carp and cenfure; his love fhall be my fhield and buckler. I will pity the infatuated enemies of his grace and holinefs: 1 will blefs him, that has made me otherwise minded; and taught me to put the highest estimate upon that pearl of greatest price, which is, above all, to be valued. I will delight myfelf in the love of my Lord; and glory in the favour that I have found with my God: nor will I then live in dread of his juftice, but rejoice even at the remembrance of his holiness.

THE PRAYER.

LORD! thou art the God glorious in holiness, that hateft the workers of iniquity; "but with a pleasant countenance doeft behold the "upright and holy. Even, that holiness, which is "the world's eye-fore, is thy pleafure: and they. "that are offended at it, thou wilt enter into judg "ment with them for it: confufion and deftruc"tion will be their curfed lot and portion. O that "I may be enriched and adorned with thy grace; "and ftand fair and well in thy fight! make me, "Lord, truly righteous and godly before thee; "that (through the comelinefs which thou haft "put upon me) I may be lovely unto thee. And "let it be a fmall thing with me, to bear the cen"fure and rancour of men; fo that I may but "find good acceptance and favour with my God, "through Jefus Chrift. Amen."

MEDITATION XV.

Of God's promifes.

My foul! if the Lord will be pleased to give his Word, to do us good; what tenure then in the world fo fure, and what fubfiftence fo comfortable, as to live by faith, upon the promises of God? Thofe exceeding great and precious promises, wherein he, that is no way indebted to his creatures (any further than he will condefcend to enter the voluntary engagements;) has made himself his people's debtor: and given them a right, humbly to plead with him, what he has fo promised to them.

That God is the chief good, and eternal fountain of all blifs; though this be the greatest truth, yet is it no fufficient prop to bear up the finful foul from finking under defperate anguifh; without fome understanding of that fatherly kindness, and particular mercy of God in Chrift Jefus, which is above the discovery of nature's light, and which cannot be learned from the enjoyment of any outward bleffings; or from the obfervation of his bounty, which we experience in our worldly goods. For though I know God to be infinitely good, and better than all the world, yet do I alfo know his justice to be a branch of that goodnefs; and if he did not hate and punish the evil, how then were he juft, or good? therefore will his very goodness engage his juftice, to condemn all the unbelieving and ungodly part of the world. And what affurance

then

then can I have of his faving love, without regard to a fatisfaction made for my fins? And what evidence of my share in the bleffed benefit of that fatisfaction made by the Son of God, without a word of promise upon which to bottom my hopes? Till I faften upon fome promife of God, I am still at uncertainty and in anxiety. Nothing else can folve my doubts, and fupprefs my fears. But all the conclufions that I am able then to draw in my own favour, they are only conjectural, and can amount to no more than a peradventure, and the Ninevites, who can tell, if God will be fo kind? But when once God hath spoken, I will rejoice.. And where the Lord hath faid it, and I have his Word for it, I dare, and will then build upon it. There my foul can fix, and be at reft; yea, take not only good fatiffaction; but the fweeteft confolation. Because I know how faithful he is that has promifed, who can never fruftrate the expectation fo raised. 'Twas indeed purely an act of his grace and mercy, to promife; but then there is the obligation of his truth and fidelity to make it good. Now, my foul, how do I value myself upon the promise of my friend; though no more than a man; and think I am fafe enough under fuch a fecurity? Yet this friend is mutable, and he may deceive me. But that God should do fo, it is impoffible. Yea, man cannot ftill help me; though he not only promifed, but intended, and defired to do it. But the Lord of all, who has every thing in the world at his beck, can never fo be put to it, but in his hands continually lies the power to fulfil all the largest of his promifes.

Now it is not here to point at all those glorious ftars, that sparkle in the bright firmament of God's Word. Let me ftay thee, my foul, with fome little taftes, in a fhort abftract. There, godliness has the

promise

promife of both worlds: all the neceffaries of this thrown in as a furplufage, to thofe that feek the other all the good things, that are good for them; and protection, and confolation alfo, under the evil; yea, deliverance from it, and happy fruit and advantage by it, that the very evil fhall work for their good, and they shall not be the worse, but better for it.

To support me under the dejecting sense of my fins, I have a promise, that the Lord will not break a bruised reed, but give reft to the heavy laden; yea, that he will blot out our tranfgreffions for his own fake, and not remember our fins; but when we confess them, he will forgive them. And to comfort me against my daily failings, when my care and defire is to do better, I have the promise, that fuch as hunger and thirst after righteoufnefs, fhall be filled; that the willing mind, according to what a man has, shall be accepted; and that the gracious God, inftead of exacting the mifcarriages of them that fear him, will fpare them, as a man fpares his own fon that ferves him; yea, even to such as have abounded in iniquity, he has promised (upon their return) abundantly to pardon; and where the guilt recoils upon them, and forely afflicts them, his promife is, not to remember it against them, nor mention it to them.

Where I am afraid to fall off, and lofe all; and that I fhall never hold out, and endure to the end; I find the promife, I will never leave thee, nor forfake thee; and, none fhall pluck my fheep out of my hands; yea, I will put my fear into their hearts, that they shall not depart from me. Whofoever believeth in him fhall not perish, but have everlasting life; fuch being kept, not by their own ftrength, but by the power of God, through faith to fal vation. When the fear of death falls upon me, I hear a joyful found, to drown the funeral knell; O VOL. II.

H

death,

death, I will be thy plague: O grave, I will be thy victory. Bleffed are the dead, that die in the Lord. To die, is gain and to be with Christ, far better. And when I am folicitous, as to my future being; what shall become of me, and how I fhall be difpofed of, after I fleet from hence; that sweet voice of my Saviour revives my foul, let not your heart be troubled; ye believe in God, believe alfo in me. In my Father's houfe are many manfions: I go to prepare a place for you; and I will come again to receive you. Yea, the mean while, in all my wants and straights here by the way, I have the promise, to receive, for my afking; to find, upon my feeking; and to have admittance, upon my knocking and not only the promise made to grace, and to the performance of duties; but the promife alfo of grace, and of the power for performance of thofe duties; yea, the promise of falvation, upon believ ing in my Saviour; even when I come fhort in performing of my office.

Thefe, and a thousand fuch promifes, my foul, are thy fweet refuges; where to turn in, and cafe thyfelf, when weary and difquieted within me: the bleffed harbours, where thou mayeit take up; the treehold, and portion; in which thou mayeft fettle thyfelf, and look upon it as all thy own. And then, O how canft thou ever fufficiently admire and magnify the grace and loving kindness of thy God; fo bountifully to provide for thee! and all the beft things, fo plenteoufly to enjoy, that he fhould beftow upon thee! O the height and depth, and length and breadth of fuch love that paffeth knowledge! adore the eternal fountain, whence it flows; and let this God be thy God; thy life, thy hope, thy truft, thy delight, thy exceeding joy, even to the utmost extent of thy immortal being.

THE