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27. The Sinner's Idol.

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WHO will part with his God? I will part with my life, rather than with my God. wonder, therefore, that the covetous man so idolizes his gold; it is his god. If you take that from him, he will cry with Micah, when he lost his god, What have I more? his heaven is gone, his happiness is gone, his all is gone, if God be gone: I will not therefore wonder so much at the closeness of his hand, as at the vanity of his heart. We count it singular wisdom to keep that God we have chosen; but it is absolute folly, to choose that god which we cannot keep.

28. The Soul's Happiness.

O MY soul, thou art spiritual in thine essence, immense in thy desires, and immortal in thy nature; so that there must be proportion and perfection in that which thou enjoyest, with a perennity of both, or thou wilt have no real satisfaction. Now, were the world turned into a pleasant Eden, and that Eden refreshed with the living springs of immortality, and thou seated on a throne of its choicest excellencies, crowned with the diadem of its highest felicities, swaying the

sceptre of thy glory over all sublunary creatures:-nay, couldst thou give reins to the sun, or guidance to the moving flames; did thy territories border upon the highest heaSvens, and the revenues of thy crown flow in from the farthest parts of the earth; yet what proportion does a material world bear to an immortal soul? Will a lion feed upon grass? Or can the soul be satisfied with dust? Thou mayst as soon feed thy body with grass, as thy soul with the world. If it did bear proportion, yet it wants perfection. Could the devil turn a chemist, and extract the very vital spirits and quintessence of the purest and most desirable excellencies under heaven, yet they would be of such an imperfect nature, that there would be more lees than liquor, more thorns than flowers, more smoke than fire, more poison than honey; so that a man will be filled with a whirlwind of vexation, who wished to be satisfied with an object of imperfection; for it is impossible that such a scanty excellency should in any way fill such an enlarged capacity. Yet again, were there perfection, there is not perpetuity; the world will fly away like a bird from the perch, or melt away like ice before the sun, and so leave the immortal soul to sink for ever; so that the world will not only make

I see

thee restless, but leave thee miserable. then, that I shall never rest, till I rest in God; he that is the Father of spirits, the fountain of bliss, the ancient of days, is the only adequate object to suit my immortal soul. The rest of the creature is in its end; the end of the soul is its God. Therefore, Lord, seeing thou hast made me for thyself, fill me fully with thyself, or take me wholly to thyself.

29. The Vanity of the World.

DOES Satan tempt thee, either by pleasures, dignities, or profits? O my soul, stand upon thy guard, gird on thy strength with such thoughts as these; What can the world profit me, if the cares choke me? How can pleasures comfort me, if the sting poison me? or what advancement is this, to be triumphing in honour before the face of men here, and to be trembling for shame before the throne of God hereafter? What are the delights of the world, to the peace of my conscience, or the joy that is in the Holy Ghost? What are the applauses of men, to the crown prepared by God? or what is the gain of the world, to the loss of my soul? The vanity of the world is far beneath the excellency of my soul. Therefore, Satan, I am determined to resist thee, for thou desirest my eternal loss.

30. The Christian Traveller.

A BLACK cloud causes the traveller to quicken his pace, and hasten towards his home; whereas a fair day, tempts him to waste his time, and a pleasant way tends to steal away his affections while he surveys the country. However others may think of it, yet I consider it a mercy, that occasionally some clouds interpose my sun, and often that some troubles eclipse my comforts; for I perceive that if I should find too much friendship in my inn, or in my pilgrimage, I should soon forget my father's house and my heritage.

O tell me no more,

Of this world's vain store;

The time for these trifles with me now is o'er. A country I've found,

Where true joys abound:

To dwell I'm determined on that happy ground.

31. The World's Hatred to living Saints.

THERE is a generation of men, that will praise the saints who are gone to heaven, and yet mock and afflict the saints on earth! C

so that were all those saints alive again, whom they now so much honour, dare affirm, they would persecute them in their persons. Like the Jews, they can garnish the sepulchres of the righteous, and yet play the Jew with the persons of the righteous. Dissembling world! thy tongue embalms a dead saint, whilst thy hand inflicts a wound on the living saints! Thou canst praise God for those who are departed in the faith, and yet persecute God in those who will not depart from the faith. O foolish world, thou must of necessity condemn thyself, for thy praise has left thy practice without excuse.

32. The Best Treasures.

ALEXANDER being asked where he would lay his treasure, answered very well, Apud Amicos, among his friends: being confident, that there it would be kept with safety, and returned with use. Why dost thou enlarge thy barns? Knowest thou not where to store thy abundance? Make the friends of Christ thy treasury; let the hands of the widow, the bowels of the poor, be thy storehouse; there no thief can steal it, no time can rust it, no change can lose it, and there it will be improved. A temporal gift will be there turned

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