seeking out ways and opportunities to be serviceable to thy Lord; employing all for him, commending and extolling his goodness, doing and suffering cheerfully for him, laying out the strength of desires, and parts, and means, in thy station, to gain him glory-if thou be alone, then not esteeming thyself alone but with him, seeking to know more of him and to be made more like him→ if in company, then casting about how to bring his name into esteem, and to draw others to a love of religion and holiness by speeches, as it may be fit, and mostly by the true behaviour of thy carriage-tender over the souls of others, to do them good to thy utmost; thinking each day an hour lost, when thou art not busy for the honor and advantage of him to whom thou now livest-thinking in the morning, Now what may I do this day for my God? How may I most please and glorify him, and use my strength, and wit, and my whole self, as not mine, but his? And then, in the evening, reflecting, O Lord, have I seconded these thoughts in reality? What glory hast thou had by me this day? Whither went my thoughts and endeavours? What busied them most? Have I been much with God? Have I adorned the gospel in my converse with others? And if thou findest any thing done this way, this life will engage thee to bless and acknowledge him, the spring and worker of it. If thou hast stepped aside, were it but to an appearance of evil, or if any fit season of good hath escaped thee unprofitably, it will lead thee to check thyself, and to be grieved for thy sloth and coldness, and to see if more love would not beget more diligence.

And then consider the temper of thy heart towards spiritual things, the word and ordinances of God, whether thou dost esteem highly of them and delight in them; whether there be compliance of the heart with divine truthis, something in thee, that suits and sides with them. against thy corruptions; whether in thy affliction thou seekest not to the puddles of earthly comforts, but hast thy recourse to the sweet crystal streams of the divine promises, and findest refreshment in them. It may be, at some times, in a spiritual distemper, holy exercises and ordinances will not have that present sensible sweet

ness to a christian, that he desires; and some will for a long time lie under dryness and deadness this way; yet, there is here an evidence of this spiritual life, that thou stayest by thy Lord, and reliest on him, and wilt not leave these holy means, how sapless soever to thy sense for the present. Thou findest for a long time little sweetness in prayer, yet, thou prayest still, and when thou canst say nothing, yet offerest at it and lookest towards Christ thy life. Thou dost not turn away from these things to seek consolation elsewhere, but as thou knowest that life is in Christ, thou wilt stay till he refresh thee with new and lively influence. It is not any where but in him; as St. Peter said, Lord, to whom should we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life.

Consider with thyself, whether thou hast any knowledge of the growth or deficiencies of this spiritual life; for it is here but begun, and breathes in an air contrary to it, and lodges in a house that often smokes and darkens it. Canst thou go on in formal performances, from one year to another, and make no advancement in the inward exercises of grace, and restest thou content with that? It is no good sign. But art thou either gaining victories over sin, and further strength of faith and love and other graces, or, at least, art thou earnestly seeking these and bewailing thy wants and disappointments of this kind? Then thou livest. At the worst, wouldst thou rather grow this way, be further off from sin and nearer God, than grow in thy estate, or credit, or honors? Esteemest thou more highly of grace than of the whole world? There is life at the root; although thou findest not that florishing thou desirest, yet the desire of it is life in thee. And, if growing this way, art thou content, whatsoever is thy outward estate? Canst thou solace thyself in the love and goodness of thy God, though the world frown on thee? Art thou unable to take comfort in the smiles of the world, when his face is hid? This tells thee thou livest, and that he is thy life.

Although many Christians have not so much sensible joy, yet they account spiritual joy and the light of God's countenance the only true joy, and all other, without

it, madness; and they cry, and sigh, and wait for it. Meanwhile not only duty and the hopes of attaining a better state in religion, but even love to God makes them to do so, to serve, and please, and glorify him to their utmost. And this is not a dead resting without God, but it is a stable compliance with his will in the highest point; waiting for him, and living by faith, which is most acceptable to him. In a word, whether in sensible comfort or without it, still this is the fixed thought of a believing soul, It is good for me to draw nigh to God, -only good; and it will not live in a willing estrangedness from him, what way soever he be pleased to deal with it.

Now for the entertaining and strengthening of this life, which is the great business and care of all that have it, beware of omitting and interrupting those spiritual means, which do provide it and nourish it. Little neglects of this kind will draw on greater, and great neglects will make great abatements of vigor and liveliness. Take heed of using holy things coldly and lazily, without affection that will make them fruitless, and our life will not be advantaged by them, unless they be used in a lively way. Be active in all good within thy reach; as this is a sign of the spiritual life, so it is a helper and friend to it. A slothful unstirring life, will make a sickly unhealthful life. Motion purifies and sharpens the spirits, and makes men robust and vigorous.

Beware of admitting a correspondence with any sin; yea, do not so much as discourse familiarly with it or look kindly toward it; for that will undoubtedly cast a damp upon thy spirit, and diminish thy graces at least, and will obstruct thy communion with God.-Have much recourse to Jesus Christ thy Head, the spring from whom flow the animal spirits that quicken thy soul. Wouldst thou know more of God? He it is who reveals the Father, and reveals him as his Father, and, in him, thy Father; and that is the sweet notion of God. Wouldst thou overcome thy lusts further? Our victory is in him, Apply his conquest; We are more than conquerors, through him that loved us. Wouldst thou be more replenished with graces and spiritual affections? His ful

ness is, for that use, open to us; there is life and more life in him and for us. This was his business here. He came, that we might have life, and that we might have it more abundantly.

Ver. 7. But the end of all things is at hand; be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer.

THE heart of a real Christian is really taken off from the world and set heavenwards; yet there is still in this -flesh so much of the flesh hanging to it, as will readily poise all downwards, unless it be often wound up and put in remembrance of those things that will raise it still to further spirituality, This the apostle doth in this epistle, and particularly in these words, in which three things are to be considered; I. a threefold duty recom mended; II. the mutual relation that binds these duties to one another; III. the reason here used to bind them upon a Christian.

I. A threefold duty recommended, sobriety, watchfulness, and prayer; and of the three, the last is evidently the chief, and is here so meant, the others being recommended as suitable and subservient to it; therefore I shall speak first of prayer.

And truly to speak and to hear of this duty often, were our hearts truly and entirely acquainted with it, would have still new sweetness and usefulness in it. O how great were the advantage of that lively knowledge of it, beyond the exactest skill in defining it, and in discoursing on the heads of doctrine concerning it!

Prayer is not a smooth expression, or a well contrived form of words; not the product of a ready memory, or of a rich invention exerting itself in the performance. These may draw a neat picture of it, but still the life is wanting. The motion of the heart God-wards, holy and divine affection, makes prayer real, and lively, and acceptable to the living God, to whom it is presented; the pouring out of thy heart to him who made it, and therefore hears it, and understands what it speaks, and how it is moved and affected in calling on him. It is not the gilded paper and good writing of a petition, that prevails

with a king, but the moving sense of it. And to that King who discerns the heart, heart-sense is the sense of all, and that which only he regards. He listens to hear what that speaks, and takes all as nothing where that is silent. All other excellence in prayer is but the outside and fashion of it; this is the life of it.

Though prayer, precisely taken, is only petition, yet, in its fuller and usual sense, it comprehends the venting of our humble sense of vileness and sin in sincere confession, and the extolling and praising of the holy name of our God, his excellency and goodness, with thankful acknowledgment of received mercies. Of these sweet perfumes is the incense of prayer composed, and by the divine fire of love it ascends unto God, the heart and all with it; and when the hearts of the saints unite in joint prayer, the pillar of sweet smoke goes up the greater and the fuller. Thus says that song of the spouse; Going up from the wilderness, as pillars of smoke perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, and all the powders of the merchant. The word there, from Temer, a palmtree, signifies straight pillars, like the tallest, straightest kind of trees. And indeed the sincerity and unfeignedness of prayer, makes it go up as a straight pillar, no crookedness in it, tending straight towards heaven, and bowing to no side by the way. O the single and fixed viewing of God, as it, in other ways, is the thing which makes all holy and sweet, so particularly does it in this divine work of prayer,

It is true we have to deal with a God who of himself needs not this our pains, either to inform or to excite him, He fully knows our thoughts before we express them, and our wants before we feel them or think of them. Nor doth this affection and gracious bent to do his children good, wax remiss, or admit of the least abatement and forgetfulness of them.

But instead of necessity on the part of God, which cannot be imagined, we shall find that equity, and that singular dignity and utility of it, on our part, which cannot be denied.

Consider particularly the utility of it. Prayer eases the soul in times of distress, when it is oppressed with