thing that is good; then will the fruit be fweet, though the root is bitter.

Happy for us! if by any means, and urged by any arguments, we be but prevailed upon to live well; if we have fuch a sense, either of the dignity of man's nature, made in the image of God, or on the other hand of the frailty of our ftate, and the dangers, that furround us on every fide, as to be induced to make God our friend, and to take to ourselves the fhield of faith and helmet of falvation; Eph. vi. armour, that will quench the fiery darts of our worst adversary.

16, 17.

He was a murderer from the beginning: his wiles brought death into the world: z Pet.v.8. and he ftill goeth about, feeking whom he may devour. If we fuffer ourselves to be overcome by this enemy, the mifchief is indeed irreparable.

The murderer, who takes my life, is

utterly

utterly unable to make reftitution: God however, I know, will raise me from the dead at the last day, and clothe me with a body no longer liable to diffolution.

But if I be then found to be dead in tref. Eph. ii. 1. paffes and fins; there remains no future refurrection from that death, but an end less state of despair and torment.

34.

Let us therefore be always prepared, and fo that day fhall never come upon us Luke xxi, unawares. Nevertheless, as death is naturally terrible, and this life is the time God hath granted us to prepare by his grace for a better; we may very rationally, and let us now devoutly, beseech him to deliver us from lightening, and tempeft; from plague, peftilence, and famine; from battle, and murder; and from fudden death.

MATTH. xv. 19, 20.

OUT OF THE HEART PROCEED EVIL

THOUGHTS, MURDERS.

TAKE

AKE now thy fon, thine only fon, Gen. xxii. and offer him for a burnt offering. - 2, 10. And Abraham Stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to flay his fon. He did no more; he was stopped by an angel. The outward act was not brought to the expected end: but in the will his obedience

17.

Gen. xxii.

was complete and perfect; and accepted accordingly by the righteous judge, who

Rom. iv. knoweth the heart, and calleth thofe things which be not, as though they were. By my16, 17, 18. felf have I fworn, faith the Lord, because thou hast done this thing, and haft not withheld thy fon, thine only fon; that in bleffing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy feed, as the ftars of heaven, and as the fand which is upon the sea shore; and in thy feed fhall all the nations of the earth be bleffed, because thou hast obeyed my voice. If he had been fuffered to proceed further, and finish the action he had undertaken, his service had been but the fame; and would have merited no greater recompence: His mind was wholly confenting to the facrifice that was required of him. The will before God is the deed: and the queftion is properly asked James ii. by the Apostle, Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Ifaac his fon upon the altar?

21.

But