotion, seeks how to make his prayers acceptable to God; if the prophet Isaiah had need that his lips should be purified with a burning coal taken from the altar, Isa. vi. who will wonder if the medita tions of the devoutest souls be so often interrupted? If their prayers be so cold and lukewarm, who can think it strange, that we are not able to pray as we ought? Rom. viii. And that we have need to desire God's holy Spirit of prayer and supplication, who prays and intercedes for us with sighs and groans which cannot be expressed? Zech. xiii. Rom. viii.

That which afflicts most the true believers, is, that when they imagine that they have attained to some kind of perfection in the exercises of piety, they find many times, to their unspeakable sorrow, that they are but beginners, and that they have made no progress at all. For as the stone cast up into the air, falls down of its own accord, by reason of its patural weight; and as the water often heated, becomes as often cold and frozen, because cold is a property belonging to it; likewise our souls, that mount up to God in holy meditations, and zealous prayers, fall down again to these earthly vanities; they become cold and heavy; for these are their natural properties. If God refused the sacrifices of such beasts as were lame and sickly, how will he accept of us, or our devotions, if he should treat us with severity, who are faint in his service, and cannot walk in his ways without halting and stumbling every moment? For these considerations I may apply to the spiritual joy, what was said of the earthly and worldly mirth, "Joy is cut off by sadness," Isa. lxv. For when we have felt in our breasts this unspeakable joy of the Holy Ghost, and it begins afterwards to abate, it seems to us as if it had taken its flight to heaven, as the smoke of Manoah's sacrifice; then as great sorrow seizeth upon our souls: therefore we may complain and cry out as David, "Will the Lord cast me off for ever, and will he be favourable no more? Is

his mercy clean gone for ever? Doth his promise fail for evermore? Hath God forgotten to be gracious? hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies?" And pray in the language of Isaiah, “Lord, awaken thy jealousy, and the stirring up of thy bowels that are shut up to me." Finally, if after all the exercises of devotion, if after a serious and settled meditation upon God's holy word, if after fasting and mortification, and prayers and tears, and a constant attendance to the duties of religion, we find any good progress in piety, we may then also perceive vice to proceed out of our most glorious virtues, and perfectest graces. For as the moth enters soonest into the richest stuffs and cloths; thus pride creeps into the noblest souls, and breeds in the most enlightened understandings. As a primitive doctor of the Christian church hath very well observed, All vices are begot by corruption, and by other vices; only pride and presumption proceed from virtue. O how hard a task it is for a man enabled with gifts and perfections that raise him above the vulgar, not to be puffed up with pride, nor deceived with a fond conceit of himself! As the beautiful bird looks upon and admires the dainty and various colours of its wings; thus we behold and admire ourselves, we are in love with our own beauty, and idolize our virtues. Therefore, as the nurse leaves the child sometimes to its legs, and suffers it to fall, that it may know its own strength, and learn to hold faster by the hand; thus God withdraws from us the assistance of his grace, to humble us, and to cause us to implore most earnestly the help, and favourable succours, of his Holy Spirit. When St. Peter felt the sacred flames of that holy zeal that was kindled in his heart, and that sincere love that he had for Christ, he rejoiced, and imagined himself to be strong enough to resist all the powers of hell, and to frustrate all the fiery darts of the devil. This good opinion that he had of himself, and of his own ability, transports him to that confidence, as to contradict our Saviour

Christ, and to protest, "Although all should be offended in www thee,