61.

SCOURGES THE PORTION OF SONS.

My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him : for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth ---Heb. xii. 5, 6,

1. CEASE believer, cease to mourn,
Thy case the Saviour spies,
Fiery trials shall not burn,
Thy Lord will send supplies.
"Tis to raise thy fervent cries
That Jesus hides his face;
Heav'nly comforts he denies,
And weeping hours take place.

2. Dost thou murmur and repine,
And try to shun the cross?
How canst thou expect to shine,
If cover'd o'er with dross?
If a son, thou must be tried
And scourged ev'ry day;
Else thy spirit, puff'd with pride,
Would take a dang’rous way.

3. Jesus loves his own too well
To suffer them to boast:

Who so much of Jesus tell,

As those that know they're lost.

Cease believer, cease from such
As furnace-work despise;

Prize the Saviour's chast'ning much,
For this shall make thee wise.

There are a number of bold, presumptuous professors in the world, who affect to despise every thing like the kingdom of God set up in the heart. I speak from personal knowledge. Every thing respecting experience and a daily cross, is, with such heady, high-minded professors, considered legality, weakness, self, and every thing below the proper standard. Men of this class are bold enough to assert, that every thing in the book of Psalms expressive of David's conflicts, sorrows, &c. are to be applied to Christ in his humiliation state! These men are grown surprisingly wise! Yes! and some of these, mere mushrooms in the religious life! O John Bunyan! hadst thou been alive, and embraced the doctrines of those men, how contracted would have been thy" Pilgrim's Progress!" Never would it have reached the second Edition: one Edition would be more than enough. My soul! come not thou into their secret. I could mention many names, in several parts of this Kingdom, answering the description given above; but why should I transmit their names to posterity? Truth will live when

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they are laid aside; and my book be read, perhaps, when they are forgotten.-Reader, hast thou been taught the art of buying the truth? then sell it not: "Let not mercy and truth forsake thee; bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart.”

62.

THE SAFETY AND BLESSEDNESS OF THE CHURCH, IN UNION WITH HER GLORIOUS LORD.

Walk about Zion, and go round about her: tell the towers thereof. Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces; that ye may tell it to the generation following. ----Ps. xlviii. 12, 13.

1. ZION, the city of our God,

Founded in love, and sav'd by blood,
Appears all-glorious in her Lord,
And rests upon his faithful word.

2. How highly blest are Zion's Sons!
More beautiful than polish'd stones,
Tho' little in the world's esteem,
One with their Lord, complete in him.

3. O Zion! mark thy bulwarks well:
Thy safety stands immoveable:

Count o'er thy tow'rs, a pleasing sight,
Nor fear against thy foes to fight. ⠀⠀

Where God is known in deep distress, 1
The Churches, where the Lord is known,
Where he erects his sov'reign throne.

5. Tell of Jehovah's faithfulness,

Tell of Immanuel's richest grace, 16
To those who yet, when drawn by love,
Shall on to Zion's city move. $115

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Mount Zion, where stood the palace, the tower, and the armory of David, was a type of the Church of the living God, throughout the world, in all ages. The eye of Jehovah was perpetually on Zion and Jerusalem, (another name for the Church elect,) and "there he commanded the blessing, even life for evermore." Zion was frequently a terror to her enemies: "For, lo, the kings were assembled, they passed by together. They saw it, and so they marvelled; they were troubled, and hasted away." (Psalm XLVIII. 4, 5.) Yes! she appeared, to them, as terrible as an army with banners. But it was neither nature nor art that

rendered Zion so secure as to strike her enemies aghast: it was the majesty and power' of her God, in the midst of her. Spiritual Zion, or a true Church, is a company of sinners saved by grace, or effectually called to a knowledge of Christ. " Where two or three are met together in my name, there I am," saith Christ: This is the description our Lord gives of a true Church. -A company of living sinners, having a living Head over them, amongst them, and in them, is a true Church: they worship God in the Spirit, they rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. The best rules, rites, plans, and schemes that men may invent, cannot make a false Church, a true Church; and the worst names they may invent and heap upon a true Church, cannot make it a false Church. The Lord hath founded Zion. God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved: God shall help her, and that right early."

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