Hark! O my Soul! He calls to thee, he fays, Return unto me ye backfliding Children, and I will heal your Backflidings. (Jer. iii. 22.) And now, O my Soul, anfwer, Behold, I come unto thee, for thou art the Lord my God.

And may I not take encouragement to do so, from the Parable of the prodigal Son? He spent all the Substance his Father gave him in riotous Living; but when he had suffered fore Diftreffes, and was reduced to great Want, he refolved to return Home, and to humble himself, and to intreat his Father to receive him again into his Family, though it was but as one of his hir'd Ser

vants.

This Prodigal when he came to himself, when he came to be in a right Mind, and to a due Senfe of his fad Condition, faid, (Luke xv. 18. 19.) I will arife, and go to my Father, and will fay unto him, Father I have finned against Heaven and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy Son; make me as one of thy hir'd Servants.

He went, and his loving and forgiving Father, (when he was yet a great Way off) saw him, and bad Compaffion, and ran, and fell upon his Neck, and kiffed him. ver. 20.

He received his penitent Child, he was immediately reconciled to him, and rejoiced in his Converfion, and abraided him not with his paft Sins.

And may I not hope that my heavenly Father will receive and forgive me? And be reconciled to me; for he is a merciful God, and deligheth in Mercy.

O gracious God, though thou mighteft reject me with Abhorrence, though I am no more worthy to be called thy Son, yet for the Sake of the bleffed Jefus, pardon my Sins, receive me again into

thy

thy Favour, for in his Name I return unto thee! And Lord evermore keep me in the Way of Faith and Holiness, Amen.

He will turn again, he will have Compaffion on us; be will fubdue all our Iniquities; and thou wilt caft all their Sins into the Depth of the Sea. Said the Prophet Micah unto God. Mic. vii. 10. Comfortable Words!

God will chaftife his adopted Children; he hide his Face from them, but he will not caft them off for ever.

may

If his Children forfake my Laws, (fays God,) and walk not in my Judgments; if they break my Statutes, and keep not my Commandments: Then will I vifit their Tranfgreffions with a Rod, and their Iniquity with Stripes. Nevertheless, my Loving-kindness will I not utterly take from him, nor fuffer my Faithfulness to fail; my Covenant will I not break, nor alter the Thing that is gone out of my Lips. Pfal. lxxxix. 30-34.

If God's Children go aftray like a loft Sheep, (as the Pfalmift did, Pfal. cxix. 176.) he will recover, and bring them back.

Our great Redeemer calleth true Believers his Sheep. In John x. 27, 28. he fays, My Sheep hear my Voice, and I know them, and they follow me. And I give unto them eternal Life, and they Shall never perish, neither shall any (neither wicked Men nor Devils) pluck them out of my Hands.

A plain Proof these Words are, that Chrift our good Shepherd, who laid down his Life for the Sheep, will certainly bring all true Believers to the Poffeffion of eternal Life. If any of them wander from him, he will find them out, and bring them back to his Fold.

The Apostle Paul in his Epiftle to all the Saints in Chrift Jefus, (Philip. i. 1.) in ver. 6. affures them of the Certainty of their Perseverance; for

he fays, Being confident of this very Thing, that be which bath begun a good Work in you, will perform. it (or carry it on) until the Day of Jefus Chrift.

And the Apoftle Peter establishes the fame Doctrine, in 1 Pet. i. 5. where fpeaking of true Believers, he says, Who are kept by the Power of God through Faith unto Salvation: and as this is true, fo is it true also, That at last they will receive the End of their Faith, even the Salvation of their Souls.

This is a comfortable Doctrine to ferious Chriftians, when in the Course of their Pilgrimage through the Wilderness of this World towards the heavenly Canaan, they meet with Difficulties and Dangers; and they are afraid they fhall not be able to hold out to the End of Life.

As David was afraid that one Day or other, he should perish by the Hand of Saul, though God had promised to make him King of Ifrael: So ferious Chriftians have sometimes dismal Fears on the Account of their great Frailty, and the strong Oppofitions they meet with in the Way of their Duty.

But it is matter of Comfort to confider, that we are not left to ourselves: No, Chrift the Captain of our Salvation has undertaken to obtain for us a compleat Salvation; we have fled to him. for Refuge, and we have committed ourselves to Him, both Souls and Bodies, to be faved by him from all our Sins, and from all the Miferies which our Sins have deferved, and from all our Spiritual Enemies.

The Apostle faid to Timothy, I know whom I bave believed, (or trufted,) and I am perfuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto bim against that Day. 2 Tim. i. 13. And every fincere Chriftian may fay the fame.

And

And (in Rom. viii. 35- 37.) he fays, Who fball Separate us from the Love of Chrift? Shall Tribulation, or Diftrefs, or Perfecution, or Famine, or Nakedness, or Peril, or Sword? Nay, in all thefe Things we are more than Conquerors, through him that loved us.

Although without Chrift we can do nothing, yet through his ftrengthening us, we shall be able to hold on our Way, and obtain a compleat Victory over all the Principalities and Powers of Darkness.

The Contemplation of these Things may confolate our Minds, and relieve us from uneafy, unbelieving Fears.

1

LETTER VI.

On the Afflictions of serious Chriftians, and the Predictions, which may comfort them in the Times of their Troubles. When they have been under many Afflictions and are brought into great Perplexity, there are Predictions, which may support them: AFFLICTIONS are of two Kinds, Temporal, and Spiritual: I. Of temporal Afflictions particularly. 1. By the Death of Children. 2. The Death of Husbands. 3. The Loss of dear and useful Friends. 4. The Falling under falfe Accufations, with the Predictions which may afford Relief under fuch Sorrows. II. Of Spiritual Troubles particularly. 1. Of an habitual Defpondence. 2. Of the Anguish and Distress of the Soul, after the Commiffion of fome heinous Sin. 3. Of the great Troubles and Sorrow occafioned by the violent Temptations, and Affaults of the Devil.

HERE are Times of great AfAlictions and Diftrefs even with ferious Chriftians; and there are Predictions in the Holy Scriptures, which may relieve, and comfort their forrowful Hearts: Bleffed be our Compaffionate God for them!

Sometimes