"of the leaft of all thy mercies, and of all the truth which "thou haft fhewed unto thy fervant; for with my ftaff I paffed "over this Jordan, and now I am become two bands." And thus it was with holy David, 2 Sam. vii. 18. When God had confirmed the promise to him, to build him a houfe, and not reject him as he did Saul, he goes in before the Lord, and faith, "Who am I? and what is my father's house, that thou "haft brought me hitherto ?" And fo indeed God required, Deut. xxvi. 5. when Ifrael was to bring to God the firft-fruits of Canaan, they were to fay, "A Syrian ready to perish was my father," &c. Do others raife God the higher for the raifing them? And the more God raifes me, the more fhall I abufe him, and exalt myfelf? O what a fad thing is this!

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(2.) Others have freely afcribed the glory of all their enjoyments to God, and magnified not themselves, but him, for their mercies: So David, 2 Sam. vii. 26. "Let thy name be mag"nifi d, and the house of thy fervant be established." He doth not fly upon the mercy, and fuck out the sweetness of it, looking no farther than his own comfort; no, he cares for no mercy except God be magnified in it. So Pfalm xviij. 2. when God had delivered him from all his enemies, "The "Lord (faith he) is my strength, and my rock, he is become my falvation." They did not put the crown upon their own heads, as I do.

(3.) The mercies of God have been melting mercies unto others, melting their fouls in love to the God of their mercies. So Hannah, I Sam. ii. 1. when the received the mercy of a fon, "My foul (faith fhe) rejoiceth in the Lord;" not in the mercy, but in the God of the mercy. And fo Mary, Luke i. 46. "My

foul doth magnify the Lord, my fpirit rejoiceth in God my "Saviour." The word fignifies to make more room for God; their hearts were not contracted, but the more enlarged to God." (4.) The mercies of God have been mighty restraints to keep others from fin. So Ezra ix. 13. "Seeing thou, our God, hast given us fuch a deliverance as this, thould we again break thy commandments ?" Ingenuous fouls have felt the force of the obligations of love and mercy upon them.

(5.) To conclude, The mercies of God to others have been as oil to the wheels of their obedience, and make them fitter for fervices, 2 Chron. xvii. 5. Now if inercies work contrarily u pon my heart, what caufe have I to be afraid that they come not to me in love? I tell you, this is enough to damp the spirit of any faint, to fee what fweet effects they have had on others and what fad effects on him.

2. Seafan. The second special season in the life of a chriftian requiring more than a common diligence to keep his heart, is the time of adverfity: When providence frowns upon you, and blafts your outward comforts, then look to your hearts, keep them with all diligence from repining againft God, or fainting under his hand; for troubles, though fanctified, are troubles ftill; even fweet-briar, and boly thistle, have their prickles. Jonah was a good man, and yet how pettifh was bis heart under affliction? Job was the mirror of patience, yet how was his heart difcompofed by trouble? You will find it as hard to get a compofed fpirit under great afflictions, as it is to fix quick-filver. O the hurries and tumults which they occafion even in the beft hearts! Well, then, the fecond cafe will be this :'

Cafe 2. How a Christian under great afflictions may keep his heart from repining, or defponding under the hand of God? Now there are nine fpecial helps, I fhall here offer, to keep thy heart in this condition; and the firft fhall be this, to work upon your hearts this great truth,

1. That by thefe cross providences, God is faithfully pursuing the great defign of electing love upon the fouls of his people, and orders all thefe afflictions as means fanclified to that end.

Afflictions fall not out by cafualty, but by counfel, Job v. 6. Eph. i. 1 by this counfel of God they are ordained as mears of much spiritual good to faints, Ifa. xxvii. 9. "By "this fhall the iniquity of Jacob be purged," &c. Heb. xii. 10. "But he for our profit," &c. Rom. viii. 28. "All things "work together for good." They are God's workmen upon our hearts, to pull down the pride and carnal fecurity of them; and being fo, their nature is changed; they are turned into bleffings and benefits, Pfalm cxix. 71. "It is good for me that "I have been afflicted." And fure, then, thou haft no reason to quarrel with, but rather to admire that God fhould concern himself so much in thy good, to ufe any means for the accomplishing of it. Philip. ii. 11. "Paul could bless God, if by any " means he might attain the refurrection of the dead. My "brethren, (faith James) count it all joy when you fall into "divers temptations," Jam. i. 2, 3. My father is about a defign of love upon my foul, and do I well to be angry with him? All that he doth is in purfuance of, and in reference to fome eternal glorious ends upon my foul. O it is my igno rapce of God's defign, that makes me quarrel with him! he faith to thee in this cafe, as to Peter, "What I do thou kroweft not now, but hereafter thou shalt know it."

Help. 2. Though God hath referved to himself a liberty of afflifting his people, yet he hath tied up his own hands by promife, never to take away his loving-kindness from them. Can I look that scripture in the face with a repining, discontented spirit, 2 Sam. vii. 14. "I fhall be his father, and he will be my fon i if he commit iniquity, I will chaften him with the rod of 66 men, and with the ftripes of the children of men: Never"theless, my mercy fhall not depart away from him." O my heart! my haughty heart! doft thou well to be discontented, when God hath given thee the whole tree, with all the clufters of comfort growing on it, because he fuffers the wind to blow down a few leaves? Chriftians have two sorts of goods, the goods of the throne, and the goods of the footftool; moveables, and inmoveables: If God have fecured these, never let my heart be troubled at the loss of those; indeed, if he had cut off his love, or discovenanted my foul, I had reason to be caft down; but this he hath not, nor can he do it.'

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Help 3. It is of marvellous efficacy to keep the heart from finking under affliction, to call to mind, that thine own father hath the ordering of them: Not a creature moves hand or tongue against thee, but by his permiffion. Suppose the cup be bitter cup, yet it is the cup which thy father hath given thee to drink; and canft thou suspect poison to be in that cup which he delivers thee? Foolish man, put home the case to thine own heart, confult with thine own bowels; canft thou find in thy heart to give thy child that which would hurt, or undo him? No, thou wouldst as foon hurt thyself as him; "If thou then "being evil knoweft how to give good gifts to thy children," how much more doth God? Matth vii, 11. The very confideration of his nature, a God of love, pity, and tender mercies, or of his relation to thee as a Father, Husband, Friend, might be fecurity enough, if he had not spoken a word, to quiet thee in this cafe; and yet you have his word too, Jer. xxv. 6. I will do you no hurt. You lie too near his heart to hurt yoù ; nothing grieves him more than your groundless and unworthy fuf.. picions of his defigns do; would it not grieve a faithful tenderhearted phyfician when he hath ftudied the cafe of his patient, prepared the moft excellent receipts to fave his life, to hear him cry out, O he hath undone me! he hath poisoned me; because it gripes and pains him in the operation? O when will you be ingenuous!

Help 4. God refpects you as much in a low, as in a high condition; and therefore it need not fo much trouble you to be made low: nay, to speak home, he manifefts more of his love, grace, and tenderness, in the time of affliction, than profperity. As

God did not at first chufe you because you were high, fo he will not forfake you because you are low: Men may look fhy upon you, and alter their refpects, as your condition is alter ed: When providence hath blafted your eftates, your fummer friends may grow ftrange, as fearing you may be troublesome to them; but will God do fo? No, no, "I will never leave "thee, nor forfake thee," Heb. xiii. 5. Indeed if adverfity and poverty could bar you from accefs to God, it were a fad condition; but you may go to God as freely as ever. "My "God (faith the church) will hear me," Mic. vii. 7. Poor David, when stripped of all earthly comforts, could yet encourage himself in the Lord his God; and why cannot you? Suppofe your husband or child had loft all at fea, and should come to you in rags; could you deny the relation, or refufe to entertain him? If you would not, much lefs will God: Why then are ye fo troubled? Though your condition be changed, your father's love and respects are not changed.

Help 5. And what if by the lofs of outward comforts, God will preferve your fouls from the ruining power of temptation? Sure then, you have little caufe to fink your hearts by fuch fad thoughts about them. Are not thefe earthly enjoyments the things that make men fhrink and warp in times of trial? For the love of thefe many have forsaken Chrift in fuch an hour, Matth. xix. 22. "He went away forrowful, for he had great "poffeffions." And if this be God's defign, what have I done in quarreling with him about it? We fee mariners in a form can throw over-board rich bales of filk, and precious things, to preserve the veffel and their lives with it, and every one faith they act prudently; we know it is ufual for foldiers in a city befieged, to batter down, or burn the fairest buildings without the walls, in which the enemy may fhelter in the fiege; and no man doubts but it is wifely done: Such as have gangrened legs or arms, can willingly stretch them out to be cut off, and not only thank, but pay the chirurgeon for his pains: And must God only be repined at, for cafting over what will fink you in a ftorm? For pulling down that which would advantage your enemy in the fiege of temptation? For cutting off what would endanger your everlafting life? O inconfiderate, ingrateful man! are not these things, for which thou grieveft, the very things that have ruined thousands of fouls? Well, what Christ doth in this, thou knoweft not now, but hereafter thou mayeft, Help 6. It would much stay the heart under adverfity, to confider, That God, by fuch humbling providences, may be accomplishing that for which you have long prayed and waited:

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And fhould you be troubled at that? Say, Chriftian, haft thou many prayers depending before God upon fuch accounts as thefe; that he would keep thee from fin, difcover to thee the emptiness and infufficiency of the creature; that he would kill and mortify thy lufts, that thy heart may never find rest in any enjoyment but Chrift? Why now, by fuch humbling and impoverishing ftrokes, God may be fulfilling thy defire: Woudlft thou be kept from fin? Lo, he hath hedged up thy way with thorns. Wouldst thou fee the creatures vanity? Thy affliction is a fair glafs to discover it; for the vanity of the creature is never fo effectually and fenfibly difcovered, as in our own experience of it. Wouldft thou have thy corruptions mortified? This is the way; now God takes away the food and fewel that maintained them; for as profperity begat and fed them, fo adverfity, when fanctified, is a means to kill them. Wouldft thou have thy heart to reft no where but in the bofom of God? What better way canft thou imagine providence fhould take to accomplish thy defire, than by pulling from under thy head, that foft pillow of creature-delights on which thou restedst before? And yet you fret at this, peevish child, how doft thou exercife thy Father's patience? If he delay to anfwer thy prayers, thou art ready to fay he regards thee not; if he do that which really anfwers the fcope and main end of them, but not in the way thou expectedft, thou quarrelleft with him for that; as if inftead of anfwering, he were croffing all thy hopes and aims; is this ingenuous? Is it not enough that God is fo gracious to do what thou defireft, but thou must be fo impudent to expect he should do it in the way which thou prescribest.

Help 7. Again, It may ftay thy heart, if thou confider, Thát in thefe troubles, God is about that work, which if thou didst fee the defign of, thy foul would rejoice. We, poor creatures, are bemifted with much ignorance, and are not able to discern how particular providences work towards God's end; and therefore, like Ifrael in the wildernefs, are often murmuring, Because Providence leads us about in a howling defart, where we are expofed to ftraits; though yet, then he led them, and is now leading us, by the right way, to a city of habitations. If you could but fee how God, in his fecret counfel, hath exact ly laid the whole plot and defign of thy falvation, even to the fmalleft means and circumftances; this way, and by these means fuch a one shall be faved, and by no other; fuch a number of afflictions I appoint for this man, at this time, and in this order; they fhall befal him thus, and thus they fhall work for hit: Could you, I say, but difcern the admirable harmony of