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Testament, or the gate of the Lord. They give thanks unto God, and they celebrate and praise him by preaching, by teaching, by singing, and by confessing. And these sacrifices are twofold. The one is, when we are humbled concerning which David thus speaks, Ps. li. "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise."

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This is the great, full, perpetual, daily, and eternal sacrifice. When God, by his word, reproves us in all our works; when he rejects our holiness, our righteousness, our wisdom, and our strength, and pronounces them to be nothing, that we may be compelled to acknowledge ourselves to be sinners and guilty; when he brings home to us that word of his law, Rom. iii.; and when he not only reproves us by teaching, but terrifies our consciences and exercises us with tribulations of every kind, that we may be thoroughly cleansed, purged, and humbled, according to the old Adam which is under sin, until our confidence, pride, satisfaction, and hopes in our own works, and our own industry and wisdom, be wholly mortified. Which work, is indeed begun now, but will be perfected at the end of our life. He who can bear and endure this; who can continue and persevere therein; and who can celebrate and give thanks unto God for the same, firmly persuaded that God sends all these things upon him, and works them in him, with a favouring and paternal will, and with a special goodness towards him;-such an one, can truly sing this verse, "I confess," or, "I thank thee, Ö Lord, that thou humblest me." The Psalmist does not say, The devil humbleth and affecteth me; but, "THOU, THOU (saith he) humbleth me." This is thy good, merciful, and paternal will;—that I may be humbled; and that, to my greatest good and blessedness; for, without thy will, Satan could have no power against me.

us,

The other sacrifice is, when God afterwards comforts delivers us, and returns unto us, and comes as near unto our Spirit and new man, as he departs in distance from our flesh and old man; when he bestows upon us, in return, greater and fuller blessings, and gives us sure

victory over our enemies that we may be joyful before him and in him; as he saith, Psalm I., “Call upon me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me. Sacrifice unto the Lord the sacrifice of thanksgiving," &c. He that does this, sings this verse, "I thank thee, O Lord, because thou becomest my salvation; because thou hast holpen me with present help, and hast condescended to be my Saviour.

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This also is a great, a daily, a perpetual, and an eternal, sacrifice of the godly, or the righteous, in the gate of the Lord. And this very sacrifice rejects and abolishes all the sacrifices of the Old Testament, which were types and figures of this sacrifice of praise. Moreover, the sacrifices of the Old Testament could be offered up as well by the ungodly, and hypocrites, as by the true saints. But these sacrifices of praise none can offer up and perform, but the godly and the righteous, or Christians. And this also experience has proved. For it is sufficiently evident, how the Jews raged in the times of the apostles, and what cruelties they exercised on this very account:-because their own righteousness was condemned. As, in these times, our justiciaries also, who promise to themselves and others salvation upon the ground of the merit of works, exercise a brutal tyranny, because their works and wisdom are rejected. They are unwilling to be humbled. Instead of offering the sacrifice of praise, they insult the godly, load them with abuses, persecute them, and murder them; and think, that this their cruelty and tyranny is a sacrifice and worship the most acceptable to God, John xvi.

The man, therefore, who is filled with joy sings this verse in exultation and gladness, with these feelings; O Lord God, art not thou a wonderful and lovely God, who thus wonderfully, lovingly, and paternally defendest, governest, and guardest us! Thou exaltest when thou humblest us: thou makest us righteous, when thou shewest us we are sinners: thou raisest us up to heaven, when thou castest us down to hell: thou givest us the victory, when thou permittest us to be overcome: thou cheerest us and makest our cup to run over with joy,

when we are under lamentation: thou strengthenest and confirmest us, when we are under suffering: thou makest us to dance and sing, when we are in tears: thou makest us wise, when thou makest us fools: thou makest us rich, when thou castest us into poverty: thou makest us kings, when thou makest us submit to be servants!-These and numberless other miracles are comprehended in this verse, and celebrated by the church in these few words: "I thank thee, O Lord, because thou humblest me; and again becomest my salvation!"

THE SAINTS' TRIUMPH OVER DEATH.

PSALM CXviii. 17.

I shall not die but live, and declare the works of the Lord.

This seventeenth verse of the Psalm, "Ishall not die but live," &c. confesses and sets forth the danger from which "the right hand of the Lord" delivereth the saints; that is, from death. The saints feel death in truth when they are under the perils of death. Nor is it a sweet taste nor a pleasant draught to the flesh, when death is before their eyes and seems immediately coming upon them. Nor does death come alone, but is accompanied with sin and the law. It always brings these with it. Hence, it is quite plain, that the saints must be martyrs, or subjects of affliction: for they are compelled to be amidst perils of death, and to struggle with and fight against death. And this does not take place from tyrants and the ungodly by fire, by sword, by prisons, and the like instruments of persecution; but it is wrought in various ways by Satan himself. For Satan hates the word of God utterly; and therefore, cannot bear. even one of those who love and teach the word. He attacks them in every way, and leaves no assault upon them untried either in life or in death. In life, he effects it by great and heavy temptations of their faith, their hope, and their love to God. By these various kinds and powers of temptations, he can so

hedge in, assault, shake, and terrify the godly heart, and hurry it into such straits of doubt and desperation, as to make it dread God, grow wrath with him, and sometimes blaspheme him: and he can bring the wretched conscience into such a state, as to make God, Satan, death, sin, hell, and all creatures, appear to it all alike, all eternal, and all its avowed enemies. Nor did either the Turk or Cæsar ever besiege any town with such impetuosity, such violence, and such fury, as that with which Satan sometimes comes upon the consciences of those who fear God.

Satan can also do this in the hour of death, if God permit him, when the godly lie down on the bed of danger, and have no hope of life. At such a time, he is a wonderful adept at increasing and exaggerating sins, and setting forth and threatening the wrath of God. He is a spirit industrious and powerful to a wonder: who, by taking advantage of some little sin, can raise an awful distress in the hearts of the godly, and set before them a very hell. For it is most true and most certain, that no one man ever truly saw his principal and greatest sins, such as, unbelief, contempt of God, his not fearing him, his not believing him, his not loving him as he ought, and such like sins of the heart. (For the greatest of all sins are those that lie in the heart.) Nor could any man fully see these without the greatest peril. And I know not whether there be any faith upon the earth, which would be able to stand before the sight of these, and not fall and despair.

And therefore it is, that God permits Satan to tempt thee upon those external and actual sins only. Even here, he can raise up in flames, and set before thee, hell and damnation in a moment, on such accounts as these:because, perhaps, thou hast once or twice drank more than thou shouldest: or because thou hast lain in bed too long. For these things and the like, he can so tempt thee, that, from distress of conscience and wretchedness, thou mayest bring a disease upon thy body; and, from trouble of heart, bring thyself even into the perils

of death.

And what is still worse, and more perilous, even the very best of thy works become instruments of temptation in the hands of Satan. For he can so detract from them, make nothing of them, deface them, and condemn them, and so exercise and torture thy conscience with them, that all thy sins put together could not cause thee so much trouble, and render thee so distressed, as do these thy best works, which yet are truly good works. Nay, thou wilt be made to wish that thou hadst wrought real and foul sins, instead of doing those good works. And what the devil aims at in this, is, to make thee cast away those works, as if God had not wrought them in thee; or, as if they were not done by the grace and help of God; that thus, thou mighest blaspheme God. And then, death is close by thy side; nay, hell

itself!

But who can enumerate all the arts, devices, and traps of Satan, whereby he can paint out, present, and set before our eyes sin, death, and hell? This is his very trade and work, and he has now practised it for more than 5000 years, and can prove himself to be a consummate proficient in that art. He knows it too well, and too perfectly; for he has been during so many years the prince and author of death. He has practised this art from the very beginning of the world; so that he now well knows how to prepare and present to a terrified conscience, a well-timed draught of death. The prophets, and especially David, knew that, and deeply experienced it. For they so complain, teach, and speak of those temptations, that they by no means obscurely show, that they most deeply and very frequently conflicted with them; while they cry out at one time concerning the gates of death, at another concerning hell, at another concerning the wrath of God.

Nevertheless, how, and at what time soever this may happen unto us, we here find, that the saints must contend with Satan and fight with death; whether occasion for this fight be given by a persecutor, or by a pestilence, or any other diseases or perils of life. But in these contests, these strugglings, and these fights, nothing

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