ite Psalm with Luther; for whenever Melancthon, who was of a melancholy turn, or any other of his friends, told him some sad news, he used to say, come, come, let us sing the 46th Psalm; and when he had sung that, his heart was quiet. May every true mourner here, and afflicted person, experience the same! I know not, when I read it, which to admire most, the piety, or the poetry; the matter, or the manner; and I believe I may venture to defy all the critics on earth to show me any composition of Pindar, or Horace, that any way comes up to the diction of this Psalm considered only as human he that hath an ear to hear, let him hear, God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Stop here, my friends, let us pause a while, and before we go further, may the Lord help us to draw some comfort from this very first verse: for observe, it is not said, God is my refuge, David says so in another Psalm, but he says here, God is our refuge: he speaks in the plural number, implying that this Psalm was of no private interpretation, but was intended for the comfort and encouragement of all believers, till time shall be no more. Observe the climax, God is our refuge, is one degree; God is our strength, another; God is our help, and not only so, but is a present help, yea, is a very present help, and at a time when we want it most, in the time of trouble. It is here supposed, that all God's people will have their troubles; "man is born to trouble, as the sparks fly upward ;" and if we are born to trouble as men, we are much more so as christians. We forget ourselves and the station in which God has placed us, when we so much as begin to dream of having much respite from trouble while we are here below. The decree is gone forth like the laws of the Medes and Persians, it alters not; through tribulation, through much tribulation, we must all go; but blessed be God we are to be carried through it; and blessed be God, glory is to be the end of it: may God give us to know this by happy experience! In the world, says our blessed Lord, ye shall have tribulation, tribulation and trouble of different kinds; and in another place, if any man will come after me, says he, let him take up his cross daily, and follow me; so that the day, when we take up no cross, we may say as Titus did, when he reflected that he had done no good that day, I have lost a day! But then, what shall we do, my dear hearers, when trouble comes, when one trouble comes after another, and afflictions seem to pursue us wherever we go, seem to arise up out of the ground, meet us as we are walking along? Why, blessed be God, if we have an interest in Christ; mind that, if we have an interest in Christ, God is our help, God is our asylum, our city of refuge, a place ap

pointed by God himself, to which the pursued saints may fly by faith, and be safe. The wicked have no notion of this; when they are in trouble, what is their refuge? Let a soul be under spiritual trouble, and cry out, "what shall I do to be saved?" Let him go to a carnal minister, an unconverted wretch that knows nothing about the matter, he shall be told, ho! go, and play an innocent game at cards, and divert yourself; that is to say, the devil must be your refuge. Worldly people have worldly refuges; and Cain would seem as if he was in earnest when he said, my punishment is greater than I can bear. What does he do? He goes and diverts himself by building a city, and goes and amuses himself by building. The devil, my brethren, will give you leave to amuse yourselves; you may have your choice of diversions, only take care to be diverted from God, and the devil is sure of you; but the believer has something better: faith sweeps away the refuge of lies, and the believer turns to his God, and says, O my 'God, thou shalt be my refuge. The devil pursues me, my false friends have designs against me, my own wicked heart itself molests me, my foes are those of my own house; but do thou, O God, be my refuge, I will fly there; by these it may be said, God is our refuge. The question is, what shall I do to make him my refuge? How shall I be helped to do so? You bid me fly; you say, I must fly there, but where shall I get wings? How shall I be supported? Here is a blessed word, God shall not only be our refuge, but God shall be our strength also. Strength! what is strength? Why, my brethren, to make every day of trouble so easy to us by his power, as to carry us through it. God has said, and will stand to it, as thy day is, so shall thy strength be. Afflictions even at a distance will appear very formidable, when viewed by unbelief. Our fears say, O my God, if I come to be tried this or that way, how shall I bear it? But we do not know what we can bear till the trial comes, and we do not know what strength God can give us, or what a strong God he will be, till he is pleased to put us into a furnace of affliction; and therefore it is said, not only that God is our refuge and our strength, but that God is our help also. What help? Why, my dear friends, help to support us under the trouble; help so as to comfort us as long as the trouble lasts; and blessed be God, that the help will never leave us, till we are helped quite over and quite through it. But what kind of help is it? O blessed be God, he is a very present help. We may have a helper, but he may be afar off; I may be sick, I may want a physician, and may be obliged to send miles for one; he might be a help if he were here, but what shall I do now he is at a dis

tance. This cannot be said of God, he is not only a help, but he is a present help: "the gates of the New Jerusalem are open night and day." We need not be afraid to cry unto God; we cannot say of our God as Elijah does of Baal, "perhaps he is asleep, or talking, or gone a journey:" it is not so with our God, he is a present help; he is likewise a sufficient help, that is, a very present help; and that too in the time of trouble. It is but to send a short letter, I mean a short prayer, upon the wings of faith and love, and God, my brethren, will come down and help us. Now to this David affixes his probatum est; David proves it by his own experience, and therefore if God is our refuge, therefore if God is our strength, if God is our help, if God is a present help, if God is a very present help, and that too in a time of trouble, what then? therefore will we not fear. Therefore, is an inference, and it is a very natural one; a conclusion naturally drawn from the foregoing premises; for Paul says, "if God be for us, who can be against us?" There is not a greater enemy to faith than servile fear and unbelief. My brethren, the devil has an advantage over us when he has brought us into a state of fear; indeed, in one sense, we should always fear, I mean with a filial fear; "blessed is the man," in this sense, "that feareth always:" but, my brethren, have we strong faith in a God of refuge? This forbids us to fear. Says Nehemiah, "shall such a man as I flee?" and the christian may say, shall a believer in Jesus Christ fear? shall I fear that my God will leave me? shall I fear that my God will not succor me? No, says David, we will not fear; how so? Why, though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea, though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. Where is Horace, where is Pindar, now? Let them come here and throw their psalms down before the sweet singer of Israel. There is not such a bold piece of imagery in any human composition in the world. Can any thing appear more great, more considerable than this? Imagine how it was with us some years ago, when an enthusiastic fool threatened us with a third earthquake; imagine how it was with us when God sent us the same year two dreadful earthquakes; had the earth been at that time not only shook, but removed: had the fountains of the sea been permitted to break in upon us, and carry all the mountains of England before it, what a dreadful tremor must we all unavoidably have been in? David supposes that this may be the case, and I believe at the great day it will be something like it: the earth and all things therein, are to be burnt up; and, my

brethren, what shall we do then if God is not our refuge, if God is not our strength?

We may apply it to civil commotions. David had lately been beset with the Philistines, and other enemies, that threatened to deprive him of his life; and there are certain times when we shall be left alone. This also, my brethren, may be applied to creature comforts. Sometimes the earth seems to be removed. What then? Why all the friends we take delight in, our most familiar, friends our soul friends, friends by nature, and friends by grace, may be removed from us by the stroke of death; we know not how soon that stroke may come; it may come at an hour we thought not of; the mountains themselves, all the things that seem to surround and promise us a lasting scene of comfort, they themselves may soon be removed out of our sight; what then shall we do? They may be carried into the midst of the sea. What is that? Our friends may be laid in the silent grave, and "the places that knew them may know them no more." It is easy talking, but it is not so easy to bear up under these things: but faith, my brethren teaches us to say, though all friends are gone, blessed be God, God is not gone. A noble lady's daughter, who was only four years old, said to her mother, when she was weeping for the death of one of her children, "Dear mamma, is God Almighty dead, that you cry so long after my sister?" No, he is not dead, neither does he sleep. But here the imagery grows bolder, the painting stronger, and the resemblance more striking: though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. What, will not this make us fearful? Will not this shake us off our bottom, our foundation, and take up the roots? No, no, even then the believer need not fear; why, God is in the midst of her. Do you not remember God spoke to Moses out of the bush? Did he stand at a distance, and call to him at a distance from the bush? No, the voice came out of the bush, Moses! Moses! as Mr. Ainsworth, who was a spiritual critic, says.

Learn from hence, that in all our afflictions God is afflicted: he is in the midst of the bush; and oh! it is a sweet time with the soul when God speaks to him out of the bush, when he is under affliction, and talks to him all the while. Though it was threatened by the fire which surrounded it, with immediate and total desolation: yet the bush burned and was not consumed. I do not know whether I told you, but I believe I told them at Tottenham-court, and perhaps here, that every christian has a coat of arms, and I will give it you out of Christ's heraldry, that is the burning bush; every christian is burned, but not consumed. But how is it the saint is held up?

Whence does he get his strength; or how is this strength, this supporting, comforting strength, conveyed to the heart? Read a little further, you shall find David say, There is a river, mind that, there is a river, the streams whereof make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the Most High. Need I tell you, that probably here is an allusion to the situation of Jerusalem, and the waters of Shiloah, that flowed gently through the city of Jerusalem, which the people found sweet and refreshing in the time of its being besieged. So the rivers run through most of the cities in Holland, and bring their commodities even to the doors of the inhabitants. Pray, what do you think this river is? Why, I believe it means the covenant of grace. O that is a river, the springs of which first burst out in Paradise, when God said, "the seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head :" then God made this river visit the habitation of man, as the first opening of his everlasting

covenant.

No sooner had the devil betrayed man, and thought he was sure to get him into the pit, even when he was laughing at man's misery, and thinking he was revenged of God for driving him out of heaven; at that very time did the great God open this river, and make it flow down in that blessed stream to mankind, implied in those words, it shall bruise thy head. O this is a stream which, I pray, may this night make glad this part of the city of God. If by the river we understand the covenant of grace, then, my brethren, the promises of God are the streams that flow from it. There is no promise in the Bible made to an unbeliever, but to a believer; all the promises of God are his, and no one knows, but the poor believer that experiences it, how glad it makes his heart. God only speaks one single word, or applies one single promise; for if when one's heart is overwhelmed with sorrow, we find relief by unfolding ourselves to a faithful, disinterested friend; if a word of comfort sometimes gives us such support from a minister of Christ, O! my friends, what support must a promise from God applied to the soul give? And this made a good woman say, "I have oft had a blessed meal on the promises, when I have had no bread to make a meal for my body."

But by the river we may likewise understand, the Spirit of the living God. If you remember, Jesus Christ declared at the great day of the feast, "if any man believe on me, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water: this," saith the beloved disciple, "spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive." My brethren, the divine influences are not only a conduit, but a deep river, a river of broad waters. Here is room for the babes to walk, and for the man