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whimfies: I fay, your own fears and troubles, if ever you were engaged by a cunning and powerful adversary in a lawfuit for your eftate, may give you a little glimpse of spiritual troubles; and indeed it is no more but a glimpse of it: for, as the loss of an earthly, though fair, inheritance, is but a trifle to the loss of God and the foul to eternity; so you cannot but imagine, that the cares, fears, and folicitudes of fouls about these things, are much, very much beyond yours. Let us compare the cafes, and fee how they answer to each other.

1. You have evidences for your eftates, and by them you hold what you have in the world: They alfo have evidences for their estate in Chrift, and glory to come; they hold all in capite, by virtue of their intermarriage with Jefus Chrift; they come to be inftated in that glorious inheritance contained in the covenant of grace. You have their tenure in that scripture, 1 Cor. iii. 22, 23. "All is yours, for ye are Chrift's, and Christ " is God's." Faith unites them to him, and after they believe, they are fealed by the Spirit of promife, Eph. i. 13. They can lay claim to no promise upon any other ground; this is their title to all that they own as theirs.

2. It often falls out, that after the fealing and executing of your deeds, or leafes, an adversary finds fome dubious claufe in them, and thereupon commences a fuit of law with you. Thus it frequently falls out with the people of God, who after their believing and fealing time, have doubts and fcruples raised in them about their title. Nothing is more common, than for the devil, and their own unbelief, to ftart controverfies, and raise strong objections against their interest in Christ, and the covenant of promifes. These are cunning and potent adverfaries, and do maintain long debates with the gracious foul, and reafon fo cunningly and fophiftically with it, that it can by no means extricate and fatisfy itself; always alledging, that their title is worth nothing, which they, poor fouls, are but too apt to fufpect.

3. All the while that a fuit of law is depending about your title, you have but little comfort, or benefit, from your estate; you cannot look upon it as your own, nor lay out moneys in building or dreffing, for fear you fhould lofe all at laft. Juft thus ftands the cafe with doubting Chriftians; they have little comfort from the moft comfortable promises, little benefit from the sweetest duties, and ordinances: They put off their own comforts, and fay, if we were fure that all this were ours, we would then rejoice in them: But, alas! our title is dubi

ous: Chrift is a precious Chrift; the promises are comfortable things; but what, if they be none of ours? Ah! how little doth the doubting Christian make of his large and rich inheritance?

4. You dare not truft your own judgments in fuch cases, but state your cafe to fuch as are learned in the laws, and are willing to get the ableft counsel you can to advise you. So are poor doubting Chriftians; they carry their cafes from Chriftian to Christian, and from minister to minifter, with fuch requests as thefe: Pray tell me, what do you think of my condition? Deal plainly and faithfully with me; these be my grounds of doubting, and thefe my grounds of hope. O hide nothing from me! And if they all agree that their cafe is good, yet they cannot be satisfied 'till God say so too, and confirm the word of his fervants; and therefore they carry the cafe often before him in fuch words as thofe, Pfalm exxxix. 23, 24. "Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know 66 my thoughts, and fee if there be any wicked way in me."

5. You have little quiet in your fpirits, till the cafe be resolv ed; your meat and drink, doth you little good; you cannot fleep in the night, because these troubled thoughts are ever returning upon you, what if I fhould be turned out of all at laft? So it is with gracious fouls; their eyes are held waking in the night, by reason of the troubles of their hearts, Pfalm lxxvii. 4. Such fears as thefe are frequently returning upon their hearts, what if I fhould be found a felf-deceiver at laft? What if I but hug a phantasm instead of Chrift? How can this, or that, confift with grace? Their meat and drink doth them little good: their bodies are often macerated by the troubles of their fouls.

6. You will not make the beft of your condition, when you ftate your cafe to a faithful counfellor; neither will they, but oftentimes (poor penfive fouls) they make it much worse than indeed it is; charge themselves with that which God never charged them with; though this be neither their wifdom, nor their duty; but the fears of mifcarrying make them fufpect fraud in all they do or have.

7. Laftly, When your title is cleared, your hearts are eafed; yea, not only eafed, but overjoyed; though not in that degree, nor with the fame kind of joy that the hearts of chriftians are overflowed, when the Lord fpeaks peace to their fouls. O welcome the fweet morning light, after a tedious night of darkness! now they can eat their bread with comfort,

and drink their wine, yea, if it be but water, with á merry

heart, Ecclef. ix. 7.

The careless four's reflec

tion:

REFLECTION S.

1. O how hath my spirit been toffed and hur ried, when I have met with troubles and clamours about my eftate! But as for fpiritual troubles, and those foul perplexing cafes, that Chriftians speak of, I understand but little of them. I never called my everlafting ftate in queftion, nor broke an hour's fleep upon any fuch account. Ah, my fupine and carelefs foul! little haft thou regarded how matters stand in reference to eternity! I have ftrongly conceited, but never thoroughly examined the validity of my title to Chrift, and his promifes; nor am I able to tell, if my own confcience fhould demand, whereupon my claim is grounded.

O my foul! why art thou fo unwilling to examine how matters ftand betwixt God and thee? Art thou afraid to look into thy condition, left by finding thine hypocrify, thou shouldft lofe thy peace, or rather, thy fecurity? To what purpose will it be to fhut thine eyes against the light of conviction, unless thou couldst also find out a way to prevent thy. condemnation? Thou feeft other fouls, how attentively they wait under the word, for any thing that may speak to their condition. Doubtless thou haft heard, how frequently and seriously they have ftated their condition, and opened their cafes to the minifters of Chrift. But thou, O my foul! haft no fuch cafes to put, no doubts to be refolved; thou wilt leave all to the decision of the great day, and not trouble thyfelf about it now. Well, God will decide it; but little to thy comfort.

The doubting foul's reflection.

2. I have heard how fome have been perplexed by litigious adverfaries; but I believe none have been fo toft with fears, and diftracted with doubts, as I have been about the ftate of my foul. Lord, what fhall I do? I have often carried my doubts and fcruples to thine ordinances, waiting for fatisfaction to be fpoken there. I have carried them to thofe I have judged skilful and faithful, begging their refolution and help, but nothing will fick. Still my fears are daily renewed. O my God, do thou decide my cafe! tell me how the state stands betwixt thee and me; my days confume in trouble, I can neither do nor enjoy any good, whilft things are thus with me; all my earthly enjoyments are dry and uncomfortable things; yea, which is much worfe, all my duties and thine ordinances, prove fo too, by reafon of the troubles of my heart: I am no ornament to

The affured Chriftian's reflection.

myprofeffion; nay, Iam a difcouragement and ftumbling-block to others. "I will hearken and hear what God the Lord will "speak:" O that it might be peace! If thou do not speak it, none can; and when thou doft, keep thy fervant from returning again to folly, ́left I make fresh work for an accufing conscience, and give new matter to the adversary of my foul. 3. But thou, my foul, enjoyeft a double mercy from thy bountiful God, who hath not only given thee a found title, but alfo the clear evidence and knowledge thereof. I am gathering, and daily feeding upon the full-ripe fruits of affurance, which grow upon the top boughs of faith; whilft many of my poor brethren drink their own tears, and have their teeth broken with gravel ftones. Lord, thou haft fet my foul upon her highplaces; but let me not exalt myself, because thou haft exalted me, nor grow wanton, because I walk at liberty; left for the abufe of fuch precious liberty, thou clap my old chains upon me, and fhut up my foul again in prison.

M

The POE M.

EN can't be quiet till they be affur'd

That their eftate is good, and well secur❜d.
To able counsel they their deeds submit,
Intreating them with care t' examine it:
Fearing fome claufe an enemy may wreft,
Or find a flaw, whereby he may divest
Them, and their children. O who can but fee
How wife men in their generation, be!
But do they equal cares and fears express
About their everlasting happiness?

In fpiritual things 'twould grieve one's heart to fee
What careless fools thefe careful men can be.
They act like men of common fense bereaven;
Secure their lands, and they'll trust God for heaven.
How many cafes have you to fubmit

To lawyers judgments? Minifters inay fit
From week to week, and yet not fee the face
Of one that brings a foul-concerning cafe.
Yea, which is worfe, how feldom do you cry
To God for counfel? Or beg him to try
Your hearts, and ftricteft inquifition make
Into your state, discover your mistake?

O ftupid fouls! clouded with ignorance,
Is Chrift and heaven no fair inheritance,
VOL. VI.
Сс

Compar'd with yours? Or is eternity
A fhorter term than yours, that you
The one fo clofe, and totally neglect

fhould ply

The other, as not worth your least respect.
Perhaps, the devil, whofe plot from you's conceal'de
Perfuades your title's good, and firmly seal'd
By God's own Spirit; though you never found
One act of faving grace to lay a ground

For that perfuafion. Soul, he hath thee faft,
Tho he'll not let thee know it till the last.
Lord, waken finners, make them understand,
"Twixt thee and them, how rawly matters ftand:
Give them no quiet rest until they fee

Their fouls fecur'd better than lands can be.

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Occafional MEDITATIONS upon Birds, Beafts, Trees, Flowers, Rivers, and other Objects.

W

MEDITATIONS ON BIRDS.

MEDITATON I.

Upon the finging of a nightingale.

HO that hears such various, ravishing, and exquifite melody, would imagine the bird that makes it, to be of fo fmall and contemptible a body and feather? Her charming voice engaged not only mine attentive ear, but my feet also to make a nearer approach to that shady bush in which that excel lent musician fat veiled; and the nearer I came, the sweeter the melody ftill feemed to be; but when I had defcried the bird herself, and found her to be little bigger, and no better feathered than a fparrow, it gave my thoughts the occafion of this following application.

This bird feems to me the lively emblem of the formal bypocrite; (1.) In that she is more in found than fubftance, a loud and excellent voice, but a little despicable body; and it recalled to my thoughts the ftory of Plutarch, who hearing a nightingale, defired to have one killed to feed upon, not questioning but fhe would please the palate as well as the ear; but when the nightingale was brought him, and he faw what a poor little creature it was, Truly, faid he, thou art vox et praeterea nihil, a mere voice, and nothing elfe; fo is the hypocrite: did a man

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